About Us

Climbing Life Guides

Details: Created on Thursday, 26 February 2009 00:00

Eli Helmuth is an AMGA Certified Rock, Alpine, and Ski Mountaineering Guide and IFMGA Licensed Mountain Guide. He created ClimbingLife.com in 2007 as a climber's resource and online guide. In January of 2009, Eli and Joanne Helmuth launched ClimbingLife Guides, a year-round mountain climbing and skiing service. As one of the first exam certified guide in the United States in 1991, Eli has been mentoring guides as an instructor and examiner for the AMGA since 1999 in the rock and alpine programs. He worked as a staff trainer and course director for the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School (PCOBS) where he started his professional guiding career in 1989. He enjoyed the lifestyle of guiding hundreds of expeditions around the world with the American Alpine Institute before moving to Estes Park in 1999 to work with the Colorado Mountain School where he served as the Head Guide from 2001 through 2008. Eli is a sponsored athlete for Rab, a British based outdoor clothing and equipment company and he was previously a Black Diamond athlete.
Located in Estes Park, Colorado, Climbing Life Guides offers permitted backcountry skiing, peak scrambling, and Level 1 Avalanche Courses in Rocky Mountain National Park. Spring through autumn find us rock climbing in Estes Park, Eldorado and Boulder Canyons plus the majestic Flatirons. We also offer alpine climbing an ski mountaineering in Denali National Park as well as the Andes and Himalaya. ClimbingLife Guides offers mountain climbing and skiing expeditions on both a scheduled and private basis in the high mountains of the world, including South America, Asia, and the European Alps. Training and mentoring climbers of all ages and helping individuals to realize their goals are Eli's professional passion.	Finley Helmuth enjoying some mixed climbing at the Bear Lake crags in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Joanne Helmuth is the ClimbingLife Guides Office Manager and with her diverse European business background and experience in world travel, Joanne is the perfect person to organize our guiding services. Our annual expeditions since 1994 to the Alaskan Ranges, Andes, and the Himalaya have had great success with team members of all abilities and experience in reaching many of the challenging summits on the planet. Our safety record is among the best in the mountain guiding profession with a diverse range of climbing and skiing activities around the world that encompass all degrees of risk and challenge.	Joanne Helmuth in the backyard of Lumpy Ridge.
In more than three thousand days of climbing and ski guiding and on more than one hundred successful expeditions around the world for high altitude, technical climbs and ski mountaineering, Head Guide Eli has safely led thousands of clients without injury on some of the highest peaks and biggest cliffs in Alaska, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Patagonia, Canada, and the Nepal Himalaya.
Among the diverse climbs that Eli has guided, some of the favorites would include: Denali's West Rib and West Buttress; Moose's Tooth, West Ridge; Mount Waddington; Liberty Crack; Longs Peak: Diamond (Casual, Yellow, D7); plus numerous ascents on Mt. Baker, Shuksan, Forbidden Peak, and throughout the Cascade Range. This long list of guided routes would include the many hundreds of classic routes safely completed in Rocky Mountain National Park as a guide w/ CMS. In South America, Eli has summited Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador more than three dozen times with guests and made numerous ascents of Illiniza Sur, Cayambe, and Antisana. Peru is one of Eli's favorite climbing venues and he has climbed to the summit of Artesonraju in the Cordillera Blanca and completed a mixed route with guests on Tsacra Chico in the Huayhuash Range. In Bolivia, summits of Illimani and Huayna Potosi are among the Andean classics. Eli has also made numerous ascents in the Torres del Paine Park of Patagonia and enjoyed 7 unique expeditions with partners and guests in the Annapurna and Khumbu regions of Nepal.	On an ascent of the Renaissance Wall at Lumpy Ridge.
Enjoying some steep limestone climbing in Corsica, France.
Another great run down the Dragontail Couloir in Rocky Mountain National Park.	Eli enjoys new route exploration in his free time and as a result he's made numerous first ascents of short to big-wall free climbs in traditional and sport styles in Alaska, Washington, Colorado, Ecuador, Patagonia, Peru and France up to WI5 and 5.13 in difficulty. Check-out some of his more recent activities here on Eli's Mountain Project page. Trash clean-up projects while on expeditions and the replacement of old bolts and faulty anchors on cliffs at his home crags are among Eli's other hobbies. In 1995 and '96, Eli was awarded the Denali Pro Award for his clean-up work on Denali in numerous sites on the upper mountain. Eli regularly teaches all facets of climbing and ski mountaineering from beginner to leader. Technical rescue skills, trad anchoring clinics, guide training courses along with expeditions and classic ascents of all difficulties are some of the spectrum of experiences available each season and year.
As an active avalanche educator since 2000, Eli has trained extensively with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) and has taught more than 60 Level 1 and Level 2 avalanche courses in Colorado. Eli spends much of each winter coaching backcountry skiers and climbers in the intricacies of decision-making in regard to avalanches. Joanne, Finley, and Ella live at the 8,780' elevation nearby Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) in a straw bale house that Eli built after moving to Estes Park from Washington State in 1999. Eli climbs and skis in Rocky Mountain National Park and throughout the world at least 300 days a year for work and play and enjoys eating ice cream and lying in the hammock in his "off" time.	How can you not enjoy another perfect day of climbing in sunny Colorado?