Our Team

Board Members, Mentors & Facilitators

  • Sarah has been a sponsored mountain athlete and ACMG Alpine Guide in the Bow Valley for 20 years. An avid climber, she is the first North American woman to push the Mixed grades from M10 to M14. She's established new routes in Canada, China, Japan, Africa, Iceland and North America, and worked full-time running a business focused primarily on teaching, guiding and empowering women in the mountains.

    In March of 2019 Sarah's world was turned upside down when a guided group on her women’s camp experienced a natural avalanche and claimed the life of her dearest friend. Through the shattered pieces of her foundation, she has learned that community, togetherness and compassion are the only ways to handle the grief, shame and regret of mountain accidents like hers. Her hope is to share these learnings while still learning herself how to embrace her passion for the mountains.

  • The mountains are Barry Blanchard’s calling. Alpinism has gifted him his most luminous days, as well as his deepest enduring friendships. Barry is an IFMGA Mountain Guide who instructs and guides all aspects of mountaineering. Since his first day teaching ice climbing in Canmore in 1981 he has tallied over 5000 days in his profession. His climbing memoir, The Calling, a Life Rocked by Mountains, won the Boardman Tasker prize for Mountain Literature in 2015, he was awarded the Summit of Excellence at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 2002 and Honorary Membership in The Alpine Club of Canada in 2011. 

    In 1986, two of Barry’s clients died in a mountaineering accident. This was the blackest day of his life. David Cheesmond was killed on Mt Logan in 1987 and in 1999 Alex Lowe died on Shishapangma. They were two of Barry’s strongest climbing partners, men that he’d come to love. Mountains are radiant when the sun touches them and dark when the sun leaves. Barry hopes that by sharing what he’s learned from the shadow and the light he can help those dealing with tragedy, loss and love in the mountains.

  • Benjamin Firth is a Bow Valley climber, entrepreneur, IFMGA mountain guide, husband and father. He specializes in risk management related mountainous environments and has worked globally both in the public and private sector. He has a BSc in Computer Science and is a Harvard Business School Alumni having studied in the Executive Management Program. He currently manages a family business and consults for several private and non-for-profits organizations within western Canada.

    Ben has a personal purpose dedicated to managing risk and mental health around mountain activities. He is very excited to offer his experience to Mountain Muskox Mentorship to help support individuals who are in need. Ben resides in Canmore with his wife Danielle and children Lauren and Noah.

  • Kevin started skiing at the age of six on a ski bump in the prairies. Winning an early big-mountain contest propelled him to mountain ranges around the world for contests and media shoots. He has since appeared in ski flicks, television, and ski magazines. For a decade he was considered one of the top skiers in the Rockies and has a number of first descents.

    Kevin built a life and career around skiing as a coach, ski patrol, avalanche forecaster, ski guide, and writer. But serious accidents dealt with in his professional roles cracked his confidence and a fatal avalanche while skiing with friends in 2020 ended his love affair with the sport. 

    Now, Kevin hopes to learn other ways of living in the mountains.

  • Geoff Powter has been a lifelong contributor to the Bow Valley climbing community. He worked for years as a clinical psychologist, often supporting survivors of mountain trauma, and has spoken and written extensively about risk and the mountain experience. He was editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal from 1993-2007, and has hosted the Voices of Adventure interview series at the Banff Mountain Festivals for 24 years. His book Inner Ranges won the 2019 Climbing Literature Award at Banff, and he was the 2012 recipient of the Summit of Excellence Award.

  • Kim’s love of skiing has been central to her professional development over the past 12 years. Her pursuit of guiding began as means to learn about backcountry skiing and enable her freeride skiing career. After being involved in a fatal avalanche accident in 2014, Kim has become a relentless advocate for mental health wellness in the mountain environment. Inspired by the wealth of experience and the learning journey of the Mountain Muskox team; Kim hopes that we all strive to give back through mentorship.

