Ben Pritchett
Owner / Lead Guide / Bike Coach
Ben is the soft-spoken mountain goat who leads our guiding and avalanche education operations. His lifelong curiosity with natural history accelerated early in life as he earned his degree in wildlife biology and ecology. An AMGA certified guide, Ben has over 20 years of guiding experience in western Colorado. Ben has also served as the Program Manager for AIARE and an avalanche forecaster for the Crested Butte Avalanche Center.
Janae Pritchett
Owner / Guide / Bike Coach
Janae is an exuberant coach, hyper-motivated athlete, and super fun person to lead you into the mountains. Achievement is her middle name: professional athlete, mountain guide, fitness coach, mother of two, Yale University degrees in Geology and Environmental Studies, and mathematics curriculum developer. Now retired from racing, she shares her passion for the outdoors and adventure through her guide service and mountain biking school in Crested Butte.
Sydney Dickinson
Guide / Bike Coach
Come explore the mountains with one of Colorado's most versatile, inspiring, talented, and fun female guides. As Crested Butte locals describe her, Sydney Dickinson is a ``legend in the making.`` After earning her BS in Health and Exercise Science, Sydney moved to Crested Butte with her husband, Rob. Since then, she has proved to be a formidable athlete, taking every sport she does by storm. A talented coach and guide, Sydney provides exceptional, personalized feedback while taking her clients on the unforgettable adventures of a lifetime.
Andy Shabo
Lead Bike Coach
Andy Shabo has over a decade of mountain bike coaching experience. After leaving his role as a coach for BetterRide, he helped develop the curriculum for the Backcountry Bike Academy. When not coaching bike clinics, he can be found building skis at Romp Skis or helping teach his two youngsters how to shred.
David Bumgarner
Guide / Avy Instructor
Dave has been guiding all over the American west and throughout Europe since 1998. He has directed well-established outdoor programs in Colorado and Germany. He is a certified AMGA guide and certified AIARE and ACA instructor. When he's not guiding for us he teaches for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). He is currently working on his masters degree in Higher Administrative Education. Dave loves sharing the outdoors with his clients.
Lauren Koelliker
Guide / Bike Coach
Lauren grew up riding horses in her hometown of Evergreen, CO, and knew from an early age that the mountains would always be home. She spent many years trying to keep up with her brother on bike trails and ski slopes, and finally made it to her dream town of Crested Butte in 2014. When she isn't biking, hiking, skiing, and romping around with her dog, she can be found teaching history and English at the local high school or exploring far corners of the world. She loves to share her favorite trails while providing thorough, individual feedback to help riders progress.
Cooper Ott
Guide / Bike Coach
Cooper grew up in Northern Michigan where she explored the trails riding an Allycat strapped to the back of her Dad's bike. It wasn’t until college at Northern Michigan University that she truly found her love for mountain biking. After 5 years racing XC around Michigan and Wisconsin she and her husband moved to the Gunnison Valley. Cooper quickly found her niche in Enduro racing where she raced the Big Mountain Enduro circuit for 5 years. Lately Cooper focuses on coaching and she's loving every minute of it!
Evan Ross
Guide / Avy Instructor
Evan, originally from Jackson Hole WY, gained his ski skills from participation in the Jackson Hole Ski Club starting at the age of 7. He has since traded the skinny skis and groomers for fatter planks and powder. When he’s not skiing or paddling he can be found on his mountain bike logging long rides around the Crested Butte area where he now lives and works. Evan is a certified ski guide with the AMGA, is a certified EMT-B and AIARE Course Leader.
Reed Betz
Guide / Bike Coach
Reed's spirit vegetable is Cauliflower. Reed has been working as a guide, specializing as a mountain bike instructor and guide, for 12 years at home in Crested Butte as well across the western slope of Colorado and Utah. Reed is an Instructor Trainer for the Bike Instructor Certification Program (BICP) traveling across the United States and Internationally teaching and certifying the next generation of mountain bike instructors and guides.
Karin Pocock
Bike Coach / Avy Instructor
Karin enjoys sharing her love of the backcountry with others. She has spent the vast majority of her life learning, growing, and being humbled in the mountain environment. She began working professionally in the mountains in 2002 and has spent the last 17 years as an outdoor educator, instructor, technical guide, ski patroller and avalanche forecaster. She worked as an instructor, course director and staff trainer for Outward Bound. She is currently an AIARE Course Leader, AMGA certified rock guide, AMGA ski and alpine guide-in-training, an BICP Level 1 instructor.
Sierra Cucinelli
Bike Coach
Sierra is a BICP Level 1 and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance certified Mountain Bike Coach. In addition to coaching with Colorado Bike Academy, she works with Crested Butte DEVO, VIDA Mountain Bike Series, and SheJumps. She is a Juliana Ambassador and will suffer any uphill, if it means a shredy downhill.
Ian Hatchett
Guide
Oy! Ian hails from ``down undah`` but has claimed Crested Butte as his own tribe since the 80's. With decades of notable ascents on big peaks around the world, Ian brings a lifetime of mountain sense to our team. One of the kindest souls you'll ever meet, you'll cherish any days you get to spend in the mountains with him.
