Profile of Friðjón Þorleifsson, Mountain Program Instructor at Keilir Adventure Studies.

Friðjón teaches our mountaineering, glacier skills, and rock climbing courses. Born and raised on the East coast of Iceland, Friðjón started guiding at the age of 23 in his home country. Currently he lives and works in Canada and has attained Full ski guide and assistant alpine guide status with the ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides), which is one of the 20 countries that are members of the UIAGM. His goal is to obtain full UIAGM status.

Friðjón has guided 6 expeditions in Greenland (including two 29 day expeditions), climbed two routes on Denali in Alaska, guided in the Mont Blanc Massive in addition to being active in many other countries. His winters are spent ski guiding in Canada and springs in Iceland and Greenland to chase the snow. Besides skiing, Friðjón climbs in the 5.12A s on rock, WI6 on ice and generally goes to M8 9 s on the mixed scale. Friðjón has taught mountaineering and ski guides courses in Iceland and Canada for the last 10 years.

With a background in Para Rescuing, Friðjón has done the occasional instructing for military forces and has received commendations from the U.S. Marines for exceptional performance of duty in the field.