History of Outdoor Link

Outdoor Link was founded by me, Todd Vogel, in 2006. The name is new but I have been professionally active in outdoor education since the mid 1980s. Like many guides and outdoor leaders, my start was working for a university outdoor recreation program. In my case it was for the University of California, Santa Cruz program where I led crosscountry ski trips, easy mountaineering trips, and instructed rock climbing. At the time I was also working at Western Mountaineering (now Bugaboo Sports) and teaching climbing for them.

In 1988 I moved to Bishop with my future wife Chris. The goal was to somehow make a career out of guiding and outdoor education. I was able to cobble together a living anyway but as many residents of the Owens Valley can attest, scraping it together here can be tough. I have, however, been a guide and outdoor instructor full time since moving to the area.

I became certified by the American Mountain Guide's Association (AMGA) at the highest rock guide level in 1997 and as an alpine guide in 2001. I've been ski mountaineering guiding for 23 years but have not yet taken the ski exam.

In 1991 I was asked to begin the rock climbing program for outdoor education provider, Naturalists at Large, out of Ventura, CA. Their program is still active. I was chief guide for Sierra Wilderness Seminars, inc from 1990 to 1993 when I left to found my own guide service which at the time was called A Taste For Adventure. That morphed again in 1998 when business partner SP Parker and I merged our businesses to found Sierra Mountain Center, LLC ("SMC"). SMC is still going great guns and is one of the few guide services in the eastern Sierra that is accredited by the AMGA.

Along the way I became involved with an organizational development firm from the San Francisco Bay Area - Catalyst Consulting - and since 1989 have worked many outdoor and wilderness-based program with them. These included a number of years setting up and helping to run programs for several high-tech companies like Sun Microsystems and Mentor Graphics. Program sites were scattered around the globe and included sites in Europe, New Zealand, and the American Southwest. Somewhere around 1993 or so Catalyst started working with the American Leadership Forum, an interesting non-profit organization that brings community leaders together to work on community issues. The ALF program has a year-long "class" where participants meet roughly once a month. Early on in this year the group participates in the "Wilderness Experience", a week-long program in the outback. I've been privileged to have worked every one of the ALF-Mountain Valley Wilderness Programs, ten in all, and every one of the last twelve of ALF-Silicon Valley's Wilderness Programs.

In 1998 I was one of the first providers of the AMGA Top Rope Site Manager's Course, a program for aspiring rock climbing instructors. I am now one of the handful of guides who steer curriculumn developement for the program. I have taught slightly more than sixty TRSM courses. The AMGA has changed the TRSM program into the Single Pitch Instructor Course (SPI). To keep offering the Top Rope Course a number of people got together and formed the Professional Climbing Instructors Association. I am one of the founders of that and currently serve as the board president. Much more can be learned at the PCIA website.

In 2006 I decided to separate most of my institutional work from Sierra Mountain Center and Outdoor Link was born!

I am also involved in public lands management issues. I work part time as the Wilderness Stewardship Coordinator at Friends Of the Inyo. There my job is much like outdoor education - I work with the agencies (like the Forest Service) to create projects for volunteers then I match these programs with volunteers then I go help work the project. A typical project is 1/3 service work like clearing trails, 1/3 exploring public land and 1/3 outdoor education. Much more info on this aspect of my work can be at at the FOI site.