Guide Profiles
Lyle Thiede
ACMG Asst. Rock Guide
Lyle first started rock climbing in 1989 at the Williams Lake bluffs while still in high school. His passion led to him spending the summers living out of a vehicle and climbing. He has climbed from Squamish to Canmore as well as the Western US and Mexico. Lyle has completed the Thompson Rivers University Adventure Travel Guide program, and has been an ACMG assistant rock guide for 14 years. Lyle lives locally with his wife and 2 kids. He has been climbing in the Skaha bluffs for the past 20 years and working for Skaha Rock Adventures for 16 of those years. He spends his winters ski touring and working as a Ski Patroller and CAA Level 2 Avalanche technician. When not in the bluffs, Lyle can often be found spending his summers at sailing regattas throughout the Okanagan.
Roger Sarrasin
ACMG Rock Guide, Asst. Ski Guide
Roger has spent the last 17 years pursuing his passion for rock climbing and ski touring, traveling extensively throughout North America, Europe and South East Asia. He is a graduate of the Adventure Travel Guide program at Thompson Rivers University, and a Board Member for the ACMG. Roger lives/works in Squamish as a Rock Guide and spends his winters guiding Heli-Ski and Snowcat skiing in the Coast and Interior Ranges of British Columbia.
Jeremy Blumel
ACMG Rock Guide
Jeremy Blumel began climbing 16 years ago when he was cleverly tricked into taking a trad leading course by one of his closest friends. With friends like these who needs enemies!Not realizing the consequences of this hoax and easily tricked, Jeremy dove into bouldering, sport, tradition and alpine climbing and hasn't looked back. He is currently a gym rat living in Squamish, an elementary school teacher and an ACMG Full Rock Guide. While Jeremy is trying in vain to embrace skiing, he can already feel the climber in himself positioning to overtake this misshapen desire. Climbing is the best thing in the world.
Kinley Aitken
ACMG Asst. Rock Guide
My introduction and love affair with climbing took place at the Skaha bluffs about 8 years ago. As an A.C.M.G Assistant Rock Guide, those memories of adventure, discovery and personal challenge are what I still seek while climbing today and what I hope to pass along to my students. While living in Squamish, I spend my winters in the amazing mountain ranges of B.C, as a chef at backcountry ski touring lodges and Shiatsu Therapist at heli-ski lodges. While waiting for the rock to dry, I also enjoy hanging from a rope in the entertainment rigging and rope access industries.
Bob Andreychuk
ACMG Asst. Rock Guide
I am currently a certified ACMG Assistant Rock Guide that has been enjoying every genre of climbing for 17 years. I have climbed extensively in Western Canada, California, Nevada and Utah. I am also a active member of the Industrial Rope Access Trades Association and a Inter-Provincial Journeyman Carpenter that specializes in interior finishing carpentry. When I am not making saw dust or dangling from my finger tips I can be found paddling or mountain biking some where in this province. In 1993 I made my first trip to Skaha Bluffs. I dreamed of one day being a rock climbing guide here. So here I am living the dream representing Skaha Rock Adventures.
Kristen Wurtele
Kristen has been an outdoor adventurer and explorer from a very young age and did her first 'body rappel' off of a large boulder in the shadow of Mount Assiniboine at age 11. She scampered up nearby rock faces, not thinking of how she would get down, but enjoying the sensation of getting to a higher place and the freedom of movement. At age 12 she was awestruck by the climbers occupying the Kain Hut in the Bugaboo range, only to return to these places a decade later, as a climber herself, almost giddy with disbelief that she too was summiting these peaks. This is the passion that she strives to inspire in the new climber, teaching new skills, nourishing self confidence, and encouraging the pushing of individual boundaries.
Chris Rogers
ACMG Top Rope Climbing Instructor
I lived in Penticton many years before I discovered climbing. Russ and Lyle were my first teachers and it is a privilege now to be able to work with them as well as the other guides. My job is to provide a safe, fun first climbing experience. If a client wants to go on to become an "independent" climber, they will learn the necessities from our rock guides. I especially enjoy working with school groups. My efforts to get students climbing up or stepping off onto rappel are always rewarding. I am very fortunate that my wife Colleen is a "rope gun," but climbing has to compete with swimming, yoga, hiking, skiing, and rehab.