Naturalists | 07.02.24
Isaac Laredo
Nocs Naturalist
Introduce yourself
My name is Isaac Laredo I live in Verdi Nevada I work locally and internationally as a mountain guide. I’m building a life with an incredible partner and beautiful golden retriever in the Sierra Nevada. We Love to snowboard, paddleboard, rock climb, hike, backpack, and do anything that gets us outside!
Tell us more about your guiding work and splitboarding?
I work for an incredible local outfit called Alpenglow Expeditions. They
do everything from snowshoe tours to guiding Mount Everest. I am an AMGA
certified Splitboard guide, apprentice rock and alpine guide. Fortunate to
work here in the sierra, Nevada around Lake Tahoe or the eastern Sierra
also travel internationally to guide places like altitude, mountaineering
and ski, mountaineering in Bolivia and Ecuador in addition to ski guiding
in Japan.
It was really natural path for me to pursue guiding that I looked back on
my college career I was guiding my friends through the mountains. And
taking my friends on adventures that they had the fitness and movement
ability to accomplish but maybe not the technical scale or mountains,
sense. Sharing these special activities with my friends help highlight our
adventure relates to human environmental connection in my guiding . My
goal is to be able to facilitate mountain experiences that allow people to
show up for those special moments that happen and allow us to connect
deeper with the environment culture people to promote lasting change in
their lives and communities.
What kind of feelings and emotions come up when you’re on the mountain, whether that’s guiding or solo.
Being outside the opportunity to be authentic, vulnerable and connected the relaxed feeling that comes from being beautiful place observing simple moments like a above you on a rock climb, the feeling of excitement and nerves stand on top of the steep powder, line in Alaska, or the feeling of connection and stoke when you share these experiences with others. The fun about outdoor adventures is that there are so many different emotions. There are moments of uncertainty and challenge when you’re able to persevere through those you’re greeted with tranquility, euphoria, excitement, confidence, so many different things that encompass the power of the outdoors.
How are you spending your time outside of work lately? What are some thoughts and ideas that have been occupying your mind?
Time outside of work has mostly been spent enjoying time outside or working on our house. I’ve been really excited about standup paddle boarding rivers lately. It’s been fun to try and buy parallels between other board sports. In addition to doing the groundwork toward getting a small, guiding company up and running, it’s focused on small custom curated adventures.
We’re stoked that Nocs are in your toolkit. In what situations do you find yourself grabbing your Nocs? How are they helping your craft?
I enjoy using Nocs for things like looking at birds along the river, or roadside uses before an adventure, to maybe be able to scout out the start of a route, serve any recent avalanches in greater detail, or get a closer look at the snow surface.
From the looks of it, you are constantly on an adventure or in nature. Can you tell us the most sublime moment you’ve experienced in the great outdoors?
I am really fortunate to spend a lot of time outside. A lot of really special moments come to mind it’s challenging to just pick one. The one that comes to mind captures that theme. Great company, beautiful environment noticing the little things that are occurring me and my friend Tristin who’s been a long time Climbing partner of mine since college Climbing Baptist to Meadows, which is a beautiful mile and a half knife edge Ridge rock scramble. The very first time we did this route we had a rather long day. Our second time around, we came back with much more experience and skill and decided to tack on two more peaks: Tenya and Catherdral peak. I remember looking back at Tristin solo scramble along the ridge top with the sun high in the sky indicating plenty of time and Tenya in our rearview mirror. You’re feeling excited, proud and confident as we continue to move smoothly through the terrain. As we look to our final objective Cathedral peak Saw red tailed hawks soaring around above us. This was a cool memory because it highlighted the progress we made in the mountains.
If you could describe yourself as any creature or animal, what would it be?
Probably a golden retriever
Anything on your calendar that you’re looking forward to? We’d love to stay in touch! Where can we find you these upcoming months?
In the Beginning of June I’m heading to Ecuador to guide some of their iconic, high altitude volcanoes. And then lots of adventures, California, Eastern, Sierra, and making sure I spend plenty of time playing fetch in the river with the family. You can always follow along on my Instagram handle @ilaredo
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Nocs Naturalist?