Life & Work with Max Lurie

Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Lurie. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Growing up in Midcoast Maine surrounded by forest, Max always had a connection to the natural world. He didn’t realize how unique of an upbringing this was until much later. As a teenager, Max discovered climbing on an Outward Bound program. Although he didn’t know it at the time, this was the spark that would give many of his pursuits direction throughout his life. Three days after high school he was on a plane to Colorado for another Outward Bound program, this one lasting the entire summer before college.

In college, Max studied Earth Sciences with a focus on paleoclimatology, the study of past climate systems. Much of his studies involved glaciers and the mountains of the world. Working for the Climate Change Institute, he participated in a research expedition to Denali, Alaska, where the team performed a reconnaissance for extracting a surface to bedrock ice core from the lower Kahiltna Glacier. He traveled to Peru to assist other scientific research expeditions into the Cordillera Blanca.

Career, climbing and life has landed Max in Boulder, Colorado where he lives with his partner, Katie and their dog Dexter. Although Max still travels frequently for work, most of his climbing happens along the Front Range of Colorado. Climbing in the alpine on rock, snow and ice has always been Max’s biggest passion. After leaving academia, Max decided that sharing the mountains with people had a longer-lasting impact. By curating mountain experiences and teaching people mountain craft so they can be self-sufficient, Max makes stewards of everyone he climbs with. So that they can safely and respectfully appreciate the wild and hard-to-reach places that Max so appreciates. Melding his academic background, professional guiding certifications, previous experiences and personal passion for the mountains Max founded Alpine to the Max.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The mountain guiding industry, like many other service industries, can be very challenging. When most people think of a mountain guide, they think of snowy peaks with wonderful vistas. While that is certainly part of my job, it is but a small fraction. Because guiding is a romanticized profession that means that lots of people want to do it, this can lead to struggles with employers over pay, benefits, etc. While mountain guiding requires no professional level of certification in the US, there are many guides who voluntarily submit themselves to a training program in order to strive for excellence in their fields. The American Mountain Guides Association trains and examines aspiring mountain guides in three different disciplines: Rock, Alpine and Ski. Many guides take between 7-10 years to finish this rigorous program. It is a huge commitment financially, physically and demands a certain lifestyle to complete.

Even upon completing the AMGA program guides are not guaranteed livable wages by most employers because they are replaceable with less qualified eager individuals. If a guide decides to go out on their own like I have with Alpine to the Max, it doesn’t get any easier. Because all of the instruction and guiding we do is on public lands, it is heavily regulated. There isn’t a path forward for independent certified guides such as myself to guide in the many wonderful national parks in the US. The relationships with land managers is often strained as they would rather deal with a large company instead of many individual guides. This is a problem in the US as it fosters inexperienced and unqualified guides taking people into the mountains. While the certified and experienced guides are effectively unemployable. The only solution for these problems are lobbying in Washington DC to change the laws surrounding commercial use on our public lands. Also educating prospective guests and clients who are looking for a potential guide. Always ask if your guide is fully certified in the discipline you’ll be hiring them for. Also only hire independent guides because more of the price you pay will be going directly to them, this will be greatly reflected in the quality of the product you receive.

In addition to all the industries politics that goes on behind the scenes, mountain guiding is incredibly dangerous work as I am sure you can imagine. I curate mountain experiences in harsh and inhospitable vertical environments.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Max started his guiding career working for International Mountain Climbing School in North Conway, New Hampshire. Surrounded by the White Mountains and living in the Mount Washington Valley, Max honed his craft for both personal and professional pursuits. Climbing and guiding on Cathedral Ledge, Whitehorse Ledge, Cannon Cliff and Mount Washington itself Max put in the miles and hours to rise up through the ranks quickly. In the winter season he climbed as much ice as he possibly could, with the wet climate of New England that was quite a bit. The ice climbing in New Hampshire and Vermont is second to none. Guiding the many classic multi-pitch ice routes in Crawford Notch was how he spent the brutally cold winter months. Max took his first American Mountain Guides Association course in North Conway, New Hampshire. This opened his eyes to the dedication and hard work it would take to make guiding a sustainable profession.

During this time, Max also volunteered with the local Mountain Rescue Service that performed technical rescues throughout the surrounding mountains. Traveling on glaciated terrain wasn’t new to Max as he had climbed many glaciated peaks personally, not to mention that he studied glaciology at university. Yet, he wanted to develop his guiding skills further. Traveling to the Pacific Northwest and working for International Mountain Guides on Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, and in the North Cascades National Park Max quickly fell in love with that landscape. Over the course of many seasons, Max has summited Rainier nearly 100 times, not to mention ascents of other peaks. Mentoring younger guides and taking a leadership role was a natural progression for him.

Going back to his roots as a rock and ice climber, Max traded the snowy peaks of the Pacific Northwest for the rugged and technical Rocky Mountains of Colorado. As an American Mountain Guides Association certified Rock and Alpine Guide, Max was a kid in a candy store. Max can often be found guiding and climbing the tricky and technical routes in Eldorado Canyon or high above Boulder on one of the Flatirons. When the conditions are right, the long technical routes in Rocky Mountain National Park are a fantastic reprieve from the summer heat. In the winter, Max teaches American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education courses for The Mountain Guides. He also owns and operates Alpine to the Max based in Boulder, Colorado.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up in Midcoast Maine, I was very familiar with wilderness, but it was a different kind of wilderness than where I work today. Surrounded by trees, hills, deer and dairy farms, there wasn’t much to do. Or so I thought, I never really appreciated how wonderful Maine was until I grew up and left. As a kid, I would play for hours with the neighbors using nothing but our imaginations. I was never interested in organized sports and certainly wouldn’t have qualified as athletic. I gravitated more towards things like Dungeons & Dragons, which I still play to this day thanks to the pandemic and with a decades-long hiatus. Through middle school and high school, I went through the usual rebellious stages and reinvented myself more times than I care to count. Very luckily, I emerged unscathed, in part thanks to rock climbing. In rock climbing, I found a way to compete with my former self to see what I was capable of. This constructive outlet has shaped the course of my personal and professional life ever since. Sharing climbing and the mountains with others is a deeply rewarding experience for me because I know how much it has driven my life in a positive direction.

Pricing:

• One on one private instruction/guiding on a weekend is $500/day
• One on one private instruction/guiding on a weekday is $450/day
• two on one semi private instruction/guiding is $300/pp/day

Contact Info:

• Website: alpinetothemax.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alpinetothemax/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alpinetothemax