Yellowstone Expeditions

The Guides at Yellowstone Expeditions

Arden Bailey Arden Bailey: Owner of Yellowstone Expeditions: Arden began working in Yellowstone in 1979 and started Yellowstone Expeditions in 1983. He has spent several summers working for the National Park Service as a park naturalist and also as a research geologist. In more recent years he has spent the spring, summer, and fall working as a geologist for engineering and environmental firms, working the last several summers in Alaska. Arden is a PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) Nordic ski instructor and PSIA backcountry ski guide. He has completed the Red Cross Advanced First Aid as well as the American Avalanche Institute avalanche safety and forecasting courses. His goal is to share his knowledge and love of Yellowstone with our visitors.
Erica Hutchings: Office Manager: Erica began working in Yellowstone as a tour guide and bus driver in 1987 and has been with Yellowstone Expeditions since 1989. She has summered as a National Park Service ranger in Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. She is an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and has completed the American Avalanche Institute backcountry avalanche safety and forecasting course. Erica is a PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) backcountry ski guide and Nordic ski instructor. Erica manages our office and reservation system as well as helps out at the skier's Yurt Camp. Erica Hutchings
Connie Dover Connie Dover: Camp Cook, Snowcoach Driver, and Reluctant Ski Guide: Connie started with Yellowstone Expeditions in 2011. She has spent many summers in the Yellowstone Area cooking at Guest Ranches just east of the Park. In addition to being our camp cook, Connie is a singer, poet and Emmy Award-winning producer and composer. Connie has produced several solo CDs, including: Somebody, The Wishing Well, If Ever I Return, The Border of Heaven, and most recently a CD of traditional Christmas songs and carols with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, entitled The Holly and the Ivy.

She received a 2007 Emmy Award for her production of acoustic music for the KCPT public television production Bad Blood: The Border War that Triggered the Civil War. Her original music earned a Grand Prize in the 2007 Yellowstone & Teton Song Contest, sponsored by the Western Folklife Center (Elko, Nevada), and she is a recipient of the Speakeasy Prize in Poetry for her book of poems, Winter Count, published in 2007 by Unholy Day Press.

Connie can be heard on NPR Radio's "Whats in a Song". Her broadcast performances include guest appearances and features on NPR's Weekend Edition (Saturday and Sunday), A Prairie Home Companion, The Thistle & Shamrock, Mountain Stage and E-Town. Connie's Web Page can be found at http://www.ConnieDover.com

Nadia Nadia Garbaj: Senior Photography Guide and Ski Camp Manager: Nadia has been in Yellowstone ever since she discovered that living and working out here was a lot more fun than working that boring 9-5 job back in FL. As a guide with 14 seasons of experience, extensive exposure and training from the royalty of legendary Yellowstone guides (Arden Bailey included), a Certified Interpretive Guide with the National Association of Interpretation, Nadia is someone who can explore the vast wonders of Yellowstone day after day, find something new and beautiful and still spend time in the park whenever she can. If it were up to Nadia, we would all live in a world filled with untouched wildness, snowy days that come bundled with wolves, foxes and snow-coaches and a force field around her tours that repel rented RV's and sticky-fingered toddlers. Her tours are packed full of meaningful and relevant information, and her witty disposition makes every excursion in the park your greatest day! Looking to see the park in Summer? When Nadia is not managing a remote luxury fishing lodge in SE Alaska, she is running her private tour company here in Yellowstone, http://www.wyldguide.com
Piper Gillard: Senior Ski Guide and Ski Instructor: Growing up in Vermont as a competitive skier, Piper was drawn to the vast beauty and recreational opportunities of Montana. She has a degree in Environmental Studies from Montana State University, has called this area home for the past 14 years and has guided with YE since 2018, With this background, Piper can see these mountains are alive in the winter and has been drawn to the Yellowstone backcountry, both recreationally and as an instructor. As a guide and educator she has gained an unparalleled appreciation for the dynamic nature of our ecosystem as well as amazing topography/route planning skills. She feels privileged to work in the mountains, to share and experience that passion with Yurt Camp visitors. Let Piper show you that skiing the untouched powder of the parks backcountry is the ideal way to enjoy and experience the scenic splendor of a Yellowstone winter. Piper
Aidan
Aidan Denison: Ski Guide: Aidan started guiding with Yellowstone Expeditions in the fall of 2019. She studied Outdoor Recreational Therapy in college with the intention of providing adaptive, inclusive and compassion based outdoor experiences. Since then she has worked seasonally leading a variety of trips based out of her home state of Minnesota. Her guiding experience includes trips to Glacier National Park, The Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Voyageur National Park, Namekagon River, and much more around the mid-west. Her spring and fall seasons are spent traveling the country with 24-ft Voyageur canoes to take students paddling on their local waterways. On these trips, she provides ecology, wildlife and conservation based education. Her days off are spent on paddle trips with the rest of the YE crew.
Shamus Olson: Ski Guide: Shamus started with Yellowstone Expeditions in the fall of 2020. Shamus came to YE after years of teaching abroad in Armenia, Kenya, and Zambia. Here at YE he is known for both pioneering and blazing trail. Shamus spends his summer months as a canoe guide in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, St. Croix, and Namekagon rivers. Being from Minnesota, Shamus loves the cold of the winter but also enjoys a little warmth in order to get out climbing and paddling. Shamus Olson
Sage Sage Chimo: Ski Guide: A Montana local, Sage is used to a long and cold winter season. She learned to ski at 2 years old, and every winter since then she's found a way to hit the slopes. With 4 years of experience skiing in the backcountry, she knows how to have an epic and safe day in the mountains. When she's not living out of a yurt in Yellowstone, Sage tours the country living out of her van, Stan. She travels to find the coolest places to hike, rock climb, take photos, and paint!