5 minute read
Mountain Man: Climbing Guide Eli Helmuth Scales the Heights of His Profession
If you’re the adventurous type with an itch for a weeklong mountain expedition in Alaska, where elevations stretch to 20,000 feet and wind chills dip to -100 Fahrenheit, there’s a guide for that.
Perhaps you’re looking for something a little less challenging — and bone-chilling. Maybe you’d like scaling up and rappelling down smaller cliffs in the warm, tranquil environs of Puerto Rico, where high temperatures consistently settle in the mid-80s and island breezes comfort your every move. If that is more to your liking, there’s a guide for that, too.
His name is Eli Helmuth ’87, and he is one of the most experienced mountain guides in the world. For nearly 30 years, Helmuth has been taking people on adventures — rock climbing, skiing and hiking — all around our rocky, wet, warm, snowy planet, from the Himalayas to the Andes.
“I’ve taken people to some wild places,” said Helmuth, a specialist in high-altitude mountaineering who also trains others for careers as professional outdoor guides in such remote locations as Mount Everest and Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan.
“I’ve done many trips on Denali, Mount McKinley, Alaska, and that’s one of the coldest places on the planet. It can be -40 Fahrenheit with 60 mph winds,” he said.
As the guide, Helmuth leads the expeditions, managing everything from where the travelers sleep to what they eat and carry on their backs.
“It’s highly risky, and unfortunately, many of my peers have perished over the years due to these hazards,” Helmuth said. “You see those lists about the most dangerous jobs in America, and those don’t compare to what we do. We’re way beyond those risks.”
A climber “needs a super-high-level of continual focus while hanging on the side of a cliff,” he explained. “You have to be 100 percent in the moment.
“And yeah, you should be scared. There’s always some fear and trepidation. And a high level of awareness. That helps keep us in one piece.”
Helmuth has been training mountain guides since 1999 for the American Mountain Guides Association and has been a lead trainer for the organization since 2001. “Training guides is a great responsibility and comes with some risks,” he said.
As a teacher, failure —“not the kind where bad things happen,” Helmuth said — can be a positive for anyone with a goal to climb to new heights, figuratively and literally.
“If you look up at a climb and it’s not scary, then maybe it’s not worth doing,” he said with a laugh, but he wasn’t joking. “Living in fear and not being paralyzed by it, and helping others figure out how they can manage the risks and still move forward and carry on with the goal, can be very satisfying.”
Helmuth said he trains people the way Gary Nussbaum trained him at Radford University.
“Everything I learned at Radford was appropriate for the job,” Helmuth said about his time studying with Nussbaum, a retired Recreation, Parks and Tourism Department chair and professor.
Helmuth “stumbled into” the outdoor education program at Radford University by “doing some adventurous rope work” to explore caves for bat research in a biology class. He was a walk-on lacrosse player and explored his newfound interest by studying with Nussbaum. After graduation, he moved “out West” in 1989 to work in California, Oregon and Washington. His career evolved from there.
Helmuth was one of the first people in the United States to earn a rock climbing guide certification, and in 2002, he earned an international license. “I’ve been able to work around the planet,” he said, “leading people on extraordinary mountain-climbing trips.”
Helmuth lived in Colorado for 18 years — he became an expert in avalanche training there — before moving to Puerto Rico in 2016 with his wife, a professional dancer, and their two children. On the island, they are shifting their business model to focus on eco-lodging “oriented to adventurous people like us,” Helmuth said, and “to where I’m not hanging off a cliff every day.”
Still, there are plenty of rocks for Helmuth to climb in Puerto Rico, and if you’re willing to take on the challenge, he is eager to be your guide.
“If you come to Puerto Rico, we’d definitely go to a cliff,” Helmuth said. “There’s one right around the corner from my house. I would look for climbs that I would perceive to be in your ability. We would climb to the top and see amazing views.”
If you feel scared … “Well, you probably should be,” he said with a laugh. “You’re about to climb up the side of a cliff.”
The risk, however, is low with Helmuth, one of the most experienced guides and trainers on Earth.
“What was so great about the training I received at Radford was I learned to provide a professional experience that is reassuring and that a person understands they are working with someone who knows what they are doing,” Helmuth said.
Establishing that trust, listening and asking questions and being sensitive to concerns, he said, helps make for positive and “super-rewarding experiences” every time up and down a cliff.
“There’s rarely a day at my work where folks don’t say, ‘Wow, that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done’ and ‘Because of you I felt really safe and assured,’” Helmuth said.
And best of all, “When can we do it again?” ■
