About Apex – Our History

Located in Vail Valley, Colorado, Apex Mountain School is a full service guiding and specialized adventure company.   Rooted in the community and the Colorado climbing culture for 20+ years, Apex has developed a reputation for superior rock climbing and ice climbing experiences, backcountry skiing tours, mountaineering courses and trips, SOLO accredited wilderness medicine, avalanche education and ground-breaking corporate team building programs utilized by private groups, small businesses & fortune 200 companies the world over.

Apex’s founding director, Scott Smith, has completed AMGA coursework (see below), additional professional mountain guide training, and has extensive disciplinary trainings including wilderness medicine, self-rescue and avalanche preparedness. Scott has been exploring the backcountry of the Western U.S. for nearly 25 years, and professionally guiding for over 10. The opportunity to share his strong passion for the outdoors, as well as for life, is the driving force behind the creation of Apex.

Our guide service comes #1 recommended by hotels and concierge services valley-wide and beyond, and our trained and certified guides (inclusive of AMGA credentials) take pride in holding credentials and experience unmatched by any other service in the area. Having stood on the highest of summits, our keen sense of client care and risk management, as well as our impeccable safety record, instills the confidence our clients look for in a professional mountain guide – a trademark our reputation is built on.

Experience the Apex difference for yourself. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Our Guides:

Scott Smith

As founding director of Apex Mountain School, Scott guides the occasional private request, oversees daily private and course outings, and heads the development of group and corporate team building events. The division’s rapid growth is testimony to his driving passion for facilitating change and growth.

Scott enjoys climbing and guiding rock, ice and alpine terrain, as well as backcountry ski touring and descents. When he steps away, Scott heads for the big stone of Zion, Red Rocks, Rocky Mountain National Park, and The Black Canyon of The Gunnison. Next on his list…Cirque of the Unclimbables, Patagonia, and exploring the endless walls of Pakistan. Professionally trained through the AMGA and guidance of revered world class guides and climbers, his primary focus is on providing the utmost in client satisfaction, while sharing his passion for the mountains. His greatest teacher is his 9 year old daughter, Kylee.

At Apex, proper education and training are key elements of success. Our Director is:

  • Completed AMGA Rock Instructor Course – 2007
  • Professionally trained Commercial Mountain Guide, Rock Guide – 2001
  • 25 years climbing experience; 15 years guiding experience
  • AIARE Level I and II ITC completion
  • AIARE Level III Certified
  • AIARE Lead Level I, Asst. Level II Avalanche Safety Instructor
  • Professionally trained in Self Rescue
  • Wilderness First Responder certified
  • CPR/First Aid certified
  • AIARE Level I and II Avalanche trained, American Avalanche Association guidelines
  • Leave-no-Trace trained
  • Member American Mountain Guides Association
  • Member American Alpine Club
  • Member Worldwide Outfitters & Guides Association
  • Member Access Fund
  • Member (Professional) American Avalanche Association
  • 20 year Vail Valley resident

 

Eric Alexander

Eric grew up in Evergreen, Colorado, and has a BA in Environmental Science. He was a member of the school’s Alpine Club and Ski Team, and President of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and has worked for Vail Ski Patrol (including an exchange in France), Vail Ski School, and Vail Mountaineering. His climbing has taken him throughout Europe, Africa, North and South America, and the Himalayas.

In May of 2001, Eric Summited Mt. Everest guiding Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind climber to ever summit the mountain. He has climbed six of the seven continental highest summits, and has led a person with a disability to the summit of each of those continent’s highest peaks, including 2 blind ski descents. Corporate speaking engagements are a regular part of his repertoire.

Eric spends his free time playing with his twin girls, Karis and Aralyn, and adoring his wife, Amy.

  • Guided first and only blind summit of Mt. Everest
  • 15 years guiding experience
  • Emergency Medical Technician
  • National Registry EMT
  • AIARE Level I, II, and III Avalanche trained
  • Professionally trained in self-rescue

 

Tom Casey

Originally from New Hampshire, Tom is not opposed to traveling far and wide in search of excellent climbing.  After living in Northern Italy for three years, Tom moved to Colorado to hone his climbing craft.  Equally comfortable on rock, ice, snow and anything in between, Tom is a true mountaineer.  When not at his home in Glenwood Springs, CO, he can most likely be found in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Rifle Mountain Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Moab Utah, Cody Wyoming, or searching for a new frozen waterfall to climb.

