Professional Climbing Instructors and Guides
Rock Climbing, Mountaineering, and Mountain Climbing Guides
Suntoucher’s Guides are some of the most experienced and qualified guides in North America. Owner, head guide, and guide trainer John Kear is one of only a handful of American guides to have completed the International Guide Certification, the UIAGM. Owners John Kear, Carolyn Parker and their guides, continue to pursue training and certification with the American Mountain Guide Association , to strive for excellence in their field. This combined with our years of success and experience worldwide, will provide you with the best experience and instruction there is to offer anywhere.
Joined by co-owner, wife and climbing partner, Carolyn Parker, we strive to provide only the best in instruction, guided trips, including; rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, ski descents, and private small ratio custom trips. With decades of combined experience climbing and guiding worldwide we’ll provide you with the skills, training, and knowledge for the biggest and most exciting climbing adventures in the world.
Our Instructors
John Kear
John Kear is a professional mountain guide and zealous all-around
climber. He is one of only a hand full of Americans to become a fully certified
UIAGM
guide. Nineteen years of mountain experience has taken him all over the
world for work and play. From the high Alpine peaks of Alaska, the Alps,
the Andes and the Himalaya to the desert crags and towers of the American
Southwest, John is equally at home seeking out beautiful and challenging
ascents. Specializing in demanding and technical routes he guides as Co-owner
of Suntoucher Mountain Guides. His passion for first ascents and adventure
climbing was born in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico, an enchanting little
range of granite fins, towers and walls just outside of his home in Albuquerque.
When not away climbing and guiding in the world's greater mountain ranges,
John is home in New Mexico continuing to seek out challenging new routes
and sharing the classic climbs with friends and guided clients. read more >
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Carolyn Parker
Carolyn Parker co-owner of Suntoucher Mountain Guides, an AMGA certified
Rock Guide, has over a decade of guiding and climbing experience. Los Alamos,
New Mexico, was her childhood home. Early years of life brought her opportunities
to adventure through the wilderness from her own backyard, on her own, to
become a skier, a climber, a mountain lover, run rivers, hike through remote
regions, and develop an understanding for what truly matters. She created
Women’s Mountain Biking Clinics, Telemark Ski Clinics, owned a climbing
shoe resoling company, and now a guide service. She has climbed full-time
for more than a decade, run ultra-marathons, raced mountain bikes, and designed
and created climbing clothing & chalk bags with a flare. Working as
a guide for the last ten years she has traveled from the Canadian Rockies,
to the big walls of Yosemite and Utah’s desert towers, from the Andes
to the Himalaya and the Alps. When Carolyn isn't guiding she trains
clients in preparation for climbing, marathons, adventure racing, and general
health. read more >
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Allan Aiken
Allan Aiken has eight years of guiding experience, five of those years with Suntoucher Mountain Guides. Although he calls Albuquerque home, Allan’s climbing has taken him from the mountains of New Mexico to Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, and California. In 2003, Allan climbed the Diamond on Long’s Peak and in 2002 climbing El Capitan in Yosemite with John Kear and Paul Johnson. Allan holds an AMGA Top-Rope Site Manager Certification, has completed AMGA Rock Instructor course training, and is WFR certified. In addition, to guiding for Suntoucher Mountain Guides Allan took a management position at Sandia Peak Ski Area after finishing his BA in English at the University of New Mexico. He keeps himself happy and busy enjoying sharing his passions with his climbing students.
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Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson is from Albuquerque, NM and has been guiding since 1994. He has a BS from Northern Arizona University and has done graduate work at the University of New Mexico. Besides being an avid skier/snowboarder, Paul is an accomplished rock climber and mountaineer with ascents all over the world. His extensive expedition experience includes more than a dozen trips to the Bolivian Andes as well as climbing adventures in the European Alps, Nepal, Denali, Mexico, Argentina and California's Yosemite Valley. When he is not guiding he works for the Sandia Peak and Santa Fe Ski Areas as a manager and a professional ski patroller. He lives with his wife, four llamas and four dogs in Edgewood, New Mexico. He is an AMGA Certified Rock Guide and an EMT.
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Anna Baudino
Anna Baudino a native to Albuquerque, New Mexico; Anna has been able to pursue her love for the outdoors from an early age. The Sandia Mountains of Albuquerque are where she learned to ski and climb and have been her playground ever since. She has been instructing and guiding under the tutelage of Carolyn Parker and John Kear for the past five years and currently holds an AMGA Single Pitch Instructor certification and WFA. In addition to being an exceptionally gracious guide and instructor, patient and focused with all her clients; she is pursuing a BA in Environment Science at the University of New Mexico.
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Davito Hammack
Davito Hammack has his roots in the mountains of New Mexico where he began
his rock climbing career in his early teens. His love of adventure climbing
began in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness where he has numerous first ascents
to his credit, including such classics as Cowboy’s Delight, Orange
Sunshine, and Purple Haze. His passion for big air led him to Yosemite Valley
where he has climbed eleven routes on El Capitan, as well as routes on other
walls there. Beyond Yosemite, Davito has climbed extensively in the West,
including ascents in the Grand Teton, Wind River Range, Rocky Mountains,
the High Sierra, Zion, and Mt Rainier. Davito loves difficult aid climbing,
back country skiing, river running and playing the fiddle. He has an extensive
knowledge of rock craft. He is a patient teacher, he is alert, and pays
close attention to detail. When not climbing and guiding Davito is a Journeyman
Electrician specializing in solar electric systems.
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