Field Guide
Current Openings
Our next field guide training will take place mid-January. We will begin accepting and reviewing applications November 1, 2010.
Overview
Open Sky field guides are the heart and soul of the Open Sky team, spending more time with the students than any other member of our team. Field guides are highly trained and well-educated professionals that serve as inspiring role models for our students.
At Open Sky (as of Dec. 2008), field guides are uniquely qualified professionals:
- Average age of 30 years
- Greater than a 4:1 ratio of applicants to new hires
- More than 50% of our guides have worked in another wilderness program
- More than 90% have worked with adolescents or young adults prior to joining Open Sky
- More than 85% of our guides have college degrees
- Average Open Sky senior field guide has worked more than 200 field days in wilderness therapy
- Each team has either one EMT or WFR (Wilderness First Responder) certified guide
Initial Guide Training
Open Sky’s primary mission is to maintain each student’s safety at all times. Field guides are selected and trained with this as the highest consideration. New field guides attend a 12-day training at the start of their employment including eight field days.
Training topics include:
- Wilderness safety
- Run-away prevention
- Self-harm prevention
- De-escalation
- Emotional safety
- First Aid and CPR
- Medication administration
- Weather-related challenges
- Communication systems
- Medical emergency
Ongoing Guide Training
After the initial training, a field guide will receive ongoing training each week for the duration of their employment in such areas as risk management, therapeutic skills, psychological diagnosis and treatment, emergency response, and first aid.
Field Guide Minimum Requirements
Our field guides are required to be at least 21 years old, have a current WFR (wilderness first responder) and CPR certificate, pass an annual physical examination, have a high school diploma or equivalent, pass pre-employment and random drug screen tests, and clear Federal & State Criminal Background checks.
Field Guide Applicant Profile
Field Guide employment at Open Sky tends to be competitive. We are looking for guides who have a variety of skills and life experiences. If you love to teach, explore the wilderness with teens and young adults, and are patient and willing to work hard and to grow, this might be a great job for you. We have hired guides who are in recovery from addiction, have worked as classroom teachers, Peace Corps volunteers, Outward Bound and National Outdoor Leadership School instructors, yoga teachers, mediation practitioners or have been guides at other wilderness therapy programs.
Applying to Work as a Field Guide
Please email a copy of your resume, three letters of reference, and a cover letter to employment@openskywilderness.com.
Field Guide Work Schedule
As a guide, you will work eight days on and then have six days off. Full-time guides typically work about 160 field days in a year’s time, enjoying several shifts off which allows for an abundance of time to travel and explore the surrounding vicinity, reconnect with family and friends or go to more exotic locales throughout the world.
Field Guide Pay & Benefits (for full-time employees only)
- Competitive daily wages ranging between $115 to $205 a day
- Exceptional paid time off (averages 17 days paid time off per guide per year)
- Health Insurance
- Professional development funding (for WFR/CPR re-certifications, Yoga teacher trainings, etc)
- Pro-deals with multiple outdoor gear and apparel companies
- Twice annual bulk food purchasing with natural food providers
Typical Field Week
Open Sky Expedition
Each week our students spend five to six days out on expedition, exploring the canyon country of Utah or the high mountains of Colorado by backpack. While on expedition, the group wakes up to yoga and meditation, then has breakfast and packs up camp. The day is spent hiking, at times exploring ruins and petroglyphs, having therapeutic groups, and constructively dealing with what arises among the students and taking advantage of teachable moments. When the group arrives at evening camp, students prepare dinner with the coaching of staff, and maybe have another process group while sitting around a fire. All the fires are made with a bow drill set.
Typical Expedition Day
- 8:00am Wake up
- 8:15 Hygiene
- 8:30 Yoga & meditation
- 9:30 Breakfast
- 10:00 Camp chores and pack up
- 11:00 Start hiking
- 12:00pm Short break
- 12:30 One on one session with field guide mentor
- 1:30 Lunch
- 2:30 Resume hiking
- 4:00 Letter writing, therapy assignments
- 5:00 Set up camp & camp chores
- 6:00 Process group
- 7:30 Dinner
- 9:00 Community time (games, music, fun)
- 10:00 Bedtime
Open Sky Base Camp
The Open Sky base camp is a simple living environment with platform wall tents and teepees and no electricity or running water. Field guides spend about two to three days at our base camp each week with variation depending on the season and the week’s itinerary. While at base camp, students meet with their therapists, do group chores, write letters, participate in wellness education, work on personal assignments, take backcountry showers, do laundry, and occasionally participate in community projects such as trail maintenance, site clean-up or seasonal preparations. We also have a sweat lodge at our base-camp, and students and guides participate in sweats about once a month on average.
Typical Base Camp Day
- 8:00am Wake up
- 8:15 Personal hygiene
- 8:30 Yoga & meditation
- 9:30 Breakfast
- 10:00 Camp chores and showers
- 11:00 Letter writing, therapy assignments
- 12:30pm One on one time with field guide mentor
- 1:30 Lunch
- 2:30 Personal therapy session
- 4:00 Group therapy session
- 5:00 Camp chores and personal time
- 7:00 Dinner
- 9:00 Community time (games, music, fun)
- 10:00 Bedtime
Living in Durango and Surrounding Vicinity
Our field guides arrange their own room and board around the Four Corners area when they are not working in the field. Many field guides live in Durango, CO, where there is excellent climbing, world-renown mountain biking and boating, snow skiing, as well as live music and good restaurants, natural food stores and naturopathic health spas. Durango is also home to Fort Lewis College, a small, state liberal arts college with approximately 4,000 students.
For those looking for a quieter location, there is an abundance of small towns in close proximity to Durango and our field operating area. Small towns in the vicinity of Durango where guides have resided include: Pagosa Springs, CO; Aztec, NM; Bayfield, CO; Mancos, CO; Dolores, CO; Cortez, CO; and Monticello, UT. Some field guides have lived as far away as Moab, UT.
