About Mountain Geist

MountainGeist owner and founder, Steve Shields, is a long-time local resident of Murphys, CA with an immense and contagious passion for the outdoors.  Steve has over twenty-five years of experience in leading outdoors activities and instructing outdoor skills to first responders such as search and rescue, law enforcement and ski patrol.  Specialty areas of his instruction include mountain travel, wilderness first aid, avalanche safety, mountain rescue, rope access, orienteering, snow camping, survival and more. Steve is an active member of the search and rescue (SAR) community and has spent 20-years as a senior ski patroller.  Steve is also a passionate outdoor enthusiast with a long resume of climbing Yosemite big walls, technical rock climbing, alpine mountaineering and trans-Sierra ski tours under his belt.

Steve is passionate about personal growth through the challenge of outdoor endeavors. All MountainGeist activities attempt to provide our Adventurers with a degree of personal growth and learning through the spirit of the mountains!