Our Team

  • 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 to launch the Sea to Sky Chapter in September 2023. She is a co-facilitator of our immersion weekend and is operations manager of our current chapters.

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

  • Lindsay is a passionate advocate for mountain safety, mentorship, and community resilience. Mountain Muskox was founded after the loss of Lindsay’s aunt, Sonja, in an avalanche in 2019. Sonja’s unwavering kindness, courage, and love for life continue to inspire Lindsay in all that she does. Her deep love for others and vibrant spirit ignited Lindsay’s own passion for caring, uplifting others, and her connection to outdoor recreation.

    Growing up in Invermere, BC, Lindsay was shaped by the values of resilience and interconnectedness fostered by her tight-knit community. These early experiences instilled in her a profound care for people.

    When not focused on Mountain Muskox, Lindsay enjoys exploring trails with her adventure dog, Naia, skiing, mountain biking, dancing, or planning her next adventure. She is also pursuing a path toward becoming a counsellor to better support others through challenging times.

    As a mentor, onboarding manager, fundraiser, and active participant, Lindsay wears many hats within Mountain Muskox’s Sea to Sky chapter. She is dedicated to building strong, vibrant communities that provide support to those facing trauma, loss, or near-misses in the mountains.

    Mountain Muskox is more than an organization to Lindsay, it’s a way to honour Sonja’s legacy and create a more compassionate mountain community.

  • Kirsten Boyle is a writer who lives in Squamish with her two kids, two border collies, and partner. Currently, she works with a local technical product company, and Mountain Muskox. She is passionate about raising funds for Mountain Muskox to reach all the mountain communities who need their services. Her fundamental belief is that community heals, and that working in community with each other is the most powerful antidote to grief.

    In 2018 she fell off a 65ft cliff in a rock climbing accident, newly pregnant, and survived. And so did her baby. She was severely injured, but she made it. In 2019 her friend and ACMG guide, Ken Anderson, passed away after falling 100ft on the Chief. She is writing a memoir about her experience of becoming a mother who learns a new way of being in the world, reckons with mental health challenges, fear, grief, but also with beauty, rebirth, love, what it means to take care of each other, and how we heal in community. 

  • 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.

  • Lexie (she/her) is a Registered Clinical Counsellor whose work emerged from years as a hospitality manager living and working at different backcountry lodges across British Columbia. It was through this, that she observed the intersection of mental health and personal challenges following life-altering injuries, loss of life, and unexpected events in the mountains. These often had a significant impact on her staff teams and the tight-knit communities where they lived.

    The isolation following such events can be immense, and for this reason, Lexie feels passionately about Mountain Muskox’s vision to turn people towards one another in a space of healing and social-emotional connection.

    When the mountains serve as both playground and workplace, navigating life after the unexpected can be difficult. Lexie works to provide a gentle landing space for those needing care during any part of this experience.

    Lexie has a background working in suicide prevention, grief and bereavement services and critical incident stress management. She offers individual counselling and mental health consulting services for adventure tourism operators through her practice, Montira Mental Health.

  • Jody Radtke has spent her lifetime adventuring through the highs and lows of mountains, forests, rivers, oceans and deserts as well as the metaphorical peaks and valleys of the individual and collective psyche. She has focused her career at the dynamic crossroads of wilderness guiding and human nature, being compelled at an early age to get to the heart of what most inspires and tears us apart.

    With a Bachelor’s degree in Outdoor Leadership and a Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counselling Psychology, Jody was exploring eco-psychology when the field was in its infancy. She now specializes in teaching and counselling through nature-based practices, supporting people experiencing ‘mountain trauma’, critical incident response, and delivering training to teams and leaders to increase collective resilience and trauma-informed practices.

    Working through a strengths-based, somatically-focused lens, Jody supports individuals and groups along the journey into aligned relationship with self, others and land. She also provides training and supervision for those wishing to deepen their skills as a counsellor, facilitator, or leader through her private practice on Skwxwú7mesh-ulh Temíx̱w (Squamish territory) and virtually at In-Nature Counselling.

  • Jaclyn is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who lives, works and plays in the Bow Valley. She loves to be outside in nature whenever she can, and works with people who have experienced trauma to access the healing components of nature and community. Her therapeutic speciality is in Nature Therapy, mindfulness practices and building community connections. Jaclyn is a big believer in the importance of fostering interconnectedness with compassion and respect to build a solid foundation for healing. Just as with any trail in the forest, navigating trauma is a journey and Jaclyn helps by providing a non-judgemental space for people to reconnect with themselves, others and their love for the outdoors. Jaclyn is honoured to hold space and facilitate circles as a way for people to share their experiences and learn from each other.

  • Justin Telfer holds a deep appreciation for mountain adventures of all kinds. For nervous system regulation he seeks out mountain streams for fly fishing adventures. For quiet and solitude ski touring and mountaineering trips with close friends in the Purcell’s and Bugaboos have offered many rich experiences. For excitement and adrenaline, mountain biking and kicking horse river paddling do the trick. Justin also enjoys navigating the inner adventures of life and holds a master’s in clinical psychology with distinction and is registered with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors. He has been working in private practice, hospital and non-profit settings in Golden BC and around the world for over 20 years. Most recently working in and around the Altai mountains of Mongolia with a family of nomadic eagle hunters!

