SWS Mountain Guides - Mt Shasta, California

Michela Mickler

Such an amazing trip! It totally exceeded my expectations. The guides are incredible and they made me feel so safe. I had no prior mountaineering experience but the guides taught me what I needed to know. They are sticklers about making sure you have everything you need (skills and equipment) to succeed. I was able to summit Mt Shasta with their guidance and expertise. I would absolutely recommend SWS to my family and friends. This was so amazing!!

James Kelley

I had the opportunity to climb with SWS three times over the summer, attempting the summit from three different sides of the mountain, wow, SWS is top notch. It was evident from the onset that safety was priority number 1 - which I appreciate. The guides are knowledgeable and have extensive experience. I was climbing with three different groups of high schoolers and SWS gave us a great and valuable experience.

Martin Schuler

8/13-8/15 was an exceptional experience thanks to Patrick Tighe SWS guide, who was very knowledgeable and took the time to get to know me, I felt very safe at all times, and having a guide give you positive feedback,

I had fun even though we did not summit!, I felt like I did.

I would definitely climb again with Patrick Tighe and looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully 2025.

Out my 6 climbs on Mt Shasta this ranks up in my top 2 climbs.

Steve Hodges

SWS provided us with a custom 2 day Mount Shasta climb and ski descent. We were fortunate to have amazing conditions and an absolutely fantastic ski descent. Kory's knowledge and reading of conditions played no small part in this.
The approach to guiding by Kory and SWS was excellent being friendly, knowledgeable, adaptable / appropriate to the group and certainly not patronising.
Highly recommended.

Nick Mosher

Great group of guides, which offer a multitude of services from rock & ice climbing, to secure Mount Shasta summits. Well worth the money, as Shasta has many routes, which ALL require expert guidance ?

harini rajendran

I did a 3 days Mt.Whitney hike with SWS Mountain Guides. Our group's guide Matt and Kory were amazing and always kept our safety as the highest priority while making the whole experience a lot of fun and adventurous. Being a noob mountaineer who has 0 prior climbing experience, I had a blast in this trip. I highly recommend SWS Mountain Guides.

Dale Eikmeier

SWS is a flexible and customer focused company. When the Hotlum Glacier climb became a no go SWS guides, Caleb and Simran provided several custom options and worked with me and my son to satisfy out itch for an outdoor adventure. SWS never disappoints.

Camille Pating

I would give more stars if I could. Please save yourself time and energy, go straight to SWS. From the owners to the guides, they are gracious, professional, knowledgeable, and have been around locally in the City of Mt. Shasta nearly 20yrs. We did a Helen Lake overnight guided by Olivier, and a 3-day climb guided by Kory. I’m in my 60s, hadn’t climbed in years and needed lots of accommodations and customizing. Caleb, SWS co-owner, was very responsive and helpful. They made our trips fun and unforgettable. They cared about teaching us skills and we learned so much from them. They helped us have the best experience possible. Olivier even took items out of my pack when it got too heavy for me and kept us entertained with John Muir stories. I think what sets SWS apart is that the guides sincerely view themselves as teachers and stewards of the mountain but are not condescending at all. They aren’t just using the mountain; they want to help you to appreciate it and protect it. Ascending and descending, Kory was gently correcting ppl inadvertently dropping trash, kicking rocks, making bad decisions, asking for directions, etc. He was incredibly generous with his knowledge and made sure our experience was instructive and amazing. I recommend that anyone considering a guided climb do it with SWS.