The heart of the Arizona Climbing and Adventure School (ACAS) resides with its instructional staff. Every course bears the mark of its instructor's leadership and vision. ACAS instructors are dedicated educators, caring and skilled in a number of disciplines. Whether leading a technical ascent or explaining the nuances of desert ecology, these men and women form the backbone for every course.

Instructors are selected for their maturity, judgment, teaching experience and outdoor skills. A genuine interest in people and love for teaching are as important as an extensive climbing resume. Our select instructors are either EMT or Wilderness First Responder certified. Many have worked at other outdoor educational organizations such as the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) or Outward Bound. Their years of climbing and teaching have made them unequalled in safety and experience. Climbing and wilderness adventures are more than our business, it's our way of life!

To learn more about our staff click here.


Director,
Mark Brontsema
Assistant Director & Workshop Instructor,
Michelle Monette
Lead & Multi-Pitch Climbing Instructor,
Mark Bratlie
Lead & Multi-Pitch Climbing Instructor,
Jayci Ferrimani
Lead Climbing Instructor and Adventure Guide
Chris Anderson
Hiking Guide & Instructor,
Beth Suffolk
Climbing & Adventure Instructor,
Sara Mitchell
Assistant Program and Climbing Director Instructor,
Megan Evans
We at the Arizona Climbing and Adventure School (ACAS), want personally to tell you how pleased we are that you are considering joining us for a course. If you do come, you will look back on your ACAS course as one of the great adventures and learning experiences of your life.

Along with adventure will come challenges.
Indeed, the very purpose of ACAS is to help you find untapped resources within you; to let you discover that you have the ability to do more than you thought you could.

The number one concern our students have before coming is "not being able to meet the physical challenges of the course." We address that concern by encouraging a noncompetitive and nonevaluative learning environment. You set your own goals for the course. And you are the sole judge of your success. Upon completing the course, better that 95% of our students felt they benefited greatly from the experience.

Our Course's Focus On:

...• Transcending self-imposed limitations
...• Self-knowledge
...• Tenacity
...• Teamwork and responsibility
...• Promote skill mastery
...• Leadership skills
...• Self-reliance

Each course has a set curriculum; depending on which course you enrolled in, expect to camp, hike, make challenging decisions, rock climb and rappel off vertical faces; but don't expect your course to happen in any routine way or on any particular schedule. The itinerary, the route, the staff and the weather will all work together to make your course unique and challenging.

Our courses are a blend of theory and practice. We utilize a variety of time tested teaching principles from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Outward Bound Wilderness School, Project Adventure (PA) and Paul Stoltz's Adversity Quotient. It is through this blend that adventure learning begins to take form and meaning - there is a reason for activity; there are connections between the adventure and our personal lives. Helping you make these connections is our greatest challenge.

Each course offers you the opportunity to risk, to trust, to try and to learn. Our courses and workshops are designed to allow you to learn by doing. You will be asked to be an active participant, to experience adventure based programming firsthand. You will find that our courses can leave a lasting impression on you.

Expect your course to be dramatic, exciting, educational and fun, but be prepared for it to be even more. Your ACAS experience is still ahead of you. The itinerary has yet to be finalized; you and the uncontrollable forces of nature are about to write the story.



Be ready for anything. Get personally invested. Get excited. Get ready for one of the truly great outdoor experiences of your life!

We hope you look forward to being with us as much as we look forward to having you!


Sincerely,

Mark Brontsema, director
Michelle Monette, assistant director
Sandi Bellis, office manager
Mark Bratlie, climbing instructor
Dave Miller, assistant climbing director
Jayson Ohman, climbing site manager, instructor
Jim Sanders, production manager
Jayci Ferrimani, climbing instructor
David Brontsema, business development
Monique Rene - climbing instructor
Megan Evans, climbing/adventure instructor
Sara Mitchell, climbing/adventure instructor
Elizabeth Suffolk, hiking guide
Jordan Morrison, climbing instructor
Chris Grundell, climbing instructor
 ..................and the rest of our great staff!

