Owners

For the past 15 years Ryan & Carey Stanley have been traveling the world in search of rewarding work opportunities, new experiences, and outdoor adventures. The opportunity to run a backcountry skiing operation has been a dream of Ryan’s since his early days skiing and snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Ryan and Carey seek to build upon the strong foundation that Steve and Terri have built and take Peak Adventures to new level. They look forward to making turns with past clients and introducing new faces to the Peak Adventures backcountry experience.

Our Team

Ryan Stanley

Ryan’s guiding experience spans multiple continents with a backcountry resume that includes extensive ski touring, mountaineering, backpacking, and climbing in the Rockies, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Cascade Range, Alaska, South America, Africa, and Europe. Ryan has worked as an all-mountain qualified snowboard patroller at Eldora Mountain Resort in Colorado, taken outdoor instructor courses at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), is a certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT), has completed winter survival courses, outdoor education instruction courses, avalanche I & II, and seeks to pursue the International Mountain Guide Association (IMGA) guide certification. Ryan is an avid telemark skier and snowboarder, so if your group is all on skis, he will be too, and if you are all on boards, everyone will be riding.

In addition to his outdoor pursuits, Ryan has worked as a consultant for the Grameen Foundation and other companies doing project management in a number of African countries. In this role Ryan played an integral part in the establishment of Village Phone projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Tanzania. Ryan has also spent two years in the hospitality field, managing a small bed and breakfast in Costa Rica. In the off-season Ryan works as a business consultant. His other passions include triathlon, mountain biking, surfing, and kiteboarding.

Carey Stanley

Carey’s passion for skiing started when her parents first took her to Colorado and put her on skis at age four. After years of resort skiing, Carey has grown to love ski touring in the untracked backcountry and her new-found telemark turn. She is excited to share the backcountry experience with others at Peak Adventures.

Carey has a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and worked in the experiential education and outdoor recreation industry in the Midwest and Boundary Waters National Park. She has led skiing, snowshoeing, dogsledding, backpacking, and caving trips as well as facilitated ROPES courses.

Aside from skiing, Carey has a passion for cycling, mountain biking, international travel, and yoga. Her passion for travel was reinforced by two and half years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay. Learning about other cultures and creating tolerance has prompted her to pursue advanced studies in cultural anthropology. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado as well as a registered yoga instructor.

Carey is looking forward to this season at Peak Adventures—for sharing powder turns during the day and good food and laughs at night.

Steve & Terri Matthews

Steve and Terri Matthews started Peak Adventures in 1992 to share the freedom of the backcountry with friends. In the 1980’s and 90’s Steve was a professionally sponsored snowboarder who traveled around the globe doing first descents of various peaks. He was also involved in photo shoots at multiple heli skiing and snowcat operations, where he began developing his business plan. During that time he met Terri at a ski swap in 1988, and they started taking classes in Mountaineering, Outdoor Emergency Care and Avalanche Science. Together they climbed and snowboarded down several volcanoes of the Northwest, then went on to explore Canada’s interior B.C. Eventually, they went to Japan’s Hakuba Range, and ultimately made first descents in the Himalayas. It was over that time that they combined their classroom knowledge with the real experience of putting together an expedition, planning for all the logistics, and then adapting to the environment. All these expeditions were done safely and successfully, which provided a great foundation for their Snowcat Skiing operation, Peak Adventures.

Scott Lewis

Scott Lewis joined Peak Adventures in 2003 and also comes from a mountaineering background. His climbing and skiing skills have developed over years of traveling in the backcountry of his home state of Idaho along with numerous trips around the Inland Northwest. To expand his horizons he went to work and climb in Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, Austria and Scotland. Scott was formally the head of Search and Rescue for Silver Mountain Ski Patrol.