Internship
St. Elias Alpine Guide
Organization
St. Elias Alpine Guide
12 Kennicott Millsite
McCarthy, AK 99588
About the Organization
St. Elias Alpine Guides is a well-established small business in the bush town of McCarthy, Alaska. Residing within Wrangell- St. Elias National Park, the companies 40 guides work to take clients on the experience of a lifetime. St. Elias Alpine Guides offers a wide variety of single day and multi-day trip options including historic mill tours, glacier hikes, ice cave explorations, ice climbing, backpacking, mountaineering, lake paddles, day rafting, and multi-day rafting trips.
Duties
As an intern with this company, your days will never be the same. Interns handle a variety of duties including guiding historic mill tours, co-guiding on glacier hikes, helping the rafters with the morning rig, completing intern chores, transporting vans and working on various projects with the owners of the company. Since the workday varies drastically, so does the length of the workday (between 2-17 hours in a day). Interns typically work seven days a week and days off can be very spread out. The internship pays $800.00 a month in addition to any tips you make guiding. Housing and sufficient food is provided, although most interns choose to purchase additional food like fresh produce and snacks.
Summary
This internship was an amazing experience and provided me with so many opportunities. Every day that I was guiding, I was participating in someone’s ‘once in a lifetime trip’ and getting paid to do it. In addition to the typical intern duties, the company tries to set up unique experiences and learning opportunities for the interns. This year they included an ice climbing day, rafting the day trip stretch, a flight-see bush plane tour and assistant guiding on a multi-day trip. I got to spend five days rafting the Nizina River from the toe of the Nizina Glacier to the confluence with the Chitna River as my multi-day trip. One of the other amazing things about this internship is how much time and resources the company invests in the internship program. I was constantly working one-on-one with the owners, which helped me build rapport with them and learn about all aspects of business and Alaskan living. I got hands-on experience working on website design, maintaining small engines, operating a chain saw to fell trees and building rafts frames. I also learned about the inter-workings of running a business, solar panel site selection, and different types of building supports. Next year I will be returning to the company as a first-year guide.