Aili Farquhar

Aili discovered her love of mountains and wild land in New England.  She and the three other co-presidents of her high school outdoors club, affectionately known as the Grungy Hiker Chicks, led climbing and winter backpacking trips all over New Hampshire and the Adirondacks.  She followed the siren song of the high peaks to Jackson Hole at 19 and worked as a biological surveyor and wilderness ranger for the Parks and Forest Service for six years.  She completed a degree in Earth Science from The Evergreen State College in 2008, which she financed by working as a deckhand on commercial crab and salmon boats in Alaska and Washington.  Her passion for sharing wild lands and giving people the tools to travel on glaciers and at altitude prevailed, and she started guiding in 2010 in Washington, Alaska, Wyoming and Colorado.  She has split time between spring and summer guiding and fall and winter work as an MWD Field Engineer on horizontal drilling rigs in North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming since then.  She currently resides in Lyons, Colorado, where in addition to guiding she is adapting to the changing energy industry and pursuing a second career in renewables.

When she is not leading trips, ice climbing or working towards AMGA certification, Aili likes it wild and remote.  She is happiest on obscure traverses in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming or the Olympic Mountains in Washington, reveling in the Type 2 (or 3) fun while trying to keep her climbing partners in a good mood with her bountiful supply of dad jokes.  Aili is a published author, full time RV-er, and guardian of her half-wild oil rig kitty Cade.