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EMPLOYMENT as guide for Overnight or day trips in PNW for 2017 season. (Idaho, WA, OR

2K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  DoubleShadow 
#1 ·
I've guided the royal gorge for 4 years and moved to WA last year. I'm looking for rivers with solid class IV+ Rapids. I've only ran day trips and a couple light overnights (camping in campgrounds with fire pits and roads etc). I would love any input on rivers with some solid Rapids, beautiful scenery, some seclusion, and great people! Cheers!


Anything worth doing is worth overdoing
 
#2 ·
Hi Jake,
Running commercial overnights is way less boating, and more carrying gear, setting up, carrying, cooking, carrying, cleaning, carrying, packing up, and, oh, did I say carrying lots of heavy crap?

Not trying to convince you otherwise, but just want to emphasize how much work these kinds of trips are. My advise is to decide which river(s) you want to work on, find the list of licensed outfitters on that river from the USFS/BLM/NPS/other gov't agency, and send every one of them a resume with your logs, and telling them how much you love people and the river and carrying crap.

These jobs don't just come looking for you- the trips are so much work that you even have to work to get them in the first place.

Main Salmon, Middle Fork Salmon, or Hell's Canyon might be good starting points searching for the things you're looking for in a river. Maybe not quite IV+ rapids though.
 
#3 ·
Good luck. Seriously. Good luck in Idaho. The over whelming majority of big trip guides are working on 95% tips and have been with the same outfit for years and years. To get in with a group in Idaho, your resume will need to be much stronger than 4 years of Royal gorge. Sorry to say. You'll need like 5+ years of awesome service running day floats with an outfit before they will let you step up to MFS, Selway, or Main. Those are very prized trips and very competitive. You need to know someone of great importance or be very lucky. Its harder to get a job on the MFS than it is to win a permit. Just saying.

If your serious you should find the owners of said rafting company that you want to work for. Go move to where they live and start shoveling their snow for free. That would be a good start..
 
#4 ·
Solid Commercial Runs in WA

Only two commercial rivers I have done in WA in that class level are the Wind and White Salmon. Both are top notch 4-5 class rivers. Most of the raft companies are based in Husum on the White Salmon that run those.
 
#6 ·
Yep, the sad truth is that it's really who you know. But like those above me said, throw your hat in the ring and who knows, you might get a job swamping at one of the companies. It's pretty bad money (usually about $350/week + tips), but it's a foot in the door for *probably* guiding the next year.

Your chances, from least likely to most likely, would go Selway, Middle Fork, Hell's Canyon, Main Salmon.

If you do get a job, congrats! You have to carry a lot of shit, but it's the best work I've ever done in my life.

Good luck
 
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