Lani Bruntz
Guide / Bike Coach / Avy Instructor
Lani is a biking, hiking, ski guide, and avalanche instructor based in Crested Butte. Before discovering Crested Butte, she spent four years living on the road racing, riding, and building mountain bike trails all over the country and throughout the world. Prior to her life as a nomad, she called Idaho home, where she guided on the Salmon river in the summers and worked with Sawtooth Mountain Guides in the winters. Having raced as a Division 1 Nordic Skier for Middlebury College, she has a knack for endurance based adventures. She hasn’t managed to part ways with her travel habits, and is often found adventuring with her bikes and skis producing freelance writing and film projects.
Eddy Cohn
Bike Coach
Eddy is a fun-loving passionate coach, and a former pro DH and Enduro racer. He came to Gunnison from Boston in 2007 to race for Western Colorado University. Now he is WCU head mountain bike coach. With a degree in Exercise & Sport Science and a IMBA level 2 coaching certification, he considers himself a true “student of the game.” A progress-oriented coach with a growth mindset, Eddy enjoys working with all levels of athletes. From seasoned racers to weekend warriors, Eddy is stoked when he can help riders achieve their goals.
Krista Hildebrandt
Guide / Avy Instructor
Krista was born in MN but grew up in CO when she ventured to CB long, long ago. Her love of all things wild has propelled her energy into her professional careers of Ski Patrolling, Guiding, Instructing Avalanche Courses, while Raising a Family and Gardening. Krista thrives on sharing all that she has studied and learned. With her flower-power knowledge in the summer and her Avy-savvy skills in the winter, you’ll find her style to be one that’s built on passion. Krista’s most exuberant when she’s chasing her husband and grown boys in the mountains, or when she’s eating fresh grown food. Her passion and exuberance shines most when she’s silently opening terrain, or while leading, guiding and teaching fellow nature lovers in our amazing local Mountains.
Jenny Smith
Bike Coach
Jenny is a pro mountain bike and multisport athlete. Since 2001 she has accumulated a ton of experience racing for professional teams in XC and endurance mountain bike events, and XTERRA triathlons. She represented NZ at multiple World championships for running, MTB, XTERRA. Highlights include 4th and 6th at XTERRA World championships. Jenny started coaching in 2009 and she offers complete training programs through Jenny Smith Coaching. She's a USA cycling, XTERRA triathlon, and Colorado MTB league certified coach. She is the head coach for the Crested Butte High School MTB team. For fun in the winter, she coaches Junior Nordic teams with Crested Butte Nordic. Jenny uses Backcountry bike academy for her personal skills development. She believes that they have several of the best skills instructors as staff, which is one of the reasons she coaches alongside and for Backcountry.
Heidi Shabo
Guide / Bike Coach
Heidi was born and raised in Colorado, where she discovered her love for riding and teaching skills. First it was horses, later bikes. In Crested Butte she met her now husband, coach Andy. He helped Heidi transition from fur-covered steeds to carbon fiber ones. Heidi passionately helps riders gain confidence, and have more fun! You're a lucky student if she's coaching your Shred Prep Clinic.
Molly Murfee
Guide
Molly sports belt notches of multi-pitch mountaineering and technical climbing routes on rock, glaciers and snow, including forays above 20,000 feet in Ecuador and Nepal. Her current passion, however, is simply sharing wildflowers and natural history while romping around in the backcountry. She’s guided and taught at Colorado Outward Bound, Alaska Wildland Adventures, and Colorado State University, with course areas throughout North and Central America. With multiple degrees in literature and creative writing focused on the environment, she has most recently taught these subjects with Western Colorado University’s Nature Writing concentration of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing, Extended Studies, and the Teacher Institute. Molly also teaches community writing and nature connection courses through her website and the Center for the Arts, and guides for the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. A creative nonfiction, place-based author, Molly has over 500 published articles including in Mountain Gazette and Powder. Locally she appears in Crested Butte Magazine, and in her regular Crested Butte News op-ed column, Earth Muffin Memos. She is hard at work on her creative non-fiction book, The Adventure of Home. Learn more about Molly at www.mollymurfee.com.
Zach Guy
Guide / Avy Instructor
Zach grew up in Colorado and has been exploring the mountains on bike, foot, and ski since he left the womb. Zach started guiding in Crested Butte in 2011 and loves sharing the joy of the backcountry with others. In the winter, he also works as an avalanche forecaster. On the bike, Zach loves adventure rides: discovering new trails, riding technical or flowy trails, and biting off more than he can chew on long routes. He's gone on bikepacking adventures across the Himalayas, the Alps, the Cascades, and many routes in his backyard. He's also raced his mountain bike to podium finishes in the Colorado Trail Race, the Grand Traverse, the Breck 100, and the Bailey Hundo. On skis and foot, he enjoys new routes and new summits, and he's ticked off numerous challenging ski descents in the Elk Mountains and around the West. Most of all, Zach just enjoys good company and having fun outside, no matter what the activity! He is Wilderness First Responder and AVPro Certified and holds a master's degree in snow science from Montana State University.
Eric Murrow
Avy Instructor
Eric developed a passion for skiing as a youngster on the small ski hills of Wisconsin. That passion turned into a career as an avalanche forecaster for the Crested Butte Avalanche Center and AIARE instructor with Colorado Backcountry. Eric lives, breathes, and dreams of snow and loves to share the magic of snow covered mountains with others.