{"id":29654,"date":"2025-08-20T15:11:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T23:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/?p=29654"},"modified":"2025-08-20T15:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T23:11:54","slug":"lead-guides-for-denali-mckinley-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/2025\/08\/20\/img-news\/lead-guides-for-denali-mckinley-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead Guides for Denali\/McKinley 2026!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>August 15, 2025<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[29654]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-tb_medium wp-image-29655\" src=\"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-620x473.jpg\" alt=\"A team of climbers lead by Forrest Baldwin pose for a group photo on the top of Denali\/McKinley in 2022 with the summit marker in the foreground.\" width=\"600\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-620x473.jpg 620w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-1024x781.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-768x586.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-1536x1171.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-940x717.jpg 940w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42-195x149.jpg 195w, https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/42.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"aVla3\">\n<div class=\"BS0OK\" aria-expanded=\"true\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"fui-FluentProvider fui-FluentProviderr178 ___5n94it0 f19n0e5 f3rmtva fgusgyc fk6fouc fkhj508 figsok6 fytdu2e\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<div class=\"wide-content-host\">\n<div id=\"focused\" class=\"SlLx9 WWy1F byzS1 WWy1F\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-label=\"Email message\">\n<div role=\"document\">\n<div id=\"UniqueMessageBody_163\" class=\"XbIp4 jmmB7 GNqVo allowTextSelection OuGoX\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Message body\">\n<div class=\"BIZfh\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div lang=\"en-US\">\n<div>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Alaska season is coming fast, and we want to make sure you meet IMG Denali\u2019s 2026 West Buttress Expedition Leaders! Spots are going fast- be sure to secure your spot on their rope teams before they run out!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Forrest Baldwin, May 12th Team Lead<\/p>\n<p>Forrest has been guiding\u00a0with\u00a0IMG\u00a0for eight seasons\u00a0in Washington and Alaska. Prior to joining the IMG team,\u00a0he worked as\u00a0a USFS Hotshot\u00a0based out of Missoula, Montana. In the winter, Forrest works as a Professional Ski Patroller at Crystal Mountain Resort where he is an on-hill Supervisor and the primary trainer of Cudi, one of the mountain\u2019s five avalanche search dogs. Forrest is a licensed EMT at both the national and state levels and holds his AAA Pro 1 certification.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Swanson, May 16th Team Lead<\/p>\n<p>Although Brad is in his fifth year with IMG, he is rounding out his eleventh season working as a mountain guide across the American West with is true passion being in Washington\u2019s North Cascades. Brad spends his winters working as a Professional Ski Patroller at Crystal Mountain Resort. At Crystal, Brad leads the patrol\u2019s technical rescue program and works as the Assistant Avalanche Forecaster. Brad maintains his Outdoor Emergency Care certification through the National Ski Patrol and holds his AAA Pro 1 certification.<\/p>\n<p>Timm Phillips, May 20th Team Lead<\/p>\n<p>Timm is in his seventh season guiding for IMG in the Cascades, the Alaska Range, and internationally. Timm spends much of his winter season working as a ski guide in Japan and leading avalanche safety courses in California before making his yearly migration north. When not in the mountains, you can find him surfing waves around the world. Timm maintains his AAA Pro 2.<\/p>\n<p>Max Bond, May 24th Team Lead<\/p>\n<p>Max has been guiding with IMG for five out of his seven years as a mountain guide! Max has led five successful expeditions to Nepal\u2019s highest peaks, two to the summit of Vinson in Antarctica, and two to the summit of Kilimanjaro on top of full-time Washington\/Alaska seasons! Max is an AIARE Course Leader, and in his spare time he leads wilderness medicine courses and loves to tackle new split-boarding objectives! On top of his baseline certifications, Max holds an AAA Pro 2 certification.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"aVla3\">\n<div class=\"BS0OK\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n<div class=\"GjFKx jmmB7 WWy1F YoK0k\" tabindex=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"MXho_ Ts94W allowTextSelection\">\n<div class=\"c7KoH\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"o4zjZ ujrct\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 15, 2025 Alaska season is coming fast, and we want to make sure you meet IMG Denali\u2019s 2026 West Buttress Expedition Leaders! Spots are going fast- be sure to secure your spot on their rope teams before they run out! Forrest Baldwin, May 12th Team Lead Forrest has been guiding\u00a0with\u00a0IMG\u00a0for eight seasons\u00a0in Washington and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-denali","category-img-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29668,"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29654\/revisions\/29668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}