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Our guiding team combines over fifty years of Colorado backcountry experience with decades of building successful companies.
Monument, CO
Summitwise began as a collaboration between a Kansas fitness trainer and a mountain guide who believed adventure could build community and purpose. What started as a five-day mountain challenge has grown into a Colorado retreat experience where leaders rediscover connection, humility, and growth.
Every summit starts somewhere — often with a simple idea, a single conversation, and the willingness to say yes.
In 2018, I joined MoveRightKC, a small boutique gym in Overland Park, Kansas. It wasn’t your average fitness studio — each member worked directly with a trainer and physical therapist to tailor workouts around specific goals. At the time, I was nursing a few nagging injuries, but my ambitions were still high. I wanted to move better, recover well, and climb stronger.
During my initial interview, I casually mentioned to the owner that I’d be ready to start training just as soon as I returned from a Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim hike that winter. For whatever reason, that stuck with him — maybe it was the look in my eyes when I said it.
A few months later, life called us to Monument, Colorado, and I had to end my membership. It was bittersweet. MoveRight was a special place — strong community, thoughtful programming, and a true partnership in fitness.
Then, that following spring, my phone rang. It was the owner of MoveRight. “Hey,” he said, “what if we partnered to create a five-day mountain adventure — something my clients could train for all year?”
He called me “that crazy mountain guy,” and I couldn’t argue. We started sketching out ideas. The plan took shape quickly — a rugged five-day experience in the Rockies. At the time, Kelli and I were running a small side business called Summitwise IT Consulting, helping small businesses with technology needs. (I’ll save the story behind that name — Summitwise — for another post.)
That summer, we guided our first group into the mountains of Colorado. Five guests came — three paying, two friends — and together we summited Huron and Elbert, then spent a full day rafting the Arkansas River. My father-in-law and I served as the guides, doing everything we could to make it memorable.
Looking back now, it feels like a lifetime ago. Today, Summitwise has evolved into something far greater — professionally hired guides, videographers, chef-prepared meals, and turnkey shuttles from DIA. The same heartbeat remains, but the experience has grown deeper, more intentional, and more refined.
That first trip was a beginning. The kind of beginning that only makes sense in hindsight.
Because every summit starts somewhere — often with a simple idea, a single conversation, and the willingness to say yes.
That’s how Summitwise began.
That’s adventure redefined.
Our guiding team combines over fifty years of Colorado backcountry experience with decades of building successful companies.