Brenda is a Professional Interpretive guide qualified through the Interpretive Guides Association (formerly MPHIA), a recognized "Bear Guide" from Year of the Great Bear, a member of the Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors, with a level 1 Nordic Ski Instructor qualification and she is fully qualified in Advanced Wilderness First Aid and CPR as well as being a Standard Level First Aid Instructor through the Canadian Red Cross. Brenda was born and raised in the Rockies in Jasper National Park and has spent a vast amount of time trekking from valley to valley. She is pleased to follow her lineage as a traditional Metis guide from the Cardinals of Jasper. Learning through research and talking with elders, traditions, which were once a part of her heritage, have become a pleasure for her to share with others.
Dave Holder
Dave has been guiding groups for over 20 years, the past nine in Alberta. He has a wide range of guiding experience leading groups in the UK, Austria, Norway, Iceland and now Canada. His thirst for life and knowledge has lead him to spend time with the indigenous people in Central America and Africa learning the art forms of traditional living skills, survival and jungle navigation. Originally trained as a mountain leader and climbing supervisor in the UK, Dave is a certified Backpacking guide with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides, a certified Cross Country Ski Instructor, Professional Interpreter qualified through Interpretive Guides Association (formerly MPHIA) and is qualified in Advanced Wilderness First Aid. Dave has learned traditional survival skills from Mors Kochanski of Bushcraft Skills and Randy Breeuwsma of Karamat Wilderness ways, and is currently applying those skills here in the mountain environment. His aim is to open your eyes and awaken your spirit to the surrounding beauty so that you may experience the mountains in a whole new way.
Jed has a background as a Park Warden in Northumbrerland in the United Kingdom and his forestry credentials bring some fresh interpretive skills to the company. After spending a short time with the Gurkhas (from Nepal) and learning the language, his adeptness in traditional survival is one of his passions and he has a great talent for making replicas of "interesting" traditional tools. He is a Joint Service Mountain Expedition Leader, and has taken part in and led numerous expeditions such as rafting down the Sungei Belait in Brunei, ascending Mt Kinabalu and canoeing down the South Nahanni in the NWT as well as the Florida Mangroves. He has a love for Canada and seems to find himself in this country on various adventures. Jed is also a very entertaining storyteller and often captivates his audience with these humorous but truthful tales (honest).
Simon is well known in the Kananaskis for his love of the outdoors and his enthusiasm as a guide and instructor. He has a wealth of experience leading groups in Europe and Canada over a period of eight years. Simon's skills are of a high standard with a list of qualifications as: Professional Interpreter through Interpretive Guides Association (formerly MPHIA), Association of Canadian Mountain Guides Back Packing guide, Kayak instructor and Raft guide, Advanced Wilderness First Aid, Avalanche technician level one - Canadian Avalanche Association and working as a ski patroller. You can often find him training his dog "Kia" as a Search and Rescue dog for volunteer search and rescue programs.
Jordan is a Professional Interpretive Guide qualified through the Interpretive Guides Association (formerly MPHIA), a member of the Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors, with a level 1 Nordic Ski Instructor qualification and he is fully qualified in Advanced Wilderness First Aid and CPR. Jordan has also completed his Companion Rescue for the BC Cave Rescue Association and enjoys working part time as a cave guide. Jordan is a traditional Metis guide and a direct descendant of the Cardinals (Kwarakwante's) of Jasper. Jordan continues to learn about his culture and is proud to share it with our visitors.
Koona Atim is a lively friendly seven-year old Alaskan Malamute, who has earned her Cree name "Snow Dog." Her qualifications are as a Ski Joring and Sled Dog, and she can often be found napping in the shade when the summer heat gets a little beyond her comfort zone. She is always happy to bounce along the trail expressing her opinion while plodding alongside her companions, or she's happy to stay home and have a well-earned "day off."
Our expertise is in our quality programs and our highly qualified guides.
Rather than taking the "Fast Food" approach to guiding taking large volumes of people up and down a trail so we can get to the next group, we prefer a high quality trip that our guests can enjoy and really experience the Rockies.
The President of the company as well as the Technical Director are "out there" guiding. Why? Because that's where our passion is, and it assures us that our guests are having an exceptional time.
We avoid the more "popular" areas that have been over-marketed, thus giving our guests a true taste of the little known areas of the Rockies and keeping them away from the large volumes of people that are drawn to the well known areas
We focus on keeping our groups small and intimate, unless you have a specific request to have a larger group we stay well under the parks limits of a group size of 12
The President of the company was awarded the Entrepreneurial Leadership Award by the Metis Nation of Alberta, Region III.
Mahikan Trails was selected by Lake Land College to be filmed by Tomiuk Productions for their Tourism Training Course.
Mahikan Trails was selected to attend Winter Change in Whitehorse, Yukon with the Canadian Tourism Commission to promote Winter Tourism in Canada.
Mahikan Trails was filmed in a documentary for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network program Profiles of Success.
Mahikan Trails was selected to attend the Aboriginal Conference in Whistler by Heritage Canada and Aboriginal Tourism Team Canada.
Mahikan Trails has been the focus of several Freelance journalists in such publications as the Australian Weekly (Holly Forsythe), Where Magazine (Carolyn Van-De-Vayver) and Calgary Outdoors Magazine (Pam Asheton).