Our guides are trained in LNT principles and practices and we share this skills set with all of our guests.  We are a Guide Service Partner of LNT.

Our guides are certified by WMI as either Wilderness First Responders or WEMT’s.  Alejo Lazzati is a WMI trainer.

ClimbingLife Guides is a Program Provider of the Single Pitch Instructor Courses and Assessments. Eli Helmuth is an SPI course director.

Eli Helmuth

Eli is the owner and head guide of ClimbingLife LLC, managed  from our home office in Ciales, Puerto Rico in the middle of tropical limestone paradise just a short drive from the local surf spots.

Certified as an AMGA Rock Guide in 1991, Eli is one of the first AMGA certified guides and from 2001-2008, he directed the AMGA Alpine Guide Training Program.  Eli is a specialist in technical and high altitude climbing, high, ski mountaineering, and first ascents (and descents) of mountain terrain around the world.

Eli has been mentoring climbers of all abilities and especially mountain guides while serving as an instructor and examiner for the AMGA since 1999 in the SPI, Rock and Alpine Programs.   Previously he served as a staff trainer and course director for the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School (PCOBS) where he started his professional guiding career in 1989.   Eli enjoys the challenge and rewards of having safely guided  hundreds of mountain expeditions around the world in his 25 years of full-time guiding.

The Alaska Ranges, Andes (Ecuador to Patagonia), Himalaya, Sierra, Cascades, and Canadian Rockies have been favorite destinations since the late 80’s when Eli began a pre-web journey that has enriched his life and those of his companions while experiencing the great ranges and cultures of the world.  He looks forward to exploring the remainder of the world’s mountains, cliffs, glaciers, oceans, jungles, and wild areas with his family and friends.

Alejo Lazzati

Alejo fell in love with the mountains at an early age and climbed his local mountain of Cotopaxi (19,453’) at age 14 which he has since guided more than 200 times.  He became a proficient rock climber in his youth and competed in many regional events.

Since then, Alejo has become a world-class international alpine guide and he spends countless days in the mountains sharing this love with aspiring and experienced climbers. Personal and professional climbing trips to Colombia,  Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Colorado, and the Alps have expanded his abilities along with first ascents on rock and in the high peaks.

Alejo is the second Ecuadorian to achieve full UIAGM/IFMGA guide licenses and he is one of the few US-certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technicians (WEMT) in South America.  In addition, he works as a WFR/EMT instructor for the Wyoming based NOLS/WMI educational program in the U.S. and South America.

Alejo is also as a paraglider pilot and he enjoys traveling and scuba diving throughout his home country and South America, including a multi-month trip down the Amazon River from the headwaters in Ecuador.