Dream Job Profile

Kristi Beetch - Interpretive Hiking Guide

White Mountain Adventures

Road Warrior for the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour

BanffLife: When (what year) did you first come to Banff / Bow Valley? 

1990

BL: How old are you?

42

BL: What made you decide to come to Banff?

My spouse, at the time, had lived in Banff before and I had lived in the mountains in Colorado.  We both wanted to move back to a small mountain town, and Banff seemed to fit our needs.

BL: Describe your first job in Banff and how you got it.

My first job in Banff was as Assistant Manager at Monod Sports in their Casual Clothing department.  I had worked in the ski industry as an in-house rep for a small skiwear company in Vail, Colorado.  I moved to Vail to be a ski bum for a season before going onto graduate school in International Law.  I never went to grad school as I fell in love with the mountain lifestyle!  In 1989 I moved to Canada to be with my Canadian boyfriend (we married), and worked for Descente Canada in Vancouver as a Customer Service Rep. When we decided to move to Banff I sent out resumes to all the ski shops in Banff.  Monod Sports hired me and I ended up working for them for 10 years!

BL: Describe your job/s now including your job title/s and position/s.  What things do you like best or think are the coolest about your job?

Interpretive Hiking Guide for White Mountain Adventures:

In summer I take people hiking in all the four National Parks: Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, Jasper; as well as the provincial park areas, and in Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta.  I also take people heli-hiking for Alpine Helicopters from the Canmore heliport, outside the national parks, as it is not allowed within them.  Periodically I do step-on bus tour guiding for large groups in summer and winter.  I also organize team building events for corporate groups.  In winter I take people snowshoeing, on ice walks in Johnston Canyon, and on nighttime hikes to see the amazing nighttime skies away from the light pollution of the cities!

Through Bow Valley College and White Mountain Adventures I have been teaching people each fall into winter, how to do my job as well as other aspects of the tourism industry.

The coolest thing about my job is that I meet people from all over the world and get to share the “WOW!” factor of this area with them!  I never have a disappointed client!

Road Warrior for the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour:

After the Banff Mountain Film Festival takes place in November, films are chosen to go on a world tour.  I have only just begun this job on a part-time basis.  In March I took the tour to Anchorage, Alaska for two shows at the University of Alaska.  The coolest part about this job is that I get to travel and see places I have never been!  Plus the audience is so pumped to see the films, you feel like a rock star when you go out on stage to introduce the first film!

BL:  How did you get to where you are now from where you started in Banff?

After working for Monod Sports in many management and buying capacities for eight years, I decided to pursue hiking guiding.  With much pre-instruction and patience from my partner, who is a mountain guide, I took the Hiking Guide certification course through the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides in 1998.  From day one you are being evaluated by the examiners on what you already know about map and compass work, terrain guidelines, client care, navigation skills, how you handle stress, and knowledge about flora, fauna, geology, etc.  It is a challenging course, not passed by all who take it.

The following two summers I worked part-time as a hiking guide for White Mountain Adventures, while still working for Monod Sports full-time.  My partner was the one who gave me the reality check and said, “You should be a hiking guide full-time as you are a much happier person when you come home from guiding!”  I left Monod Sports in Oct. 2000 to pursue my “Dream Job” full-time and I haven’t looked back!

Another certification required to be a hiking guide in the National Parks is the Mountain Parks Heritage Interpretation Accreditation (MPHIA).  This course covers the flora, fauna, geology, human history, and heritage tourism strategy and park management policies in the National Parks.  I accomplished this in Nov. 2002 after taking a weeklong course and passing the written and oral exams.  With MPHIA you must have a certain amount of guiding hours under your belt before you are allowed to take the exams.  Parks is in the process of changing this accreditation to three graduated levels since it is a difficult course to pass.

One thing I love about this job is that you are constantly learning!  There are always interesting speaker nights on topics pertaining to the Park. 

Becoming a Road Warrior for the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour is a bit trickier as the new-hires, like myself, required dual-citizenship with Canada and the U.S.A.  American Immigration has questioned Canadians entering the U.S.A. to work on the Tour.  To be a Road Warrior you must be a good public speaker since you are on stage introducing the films (8-9 a night), sometimes to a theatre that holds 900-1000 people!  Since I have dual citizenship, am used to public speaking through hiking guiding, as well as teach it through Bow Valley College, I was hired. 

BL: Can you tell us why Banff is a great place to get a life?

Banff is an amazing mountain community where all ages partake in an abundance of outdoor activities!  People stay young at heart, more laid back, and open to learning about different cultures.  Visitors come from all over the world to experience this place I call home!  Because of the international clientele, Banff is a very cosmopolitan small town.  The Banff Centre is a gem in the Rockies, providing world-class entertainment year-round.  I recommend new people to Banff to volunteer or take a community course, as you’ll always find interesting people with similar interests to your own!