Tom teaches rock climbing courses for the local college’s Outdoor Education program.  He enjoys sharing his passion with all things vertical and showing people new heights.

  • AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor
  • AIARE Level I and II Avalanche trained, American Avalanche Association guidelines
  • Wilderness First Responder Certified
  • CPR/First Aid Certified
  • Member American Mountain Guides Association
  • Member American Avalanche Association

 

Brian McCall

Brian became a staff member of the esteemed Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) in 2007. His background includes more than 12 years of experience in the avalanche industry as a forecaster, ski and climbing guiding, and instructing avalanche education courses, and ski patrolling at Aspen Highlands.

Brian holds American Mountain Guides Association certification as a ski guide and rock instructor. Brian was also a founding member and director of the Roaring Fork Avalanche Center.

In his free time, Brian enjoys all forms of climbing, ski touring, mountain biking, and just goofing off in his back yard of the Elk Mountains and well beyond.

  • Competed AMGA Ski Guide Course -
  • Certified AMGA Ski Guide
  • Completed AMGA Rock Instructor Course -
  • Certified AMGA Rock Instructor
  • AIARE Level I and II Avalanche Safety Instructor
  • Wilderness First Responder certified
  • Outdoor Emergency Care certified

 

Chad Mickschl

Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chad moved to Colorado after graduating from Lake Forest College in Chicago to pursue his dream of living in the mountains. He works as a year round mountain guide, specializing in avalanche education and backcountry skiing.

Chad teaches outdoor education courses for Colorado Mountain College, ski guides at Chicago Ridge Cat Skiing, is a professional avalanche forecaster and is an avalanche rescue technician for Flight For Life. Having backcountry skied extensively throughout the mountains of Colorado, Chad feels at home in any mountain range in the state.  His skiing has also taken him to the Spearhead Range in British Columbia and the Chugach Range in Alaska, where he has worked for Kenai Heli Ski.

  • Completed AMGA Ski Mountaineering Guide Course – 2011
  • Completed AMGA Ski Mountaineering Aspirant Exam
  • Completed AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Course – 2010
  • Certified AMGA Single Pitch Instructor
  • AIARE Level I and II Avalanche Safety Instructor
  • AIARE Level III Certification
  • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certified
  • Outdoor Emergency Care certified

 

Chris Berdoulay

Chris studied Outdoor Education, with an emphasis in Adventure Education and Wilderness Leadership, at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont, his home stomping grounds.

He moved to Colorado in 1996, and has since worked as a mountain bike camp counselor and tour guide, with at-risk youth in wilderness camps, and led and instructed mountaineering camps for colleges and Outward Bound.

He has faithfully returned to Beaver Creek Ski Patrol yearly, and most recently became a registered EMT-Paramedic for the Western Eagle County Ambulance District.

Although he has climbed and explored in the peaks of Europe, Alaska, Canada, South America, and much of the contigious United States, one of Chris’s favorite climbing areas continues to be Rocky Mountain National Park. “It’s simple – it has some of the most challenging terrain I’ve seen, and it’s a few hour drive away with a cold beer waiting in Boulder for me afterwards. Who could beat that?”

  • Completed AMGA Rock Instructor Course – 2011
  • Wilderness First Responder certified
  • Paramedic
  • Professionally trained in Self Rescue
  • Outdoor Emergency Care certified
  • Level I and II Avalanche trained
  • AIARE Level III Avalanche certified, American Avalanche Association guidelines

 

Elias de Andres Martos

Elías is from Spain, the second most mountainous country in Western Europe. He grew up in the foothills of the “Sierra de Guadarrama”, where he started traveling to the mountains as a child. Early treks throughout various Spanish ranges cemented his interest in mountaineering. Elías moved to Colorado in 2004, making the Rocky Mountains his playground. From Alaska to Patagonia, the Alps to the Himalaya and Canada, Elías has climbed and guided all over the world.

As an avid ice and alpine climber, some of his proudest climbs include an ascent of Shisha Pangma (8,013 m, 26,289 ft) without oxygen, sherpa support, or fixed lines and a record speed ascent of Mt. Rainier’s Liberty Ridge.

