Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeffrey Mascaro. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jeffrey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Smile Mountian Guides is built on a vision of trust and caring for the team, and respect for climbing in the mountains.

On the beautiful volcanic peaks of the Ecuadorean mountains and jagged cliffs of the Peruvian Andes, Jeff Mascaro, founder of Smile Mountain Guides, found both love and appreciation for the mountains- in the mountains. Those trips taught him many lessons about what perseverance means in pursuit of “success” and how passion fuels those lofty goals.

Dizzying altitudes, numbing cold, suffering. “The mountains teach us lessons about ourselves”, Jeff says, and they pose real risks and hardships along the way. In these environments, finding a balance of practice, failure, reflection, and growth leads us deeper into ourselves. It’s what many alpinists seek- yet struggle to verbalize…

Emotion and risk wrap into the adventure- training for months, sometimes years, fighting sickness on the mountain, and not letting yourself down. This line starts to blur, to know- “When is enough?”

“Several journeys to South America, a home away from home, have brought teams and me to this point, but it’s important to note and builds on the reasons I am here now with Smile.”, says Jeff. Fighting altitude sickness on Alpaymayo, theft on Cotopaxi, a stomach bacteria in the Quilcayhuanca. Setbacks, maybe- but with the right partners, whose collective mission is seen as greater than themselves, these were more an opportunity to find a sense of partnership and ways to support the other.

“We do not choose to play with opponents that are lesser than us, we choose ones that are greater”. A good team helps one find strength in hard times and hard times are bound to arise.”

Summits are always a great success, and noteworthy, but here’s the underlying life lesson. “ Don’t hit the peak and miss the point”, or another way to put this, the journey is the reward.

“These early trips into the greater ranges of the world sparked a trajectory of travel and mountain adventure that would soon define much of my goals, career, and dreams”, Jeff says.

Looking back, many years before these trips to South America, I seemed to stumble upon a sense of adventure in a dusty, nondescript warehouse that would soon be home for the next ten years. Earth Treks Climbing Centers would be my start in the outdoor world. A home of mentors, a place for friends and family, and an avenue for adventure. “Earth Treks, in my early climbing days, was for me, the perfect moment of time and place. I am fortunate to have many beautiful friendships from this era and many memories of personal and professional growth ”.

Later into his guiding career, as Jeff stepped away from the Earth Treks gyms, he still yearned for the sense of community those places offered. A third space for the outdoor community to thrive. A space to grow, be inspired, and a way to share those fundamental mountain experiences he’d had.

To make that idea a reality, Jeff needed to build a space that had room for growth & creativity and still shared a passion for the mountains.

“Lessons from the Andes would come to serve me as Smile was getting started. Perseverance, when times were tough, only surviving on little more than the daily needs of the business. I failed often, practice more, learned from my mistakes, and kept pressing forward.”

“We were passionate and still are, energized and motivated by our Mission to inspire growth and exploration in the mountains”. Smile’ puts this founding view first in all that we do with both traditional guiding and our other more creative pursuits like working with ShayrdAir and Movement.

Building a large-scale community climbing aggregator that connects silos in our industry together through inspiring events and high-end instruction. We try to think differently. Our team is consistently working with high levels of collaboration and innovation allowing for these industry-expanding ideas.

As we grow Smile Mountain Guides, we still aim to find the sweet spot of challenge in the mountains where each guest can experience the true spirit of climbing: Passion, Creativity, Perseverance, and Partnership.

Jeffrey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Sure, my name is Jeffrey Mascaro and I’m the founder and director of a local rock climbing guide service, Smile Mountain Guides, based in the Colorado front range.

My personal mission is to inspire growth and exploration in the mountains through the lens of teaching, using the outdoors as a classroom. By circumstance, luck, and perseverance I am here with Smile, offering mountain experiences and instruction for those seeking growth.

Luck, that I was placed in a community and a job where quickly I was building and leading high-performance teams in an industry-leading climbing gym on the East Coast working with universities, business teams, and climbers…

Circumstance, by committing to extensive travels to find growth and new perspectives in the mountains. From the jagged peaks of the North Cascades, and the Cordillera Blanca in Peru, to sea cliff climbing in Spain, Sulfur infused summits on volcanoes in Ecuador and perfect granite in New England.

Perseverance, in splitting from the norms and building a company while continuing rigorous guiding education through the American Mountain Guides Association.

It seems that these experiences coupled with my continued passion for the climbing world place me in a unique position to educate, inspire, and motivate others on their adventure.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Having trust and caring for the team is vital for having people buy into the mission of the company and what it’s trying to achieve.

It sounds like a simple concept but it completely changes the way a business approaches its day-to-day. You have to put people first and more specifically the team first. Most of the time it means investment in the team, which means money out, but that is what it takes to keep people around.

It means meeting the psychological needs of the team and understanding what those are. I’ve found that team members’ needs vary but there are six constants.

Offer more autonomy, which allows for more personal growth. Give the team meaning, which lets them know they belong. Respect the team, which shows them you recognize them and their work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smilemountainguides.com
• Instagram: @smilemountainguides
• Facebook: Smile Mountain Guides
• Youtube: Smile Mountain Guides

Image Credits
Kady Dulney