Our Team

Paul McSorley

Paul is a longtime ice climber, Arcteryx athlete and ACMG guide who still gets fired up when the ice goblins start their winter mischief.  Though he's lived in the Canadian Rockies and traveled from Patagonia to Norway to climb ice, his favorite place to winter climb is in his home village of Squamish, BC.

Jean-Marc Savoie

Jean-Marc is our Emergency Response Team Leader. A trained Paramedic with Advanced Life Support skills and years in mountain search and rescue. He lives by the rule to over prepare for everything and you won’t use anything. The festival is grateful to have his medical and ice climbing expertise watching over the safety of our clinics. With a professional team of paramedics alongside him, the festival is prepared to respond in any emergency.

Brian Shannon

Brian Shannon is an ACMG Alpine Guide, and CAA Level 2 Practitioner Member. Based of out Squamish, BC, Brian loves climbing in all it’s forms, from long splitter cracks to patchy coastal ice smears. 

While he loves tackling ambitious objectives and pushing his skills, Brian's favourite part of guiding is meeting new people and sharing the magic moments of connection, beauty, and self discovery that climbing entails. 

Brent Nixon

Brent is the owner/operator of Vancouver Mountain Guides. He has been climbing for 35 years and enjoys all climbing disciplines from ice climbing and big wall climbing, to bouldering and sport climbing.

Currently, he is an ACMG Apprentice Alpine Guide with certifications in Avalanche Level 1 Operations, Advanced Avalanche Search & Rescue, and Guide Medic First Responder First Aid 80hrs.

In the spring 2017, Brent bolted and redpointed the first ascent of Vancouver's first 5.13 rock climb (Antisocial Media). In the winter of 2018, with Eric Hughes, he enchained the first one day free ascent of the ice/mixed routes The Theft WI6 M7+ 300m and The Gift WI5+ 300m in the Bridge River Canyon, BC.

Allie Oaks

Allie comes from midwestern roots and wasn’t exposed to the climbing life until college when she moved out west to Arizona. While in nursing school at ASU, her identity shifted from eclectic hobbyist to climber. Allie dabbled in women’s rugby, volunteering locally and abroad, sorority life, giving campus tours, etc. (variety was the spice!) so it wasn’t surprising when she brought home a harness and shoes after her first time rock climbing. But, as it turns out, the climbing life is spicy in and of itself!

Since moving to Cody, WY, ice and mixed terrain have become a major focus of Allie's climbing pursuits. This has opened up her arena to mountains she never thought she’d be able to roam. Allie feels that alpine climbing grounds her and helps her grow in ways she hasn’t yet found through anything else. The pristine beauty of the places she finds herself, feelings of both humility and accomplishment when pushing past perceived limitations, and the deep connections built through partnerships keep her coming back (not to mention the exponentially gratifying feeling of the simple things like warm, dry, socks)! 

Ian Welsted

Ian is a Rockies local, but did ice climb to top out the Chief in Squamish via The Ultimate Everything last winter! He attributes this success to his strong friendships in Squamish.  He's climbed around the world and knows that having a good friend on the rope is really the best part of any day out in the hills. An ACMG Alpine Guide and recipient of the Piolet d’Or, he's always curious about the next great adventure.

Nathalie Fortin

Nathalie is an Arcteryx ambassador that has been climbing ice (her favorite) for more than 20 years. Although she calls herself a weekend warrior with a weekday government job, she is a climbing instructor that has traveled the world climbing peaks up to 8848m.

Nathalie has a passion for community and loves to give back. She strives to make the sport more accessible by providing free women’s ice climbing and dry tooling clinics. Her work with the community, creating a Facebook meetup group, has brought many women into the sport she loves. For Nathalie, it’s all about sharing the passion and seeing the smiles.