Monte Montepare and I grew up together in Summit County, Colorado. During our conversation, we catch up on the current state of what it means to be a comedian and adventure guide during the COVID Pandemic.

Monte owns Kennicott Wilderness Guides in Kennicott Alaska, and for the past 4-5 years, he has been pursuing comedy and telling stories in Los Angeles.

Kennicott Wilderness Guides is at the end of a 60-mile dirt road and offers trips into Wrangell- St. Elias National Park including; glacier hiking, ice climbing, pack rafting, and bush plane backpacking expeditions.

Monte recently joined the Upright Citizen Brigade on a weekly show called Harold night. He talks about this being one of the big goals he had when moving to LA and diving into the entertainment scene.

Monte talks about how COVID - 19 has affected his life, all of the ways he has of making money involve large gatherings of people or travel. Monte's momentum in his comedy pursuits came to a screeching halt and he is currently navigating the next phases of how he is going to operate. He is working on a creative way to engage through improv zoom, but discovering that its difficult for him and he is being pushed to develop other skills that are not his strong suit.

We talk about Alaska and his guide business and the logistics that Monte has to navigate to figure out what the summer season will look like for his business. What does guiding in the COVID world look like? Monte keeps coming up short and realizing we still need more information before making any final decisions.

Monte explains an authentic way of thinking about choices - Sometimes there isn't a good choice, sometimes the choices are all hard but you have to get somewhere.

We hear about some of the local adventures he has been taking. Monte's been hanging out in the San Gabriel Mountains and finding new routes to the top of some of the peaks. Recreating close to home reminds Monte that you can still have big dreams about smaller places and be rewarded.

We nerd out for a minute about pack rafting and fantasize about a desert river trip towards the end of the summer.

Monte gives a great answer and deeply process' what it means to him to #BeAuthentic.

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Resources:

@MonteMontepare
Kennicott Wilderness Guides - https://kennicottguides.com/​
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