OUR GUIDES

Nick Gordon, Owner of NOW Outdoors, has been helping people gain more skills, knowledge, and confidence outdoors since 2010. He is a Wilderness EMT and teaches for AHA and SOLO helping novice and outdoor professionals live their best life working and playing in the backcountry. His favorite season is winter and favorite place in the Midwest is the BWCA. Nick has also been taking adventure seekers around the world since 2017 to Everest Base Camp, Peruvian Andes, and deep into the Amazon Jungle in Colombia. He regularly presents at the Winter Camping Symposium, Canoecopia, and various outdoor related shows and podcasts.

Dawn Mackety is a licensed guide, teaches workshops, and manages trip registrations and logistics. She has over 30 years of teaching, programming, evaluation, and administration experience in outdoor and experiential learning settings including museums, zoos, 4-H, and Outward Bound. She has been an outdoor adventure volunteer for Girl Scouts for over 30 years and has guided wilderness expeditions for them in seven states, including their BWCA basecamp in Ely, MN. She enjoys challenging, high adventure outdoor activities in all seasons, is a canoe, kayak, and archery instructor, and a certified National Weather Service SKYWARN Weather Spotter, Master Naturalist, and Wilderness First Responder.

Steve Larson is an outdoor adventure leader and community builder with years of experience both formal and on the trail. He has been working as a BSA leader for 30 years and has planned and facilitated many large scale youth events. Steve also served in the military for 25 years and holds certifications in CPR, First Aid, and Wilderness First Aid. In addition, he hosts programs year round in SE Wisconsin aimed at helping outdoor enthusiasts connect through social events and related skill building workshops.

Kabindra Lamsal is our Nepal representative and certified mountain guide. Since 2008, he has lead tours and mastered all of Nepal’s major trekking routes and summits including Mera Peak 6,400 m, Island Peak 6,189 m & Yala Peak 6,000 m. In addition to Nepal, Kabindra leads tour groups in Tibet, India, and Bhutan. He is actively involved in local charity organizations that support social workers and others in need. Kabindra has a Master’s Degree in English Literature and teaches English Literature to graduate students in Kathmandu. He takes great care of his clients and strives to help everyone achieve their trekking and climbing goals.

Jose Montes is our partner and lead guide for our treks in Peru. A true adventure and trekking expert, Jose has nearly 20 years of guiding experience and is the heart and soul behind his own trekking company, Killa Expeditions. His passion and dedication to sharing his culture through once-in-a-lifetime experiences in Peru is inspiring. In addition to guiding treks, Jose works hard to support local people and communities through charitable events. Jose is fluent in both English and Spanish and his favorite trek is Ausangate. Outside of guiding exciting tours, he loves camping, playing soccer, cooking, and playing with his kids.

Steve Haynes has been camping and honing his outdoor skills since he was a kid, building shelters and fires in the woods behind his parents house. He is a SOLO certified wilderness first responder and a team leader with a search and rescue squad, focusing on visual tracking, navigation, and digital mapping. With over 15 years of experience backpacking throughout the Midwest, he brings a wide array of skills and expertise to NOW Outdoors in survival, edibles, and self-reliance. He has completed training with numerous instructors and schools including Terry Barney with 88 Tactical, Mors Kochanski, Kelly Harlton, and Paul Sveum with Jack Mountain School of Bushcraft. In addition to teaching for NOW Outdoors, he has also worked with Larry Roberts from the TV show ALONE and Jason Hunt of Campcraft Outdoor School.

Steve Fritz has been a bushcraft and survival practitioner since 1982, and winter camping since 1986. He has completed two courses at the Tom Brown Tracker School and served 26 years in the military with two tours in Iraq. Steve is a former survival and land navigation instructor for A & C Co, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry. Steve is an avid kayaker during warmer seasons, hikes year round, and enjoys winter camping and teaching others how to venture safely in the backcountry.

Todd Theoret is a wilderness guide and outdoor skills educator living along the south shore of Lake Superior near Marquette, Michigan. Todd grew up off-the-grid in the remote woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he was homeschooled, but primarily self-taught through book study and trial-and-error experience to help his family become as self-sufficient as possible. Snowed-in during the winters, for nine years he skied nearly four miles one way to reach the nearest plowed road and ten miles round trip to a remote phone booth to contact relatives.

Todd has enjoyed sharing wilderness skills since the age of 19 when he led his first wild edible plant walk, and he is currently a certified Outing Leader with the Sierra Club. Todd has studied at The Tracker School, Tom Brown Jr’s Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School. During two back-to-back week-long classes, Todd constructed a debris hut which he lived in for nearly two weeks.

He has been an investigator with a long-term-missing and cold-case search team working the bush between the Upper Great Lakes and the Arctic Ocean in Canada since 2011 and has been on a first-response Search and Rescue team - Marquette County Search and Rescue - since 2021. His tripping partners appreciate his bush skills, including his ability to start a fire in foul weather, navigate through tangled bush, and gather wild foods at will - he can identify upwards of 100 edible wild plants.

Sean Krajacic is a professional photographer and Wilderness First Responder certified assistant guide and educator with NOW Outdoors. He has been ultralite backpacking and sea kayaking for over 25 years and loves sharing his passion for the outdoors with others on the trail.

Scott Zimmerman is an experienced wilderness living enthusiast with a wide array of interests including paddling and hiking. He's an RF communications specialist, martial arts practitioner, defensive firearms instructor, and lifelong learner.

Scott says "Sharing knowledge from personal journeys with others as they meet their own challenges and triumphs is a great pleasure and privilege."

Jyn is a wildfire chainsaw instructor who has worked and volunteered with an NGO company in disaster response and traveled overseas and across the US. She helped in the California wildfire disaster and recently with Florida Hurricane Ian. She loves teaching others in basic chainsaw safety and felling trees. She also received her SOLO Wilderness First Aid certification through NOW Outdoors.