About - Cascade Mountain Ascents
About Us
Our Mission
Cascade Mountain Ascents is a trade name of Bellingham Mountain Guides, LLC, a worker-owned mountain guiding cooperative. Our mission is to provide high-quality, customizable trips and industry-leading education in the North Cascades and beyond.
We seek to cultivate a caring community of guides, guests, students, and partners who share a love of mountains and are dedicated to being stewards of these landscapes.
Meet the Team
The Cooperative Difference
Cascade Mountain Ascents is a values-driven, worker-owned mountain guiding cooperative based in Bellingham, WA. At our core, we’re friends who love the mountains and want to make a sustainable career of sharing them with others.
As a cooperative, we are a democratic workplace where decisions, responsibilities, and profits are shared equitably among members. Worker ownership makes for resilient and competitive companies that center worker, community, and customer benefit.
Our strength is in our members. Many of the lessons we’ve learned in the mountains—collaboration, being adaptable, and managing uncertainty—are foundational to how we operate. We know that businesses and communities thrive when each member’s voice, skills, and talents are respected and supported, so we implement a business structure that does just that. This means that we prioritize high-quality training, building institutional knowledge through worker retention, and professional development opportunities for our members, so that we can provide stellar mountain experiences for you.
You can read more about what it means to be a Cooperative and how CMA’s business structure is different from other guide services HERE.
Mike Elges
Mike grew up in a small Colorado town at 9500ft surrounded by mountains. At 18, a passion for snowboarding and desire to stay away from a “real job” landed him at Colorado Mountain College pursuing a degree in Outdoor Recreation Leadership. During this time, he discovered climbing and joined a community of people pursuing mountain craft as a profession and way of life.
Learn More
Zack McGill
Zack grew up in Durango, CO and began venturing into the mountains of the North and South San Juans at an early age. He studied Elementary Education and Communication at the University of Colorado in Boulder and worked for the Colorado Outward Bound School for 7 years – leading long expeditions (15-52 days) throughout the Southwest and Alaska.
Learn More
Alyssa Young
Alyssa grew up in Northern California and now calls the North Cascades her home. She is a dedicated backcountry skier and has worked throughout the West as an avalanche educator, outdoor educator, and naturalist. As the Operations Manager at CMA, she works closely with guides and guests to support stellar experiences in the mountains.
Learn More
Phil Straub
Hailing from New England, Phil spent the last 16 years pursuing life, research, and work in the mountains. He’s lived in Montana, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, California, Argentina and now Washington learning about these mountain ranges through backcountry travel, mountain guiding, and scientific research.