We Made the Mistakes So You Don’t Have To: Why Hiring a Guide Is Worth It.
I get it. Hiking is glorified walking, and how hard can it be to put one foot in front of the other? Sure, having someone else deal with all the logistics, route planning, navigation, and safety is pretty nice. The gourmet meals cooked for you while you lounge in camp? I mean, that’s pretty darn awesome too, but let’s be honest, why should you bother paying for a guide to take you hiking? Start with your left foot, then use your right, and repeat until you get to camp. It’s not rocket science, and who doesn’t want to save some money?
There are plenty of reasons to hire a guide, but one stands above the rest: guides have already made all the rookie mistakes possible, so that you don’t have to. A guide’s main job is to help you avoid the lessons that we had to learn the hard way. If ever you meet a guide who says they’ve never had a hard trip, or can’t tell you a tale where everything went wrong, run as far away as you can; they don’t know what they’re doing.
I could tell you about the time I packed 40lbs of food for a solo overnight trip, or the time I accidentally called search and rescue in the parking lot, or even the time I nearly tripped over a bear (before I carried bear spray), but the biggest lesson for me was the time I tried to hike the Donjek Route and almost died.
In 2020, I was an apprentice hiking guide with a pretty big chip on my shoulder. I had spent a few years guiding on Vancouver Island and thought I had seen it all. I had recently moved to the Yukon, and I wanted to tackle one of the most notorious routes here: the Donjek Route, a challenging 110km off-trail adventure through the heart of Kluane National Park. With two other friends, we set off in early August with a week of supplies and a handful of maps.
Mistake number 1 came early. I had packed so much camera gear that I could barely lift my backpack. Within a few hours, I felt terrible, could barely walk, and ended up having to give a bunch of my pack weight to the group.
Mistake number 2 was pure hubris. The forecast had called for lots of rain, yet I adamantly stayed nonchalant. I had spent years hiking on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and I was used to big coastal rain. I kept telling myself that this was going to be no big deal. Our first day was incredible - blue skies and sun - but that soon changed as we arrived at our camp on day two. Dark clouds shrouded the skies, the temperature dropped, the rain came and never left. Things got really hard.
Six miserable days later, having dodged a charging grizzly, deadly rockfall, hypothermia, and ankle-deep snow, I made mistake number 3, the biggest of the trip.
We had arrived at our last major obstacle, the Duke River. What I didn’t realize was that the rain we had endured wasn’t just inconvenient, but historic. The rain had transformed the creeks and rivers into raging brown torrents of water, mud and debris, and even the nearest highway had washed out in multiple places. Exhausted and one day away from our car, I couldn't bear the idea of waiting multiple days for the river levels to drop. Blinded by the thought of dry clothes and fresh food, we attempted to ford the river.
We made it halfway until the current grabbed us. My friend and I were pushed underwater by the weight of our packs and fighting for our lives, we barely made it back to the river's edge. Shivering uncontrollably, we limped back to the safety of dry land only to realize that the river had swept my friend's backpack away and with it, half our fuel, food, gear, as well as her tent, sleeping bag, and all of her spare clothes.
Defeated, on the wrong side of the river and utterly spent, we called for a rescue and helicoptered back to Haines Junction a few hours later.
I learnt some major lessons on this trip that fundamentally changed how I approach the mountains in the Yukon. I learned the hard way that overconfidence does not equate safety, and that the mountains demand seriousness, respect, and caution.
The truth is that guides aren’t invincible, but they are experienced. We’ve had to make hard calls and have seen firsthand how quickly things can unravel in the backcountry. You can’t always have good weather, but by hiring a guide, you can avoid making the kind of mistakes that can turn a dream trip into a disaster, and that’s freaking worth it’s weight in gold.
If you want to read more about this terrible trip, read the original story I wrote here.