    Kim is also Founder & Director of Programming at Affirmative Sustainability; a consultancy that empowers brands to reduce their environmental footprint, increase social impact and create economic longevity.

  • Oakley grew up in Calgary, spending his weekends hiking and scrambling in the bow valley. It didn’t take long before these activities progressed into more technical and involved mountain hobbies. Today he enjoys alpine climbing, ice/rock climbing, backcountry skiing, caving, and canyoning. Unfortunately, with this progression, more risk was also introduced. Risk always seemed like something far off, with a low probability of concern, until more recently.

    Oakley found himself present for two fatal rock-climbing accidents in back-to-back summers. The Muskox were, and continue to be, a key factor in his journey to revive his passion for mountain sports. The ability to relate and have a discussion with someone who understands, is unbelievably healing. Oakley hopes to share what he can to help others find some light during dark times. He’s also a board member of the Alpine Club of Canada’s Calgary Section and of the Alberta Speleological Society.

  • Sydney supports recreationalists and professionals in the adventure community through nervous system and polyvagal informed counselling practice. She holds an undergraduate degree in outdoor recreation leadership, a graduate degree in counselling, and is trained in Somatic Experiencing trauma therapy. Sydney has spent over a decade working professionally in the outdoor industry as an instructor, river guide, ski coach and avalanche educator.

    At her first Mountain Muskox immersion weekend Sydney felt immediately at home with the community and its mission. Since then, Sydney and a team of Muskox facilitators and mentors worked together for six months to launch the Sea to Sky Chapter in September 2023. She is a co-facilitator of the 2023 immersion weekend and remains an enthusiastic member of the Muskox family.

    Sydney works with counselling clients across the country through her virtual clinic, Back to Earth Counselling.

  • Tori is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who lives and practices in Squamish, BC. Her practice focuses specifically on working with athletes and active members of the outdoor sports community as well as individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, behavioural issues, trauma and stress. Her primary theoretical orientations include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Narrative Therapy, as well as basic principles of Somatic based interventions and Polyvagal Theory.

    Tori’s involvement with the outdoor community and love for outdoor sports makes her a passionate and empathetic member of the Mountain Muskox team. Her experience in the mountains and mental health issues related to mountain sports has encouraged her to dive headfirst into the Sea to Sky chapter of Muskox, with the motivation to help guide individuals and the peer support network through their own trauma.

  • Sarah Steele Johnston (RCC) practices nature-based counselling on Skwxwú7mesh-ulh Temíx̱w (Squamish territory). Drawing from her background in wilderness and adventure-based therapy, she supports groups and individuals in their healing process through a blend of approaches, with connection to the land at the centre point. In particular, Sarah has focused on climbing as a therapeutic medium. She works one-on-one with clients as well as offers therapeutically framed alpine climbing camps through Dirtbabe Collective, a NFP she co-founded in 2020.

    Sarah believes that healing and wellness happen within the context of connection: with oneself, each other and the land. These connections have been central to navigating her fluctuating relationship with the mountains, peppered with accidents and fear. She is intimately acquainted with the complexity of trauma occurring in places that have previously given purpose and passion. Sarah is honoured to share circle with individuals navigating a dynamic relationship with loss and mountains.

  • Janet McLeod is a well known “psych guide” specializing in Clinical and Community Psychology. Janet guides mountain professionals to modulate and heal trauma, loss and critical stress injuries. Janet knows the terrain of recovery as a “thriver” from PTSD. This alchemy of training and life experience comes together so she can assist clients to move “stuck” memories into the present tense.

    Death and loss colours the tapestry of life in the mountains. As a Community Psychologist, Janet believes the next level of healing is through “Trauma Informed Peer Support”. Each person’s healing journey is to travel from the isolating burden of carrying loss individually to a community sense of safety, fellowship and caring with peers knowing similar experiences. Critical incidents cannot be carried by an individual alone, it takes a tribe, a community to remind us of our resilience and recovery.