Rustyn Mesdag

Rustyn Mesdag was born in Seattle, Washington where grew up in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. At a young age he quickly discovered his love for snow and ice which led to climbing and then traveling abroad. After working as an alpine guide in the United States, in 2004 he relocated to Chilean Patagonia where he started a guide service outside of Torres del Paine National Park.

For 25 years he has been leading climbers, travelers and trekkers through the most extreme terrains of around the world. Aside from the guide service, he moonlighted as a travel writer and for many years he published an English-speaking traveler's newspaper in Patagonia. Guiding and travel writing led to his first trip to Antarctica - writing about his experiences there.

Always looking for the next adventure, Rustyn now finds himself working around the world, in such places as Antarctica, Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, the Amazon and East Africa - helping others explore these incredible regions. When Rustyn is not traveling or working in the outdoors, his other passion is his living off-grid, the science of outdoor equipment, old cars and motorcycles, and his two grown sons. Rustyn speaks English, Dutch and Spanish and is more than happy to sit and spend time discussing world travels, alpine climbing and the in's and out's of cold weather equipment management.