Guided Exposure

You wouldn’t know it from the humble shop on the side of Mt. Baker Highway in Glacier, but Guided Exposure is one of the newer kids on the block when it comes to serving mountain lovers in northwest Washington.

Owner and mountain guide Jere Burrell has lived and worked in the mountains for his entire adult life, and knew that the best way to get people out in the mountains is giving them the right guidance and expertise. Guided Essentials has no shortage of either.

Burrell said what sets Guided Essentials apart is its team of guides and their deep knowledge of Mt. Baker’s terrain. These aren’t just your run-of-the-mill outdoor enthusiasts – they’re seasoned professionals, certified by organizations like the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA), and with years of experience in alpine climbing, backcountry skiing and more.

Burrell said his team is not just about technical expertise – they’re also educators at heart who truly know the North Cascades. Whether you’re learning how to climb your first rock wall or getting tips on navigating a glacier, these guides are genuinely invested in making sure you learn something new along the way.

“Where we start to take our own unique character is that we specialize in Mt. Baker,” Burrell said. “The terrain knowledge that we have for the area is unsurpassed. Our expertise is Mt. Baker.”

Burrell grew up in northeast Ohio, admittedly a very non-alpine part of the country. After moving to Summit County, Colorado (home to the famed Breckenridge Ski Resort), Burrell cut his teeth mountaineering, skiing, snowboarding, climbing and doing any other outdoor recreation he could find (he’s also a class five whitewater rafting guide and raced on competitive whitewater rafting teams).

Visiting Mt. Baker for the first time in 2007, Burrell said he couldn’t believe the quality of the mountains when he first arrived.

“I knew what Tahoe was like, I knew what Salt Lake City was like, I saw Jackson Hole,” Burrell said. “When I pulled up to the White Salmon parking lot and saw Mt. Shuksan, it blew my mind. When I was in Colorado I was always looking around for the best snow. As soon as I moved here, I didn’t need to look anywhere else.”

By the time Burrell permanently moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2013, he knew this was the right place to continue his career in guiding.

“When I came to Glacier, that decision was driven by Mt. Baker and the snow and the mountains,” Burrell said.

There aren’t many better places to start mountain guiding than the North Cascades.

During the pandemic, Burrell put his head down and came up with the business plan and various certifications to start Guided Exposure, began running his first guides in 2021, and moved into the Glacier office in 2022.

Just a couple of years later, Guided Exposure has a team of accomplished and experienced guides offering splitboarding, ski touring, AIARE-certified avalanche courses, rock climbing and mountaineering courses and trips.

“What sets the guides I look for apart is a dedication and authenticity to our zone,” Burrell said. “That dedication and that authenticity I think is super important. Dedication is common in mountain guiding, but authenticity is not so easy to come by.”

Not only does Guided Exposure run all kinds of trips around our local American Alps, but they are also offering ski tours in Alaska, Japan, Chile, Norway and Greenland for 2025.

For more information, visit GuidedExposure.com, call 360/389-2430, or visit the office at 9950 Mt. Baker Highway in Glacier. Though, Burrell warns, the guides are often out in the mountains – not stuck in the office.   X