Friday, January 18, 2013

Intrinsic Rewards as Guides

Beth Dempster best expresses the intrinsic rewards we as guides receive from our work...

 “Working as a guide brings two important rewards. One of them is filling my soul with needed sustenance – an outdoor fix that carries me through the long winter. Since I could do this on my own, the second reward – although more subtle – is in many ways more important. It arises through the many people I have met on Sea to Sky adventures. For each of us, regardless of our skills and reasons for participating, trips have involved new experiences and new challenges, all within a new and different setting. And what a setting! It’s a wilderness environment (which entails extra risks as well as extra beauty) with a group of people that begin as strangers and leave with connections. Challenge, wilderness, and cooperative companionship – it’s a rich combination that brings out a unique and remarkable energy. It’s a mingling of helping hands, campfires, thunderstorms, good food, triumphs, struggles, sore muscles, late-night conversations and laughter. To be a part of such rich experiences, more especially, to be able to facilitate and enable them, is a reward that is unmatched in my other endeavours. Even after all these years, guiding for Sea to Sky continues to be a joy and a privilege.”