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"Triumph and disaster are equal imposters" – R. Kipling

Director, Mark Brontsema's colorful 32-years in the climbing and adventure-based profession started with Exum Mountain Guides in Moose, Wyoming in 1977 and Team Leader for the Grand Teton National Park's Search and Rescue (SAR). In 1981, Mark enrolled in the National Outdoor Leadership School and soon after became a mountaineering instructor. Mark pursued climbing as an instructor in Yosemite, Joshua Tree, North Cascades and Alaska. In 1993, he had the opportunity to be with the Colorado Outward Bound School in Leadville, Colorado.


"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." – T. E. Lawrence


 Mark has had the opportunity to climb, sea kayak and backpack in some of the most remote areas of the Western Hemisphere. Mark has participated on international expeditions – from cold Alaskan mountains and oceans to the vertical pinnacles of Yosemite and Tierra Del Fuego. He has also been the director of Youth Wilderness Challenges, a community education and substance abuse prevention program of the Cave Creek School District and a Sierra Club outing leader.

While mountaineering, Mark has endured and survived some of the harshest weather conditions the planet has to offer. Over the years, he has had a number of successful ascents, as well as his share of injuries, losses and major failures.

In 1987 Mark was swept off a vertical rock face by a snow and rock avalanche on a remote mountain in Tierra Del Fuego and suffered 14 fractures to his right leg. One of his team members perished in the avalanche. Mark spent three days alone on the mountain with severe injuries enduring high winds and freezing temperatures before being rescued. After two years of physical therapy, he returned to rock climbing and continues to provide students with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed at the sport. Mark's endurance, patience, humor and experience is seconded only by his ability to teach and lead.

Mark holds certification in Team and Trust Building, Wilderness Therapy, Rock Climbing, Sea-Kayaking, Mountaineering, Outdoor Leadership and Wilderness First Aid/Responder from the Colorado Outward Bound School, the National Outdoor Leadership School and is a member of the American Safe Climbing Association (ASCA), Arizona Mountain Group Association, American Canyoneering Association, American Alpine Club member, ACCESS FUND and Leave No Trace (LNT) Partner.
- by Michelle Monette

Mark has written climbing and gear review articles for The New York Times and has been an ANA (Arizona Newspapers Association) award winning columnist for three years. His column, 'On the Edge' is about his many outdoor adventures which can be read by clicking here.
Climbing Site Manager
and Instructor,
Jayson Ohman
Climbing Instructor,
Hallie Mueller
Assistant Climbing
Director & Instructor,
Dave Miller



You probably aren't sure whether you want to take up climbing.
Your mind says no, but in your heart you want to learn to climb. You go out to pick yourself up a sleeping bag or tent, then find yourself admiring the bright patterns woven into the coils of rope that hang on the walls behind the counter. The shiny collection of cams and stoppers, harnesses with lots of straps and buckles, and those strange looking climbing shoes – you're intrigued! In the mountains the sight of high peaks and clouds all washed in heavenly light and shadow, leaves you wondering what it would be like to look down from their summits.

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You know climbing could be exciting, but on the other hand you don't want to get killed doing it!


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Climbing is thick with mystique, and no other sport may be more misconstrued by those outside of it. It is a favored subject for "B" movies and spurious metaphors.

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A dream about scaling tall rock faces is something a psychiatrist can really sink his teeth into. Climbing is filled with legends of boldness and disaster that make other sports out to be inconsequential games; as an idea, it strikes that chord in the imagination most often associated with sharks, grizzly bears and killer bees. A terror of falling from high places is one of the most deeply rooted human fears. So now what? Call the Arizona Climbing and Adventure School, the leader in personalized and comprehensive rock climbing and adventure-based instruction in the Southwest!

Quote:
"But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails."    
— William Arthur Ward.

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