    Losing three close mountain adventuring friends to suicide solidified for him the need to speak publicly about mental health issues and how to hold tender conversations. Experiencing firsthand the lack of supportive community spaces post incident Justin has been keen to start a Mountain Muskox Golden Chapter. Justin has also developed, facilitated and participated in the Golden Men’s Group. GMG is a volunteer support group of men helping men talk openly about mental health struggles. It is his hope that by offering more spaces and teaching more people how to be with the tenderness of loss and suffering we will be healthier and more resilient.

  • Ana Maria is a Registered Professional Therapist living in Golden, the unceded territory of the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc people and the chosen land of the Métis. She provides mental health services for two non-profit organizations in Golden and holds a private practice. After 15 years studying and working with mindfulness-based practices from the Zen Buddhism tradition and experiencing their mental health benefits, Ana Maria felt driven to share these practices with others as a vehicle for healing. She returned to school and pursued a B.A. in Psychology and a Master’s in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health. The primary theoretical orientations of her practice are nature-based therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, and existential therapy.

    Originally from Brazil, Ana Maria fell in love with the mountains and skiing as a teen. She worked in the ski industry in Chile and the United States and has been recreating in the beautiful mountains surrounding Golden for the last 10 years - on foot, on her bike, and on her skis. She has experienced the profound positive effects nature and outdoor activities have on mental health. At the same time, she has witnessed how they can be the site of tragic losses leading to traumatic experiences. It is her love for these wild spaces and respect for the complexity of emotions that can arise when facing trauma that deeply motivates her to be part of Mountain Muskox. Ana Maria knows that healing is a process that requires personal as well as interpersonal work where community plays an integral role. Ana Maria brings an openness to experience and empathic curiosity to support people in reconciling with loss and restoring balance when everything seems to have fallen apart.

  • Harriet Eastman moved to Golden BC in 2019 from the east. She has been an avid skier, canoeist, cyclist and trekker for 40 years. She’s had lots of contact with and admiration for the mountain adventure community through her husband and sons all active climbers.

    Harriet trained as a social worker in mental health. She has worked in mobile crisis, community settings, hospital emergency departments, a psychiatric hospital and outpatient clinics for over 20 years. She has supported individuals with primary psychosis, depression, anxiety, addictions and a history of trauma. Harriet uses a range of modalities in her practice including Cognitive Behavioral therapy, Dialectical Behaviour therapy and mindfulness training.

  • Kat is a counsellor, art therapist and artist living in Nelson, BC, the traditional territories of the Sinixt, the Ktunaxa, and the Syilx peoples. Originally from Scotland, she moved to Canada in her early adulthood in search of a life in bigger mountains! Connection to nature, the outdoors, and the sports that take her there, have been central to her identity and way of life for as long as she can remember.  


    Kat undertook her postgraduate studies in Art Psychotherapy, followed by a Master’s in Counselling Psychology. She runs a private practice in Nelson where a big part of her work involves supporting folks transitioning through injury, loss, and trauma in the outdoors. She has personal experience of losing a loved one to the sport that also gave them so much, and the complex and layered emotions this can bring. 


    Relationality and cultivating self-compassion underscore Kat’s practice as a therapist. Wholly accepting our humanness, our innate connection to each other and our connection to the natural world can help sustain us, even through the most difficult of times. She is incredibly grateful for the community Mountain Muskox has cultivated, and to be bringing this support to the Kootenays.  

  • Cheryl has been exploring the mountains of Western Canada for over 28 years, ever since moving west from Eastern Canada. Based in Nelson, BC, she is a Registered Professional Counsellor and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. For Cheryl, the mountains have been a source of refuge, adventure, and personal growth, as well as her workplace. Her experience in the avalanche industry includes roles in ski patrolling, forecasting, teaching avalanche courses, and guiding. Through these experiences, she has witnessed both the joy and challenges that come with mountain culture, including the trauma and loss that can accompany risk.

    As she transitioned from professional roles to enjoying the mountains purely for recreation, Cheryl has continued to navigate the gifts and challenges these environments present, both for herself and her close-knit mountain community. Today, you can find her skiing, rock climbing, river tripping, and exploring the wilds of Western Canada and beyond.

    In a natural progression, her career shift led her to specialize in helping individuals heal from developmental and shock trauma. With extensive training in Existential Analysis psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing, she takes a holistic approach to therapy, working with the whole person to foster cognitive insight and regulate the nervous system to resolve trauma.

    Cheryl is thrilled to be a part of bringing Mountain Muskox to the West Kootenays, as it really touches her heart. She considers it an honour and privilege to offer and facilitate this group for fellow outdoor enthusiasts.

  • Michael is a registered psychologist who spends a great deal of time climbing in the mountains in both the Bow Valley and around the world. He brings over 25 years of experience helping people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. He specializes in treating trauma and loss and focuses on developing strong therapeutic relationships as a basis for healing and change. He takes into consideration people’s biological, social, psychological, and cultural influences when helping people. His primary aim is to help people work through past trauma and find ways to integrate these experiences so they can find a measure of inner peace and strength of character. Michael feels grateful to be able to facilitate circles and provide support to those who might have experienced trauma or lose in the 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.

  • 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.

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