Guide Profile: Andrew Klotz of Southwest Adventure Guides
Age? 37
Where did you grow up? Kansas
Where do you live now? Durango, CO
What do you love about skiing? To me, skiing is the ultimate mountain sport. It has the best elements of climbing and mountaineering, and once you get to the top, it eliminates the walking down-hill part and turns that half of the climb into the best part of the day. I think people climb and mountaineer for challenge, difficulty, and trial – but people ski because it’s fun.
What was it (specifically or generally) that first peaked your interest in outdoor sports? Hiking around Rocky Mountain National Park when I was 6 or 7 I had one of those moments. We call it getting the bug, but it is more like finding something. Also, I spent a fair amount of time at my grandparents cabin in Colorado, and I grew up constantly hunting and fishing in Kansas so I was always predisposed to outdoor activities.
How have your individual pursuits prepared you for a guiding career? Outside of guiding, I am very much interested in starting, owning, and running businesses. I own a firm that does economic and fiscal consulting, and also recently started a solar power company (CarbonZero). Probably 90% of my ideas go in the toilet - entrepreneurial adventures are high risk and constantly challenging, they require the ability to quickly adapt and a mental toughness to accept and deal with possibly catastrophic failure. Working in this world of professionals has taught me about being a “professional” – and that is something I try to bring into guiding as well.
Have you ever considered an alternate career? Any long-standing childhood dreams? Fortunately or unfortunately, I already have other careers. I guess my dream was to be the full, real deal IFMGA mountain guide (mountain, ski, rock), but when I was younger I didn’t have the gumption or money to go for it, and now, at 37, with a family, I am coming to grips with the fact that it probably just isn’t going to happen. But I am really happy with my ski niche, and I fancy that I might be able to use my other professional skills to work for the guiding industry in some other capacity – perhaps for the AMGA someday.
In what ways have you grown as an outdoorsman because of your time spent as a guide? The AMGA process is difficult and it is possible to learn a lot there, from the process, the environments, the other students, and the instructors. But I think one of the more important qualities of being an outdoorsman working with people, and one that cannot really be taught, is the ability to properly apply humor, patience, and kindness. These are the qualities that I see in the best guides and that I try to emulate.
How do you integrate education, safety, and recreation in a way that keeps your clients engaged and motivated? Almost all of our guests or clients and I share something in common - a passion for the mountains – so that makes it easy. The only thing separating us is that I generally have more experience, training, or knowledge about what we are about to do. My goal is to be the ideal partner to whomever I am out with, and I have a lot of natural curiosity and am fond of people, so I really want to get to know whomever I am out there with. That rapport usually allows us to make the day successful.
Have you ever had an experience that made you say: “I’ll never guide again.”? Absolutely, we all have bad days in and out of the mountains - and sometimes when nothing is going your way it is impossible to not ask yourself whether or not there is something else you would rather be doing.
How would you initially prepare/caution someone trying to make the jump from resort to backcountry, with or without a guide? Every avid resort skier should make the jump to backcountry skiing. It is mandatory. Resort skiing is super fun and I will never become one of the purists who forsake it, but real wild mountain skiing is where it’s at. It is serious though, and like other mountain sports, you really do need some initial guidance and basic skills – getting up in the mountains skiing for the first time without some initial instruction is exactly as foolish as climbing up a multi-pitch rock climb tied in at the waist to your moms clothesline.
Do you think that it’s a guide’s primary job to provide the How or the Where for their clientele? In other words, would you prefer to be a teacher or a leader? All guests are different. Some just want to “go” have an experience and be lead and not mess with the details, while others are really interested in advancing their personal skill sets. I think my forte is teaching, so I probably tend toward emphasizing that.
What, in your opinion, makes a trip successful? Really, unlike lawyers, physicians, hairdressers, or just about any career, we have it easy with regard to delivering a quality product. All we are doing is facilitating access to the mountains – which sell themselves. So unless we really screw up badly, people generally leave satisfied that their money and time was well spent, with good memories, feeling physically worked and wanting more.
Ever had any famous clients? No, but I had some cool delta force maximum security prison guard types. One was also a semi-pro ultimate fighter, and they all brought guns with them on their trip. I was joking around with the ultimate fighter guy, telling him I wanted to fight him, that he was a girly man, all in (what I thought) good fun, and although he was a super nice guy, he was hardwired for confrontation. He just tensed up, and I think was about to kill or hurt me very badly. Fortunately, his wife calmed him down, we finished our freeze dried macaroni, and I am still alive.
If given the choice between two trips, one as a guide and one as the client of a guide that is more familiar with your location, which would you choose? Why? Guides, myself included, generally like the challenge of exploration: to figure out what is around the next corner, to problem solve, to overcome difficulties and challenges etc.. Guides also generally have personalities that prefer to be in charge and may have some difficulty with following. Having said that though, about ten years ago my wife and I went skiing with a guide in Canada and it was great. Sometimes, it is just perfect to sort of shut your mind off, let someone else solve the problems and just simply ski.
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