  • Completed AMGA Alpine Guide Course -
  • Completed AMGA Ice Instructor Course -
  • Completed AMGA Rock Instructor Course -
  • Professionally certified Mountaineering Instructor by FEDME (Spain)
  • Wilderness First Responder certified
  • AIARE Level I and II Avalanche trained, American Avalanche Association guidelines
  • Leave No Trace Trainer

 

Jon Griffin

Jon grew up in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and lives somewhere between Glenwood and Boulder, depending on the day. He enjoys skiing, rock and ice climbing, kayaking, backpacking and mountaineering. He has lived in Colorado for 21 years and truly enjoys sharing his love for the outdoors!

He recognized his passion for the outdoors while attending Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, then moved to Mt. Hood, Oregon where he furthered his “education”, taking a more serious approach to mountaineering and trad climbing.

Jon loves exploring remote Colorado granite, and has climbed internationally in the Dolomites of Italy, the Bugaboo’s of British Columbia, and dozens of climbing destinations in the western U.S.

  • Completed AMGA Rock Instructor Course – 2007
  • Wilderness First Responder certified
  • Outdoor Emergency Care certified
  • CPR/First Aid certified
  • Professionally trained in self-rescue
  • Member American Mountain Guides Association
  • AIARE Level I and II Avalanche trained, American Avalanche Association guidelines
  • Level 1 Ski Patroller

 

Zak Slutzky

Zak Slutzky has been working in the snow for most of his life, learning to drive a snowcat before he was 12 years old, snowmaking and junior ski patrolling at Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl in upstate NY. He moved to Colorado to attend Western State College in Gunnison, CO and hasn’t looked back.

Zak is a former ski patroller at Ski Portillo Chile, mechanized ski guide and avalanche forecaster; and is a current ski patroller for Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. Zak also instructs for Colorado Mountain College’s outdoor education programs.

When not guiding or teaching, Zak can be found volunteering for the Summit County Rescue Group and as an avalanche rescue technician for Flight for Life Colorado, reading, fishing, or rowing his boat down a river.

  • Completed AMGA Ski Guide Course -
  • AIARE Level I Avalanche Safety Instructor
  • AIARE Level I, II, and III Avalanche trained, American Avalanche Association guidelines
  • Professional Member American Avalanche Association
  • Member American Mountain Guides Association

 

Pem Dorjee Sherpa

A native climber and Sherpa of the Everest region of the Himalayas, Pem has guided many of the surrounding peaks and summitted Everest two times. He holds the honor of being the only man married atop the highest point in the world.

Pem’s climbing and presentation series has taken him throughout many reaches of the globe, and Apex is pleased to have him as a member of our guiding team. His smile is contagious, and his high-altitude mountaineering resume humbling.

Pem is an honorary member of the International Rotary Club and a member of the Everest Summiteers Association. During his travels, Pem raises funds for the medical and educational improvement of his Nepalese village, Chyangba, including his plan to build a school for over 300 children.

  • Multiple summits of Everest
  • Multiple summits and guiding ascents of Himalayan peaks
  • Only man married on the summit of Everest
  • Professionally trained as a commercial mountain guide
  • Medically trained
  • Member Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition
  • Member Everest Summiteers Association
  • Honorary Member International Rotary
  • Licensed Mountaineering Guide, Nepal

Hear what some of our clients have to say about exploring with Apex:

 

We had a wonderful time. Your attitude, knowledge, and personality helped make this an enjoyable day. If your goal is to find a meaningful way to contribute to others, you have succeeded!

- Andrew Zelby. River Forest, IL.

 

Overall great experience – just what we were looking for. Thanks!

- Michael Bussman. Chicago, IL.

 

We still talk about our trip to Colorado and the fabulous experience Carolyn had with you on the Flatirons. Thanks for introducing us to climbing and taking such great care of us! The whole thing was sensational on so many levels. Very educational! Thanks again for a great experience!

- McNamara family. Hillsborough, NJ

 

This was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I felt as an equal the whole time and that my input was important. My guide was incredible on lead each day. His climbing and rope skills are solid, and his patience in teaching me the different techniques to handle the varying cracks made the weekend’s goal possible – summiting Castleton Tower! I felt safe at all times with my guide by my side and any time I had a question he was there to answer it. I feel very lucky to have chanced on your guiding service. It’s not often in life that you find the perfect anything first try. From our conversations before the trip, to the actual climb, to the reflection afterwards – there is not a thing I can think of that you could have done to make it a better experience! I’m already looking forward to planning our next adventure!

- Van Reilley. Kirkland, WA.