SCOTT GEHRMAN

Executive Director/Founder

Scott is the Founder and Executive Director for Lasting Adventures, Inc and has been facilitating the Yosemite High Country Adventure since 1997 in which he has personally logged over 5,000 miles as a guide in the Yosemite backcountry. As both a credentialed school administrator and counselor, Scott has well over 25 years of experience working with youth. Scott attended Sonoma State University in California where he obtained both his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Counseling. Scott holds certification in Basic Backpacking Awareness, is certified as a Wilderness First Responder by the Wilderness Medicine Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School, and he is trained as an Outdoor Emergency Care professional. In addition to actively leading and guiding the Yosemite High Country Adventure and through community collaborations and support, Scott has also successfully developed many other youth development programs; and he is also a requested presenter on these topics. When not in Yosemite, you might be able to catch Scott on the slopes snowboarding in Tahoe.

SCOTT GEHRMAN

Executive Director/Founder

Scott is the Founder and Executive Director for Lasting Adventures, Inc and has been facilitating the Yosemite High Country Adventure since 1997 in which he has personally logged over 5,000 miles as a guide in the Yosemite backcountry. As both a credentialed school administrator and counselor, Scott has well over 25 years of experience working with youth. Scott attended Sonoma State University in California where he obtained both his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Counseling. Scott holds certification in Basic Backpacking Awareness, is certified as a Wilderness First Responder by the Wilderness Medicine Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School, and he is trained as an Outdoor Emergency Care professional. In addition to actively leading and guiding the Yosemite High Country Adventure and through community collaborations and support, Scott has also successfully developed many other youth development programs; and he is also a requested presenter on these topics. When not in Yosemite, you might be able to catch Scott on the slopes snowboarding in Tahoe.

WILLIAM HEAPS

Operations Director

Will started his outdoor education in Appalachia, found his passion for adventure in the Rockies, and found his home in the Sierra Nevada. Thanks to parents that booked campsites instead of hotel rooms to save on travel expenses, he is quite comfortable laying his head close to the ground to sleep. Along the path to becoming an Eagle Scout, Will learned the outdoor survival skills that have given him the confidence to leave behind civilization and live in the wilderness. Will began camping as a child, backpacking as a teenager, and climbing/canyoneering in college. He graduated with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and worked near Zion National Park as a therapist. Finding that he yearned to spend even more time in the wild, he left behind the life of a therapist and went full time into guiding with Lasting Adventures during the summer of 2015. Will loves being a guide because it affords him the opportunity to invite others to share in the experiences that have given him the hope to carry on through difficult times. When your life is simple enough to fit all necessary possessions in a backpack, you have plenty of room left to fill yourself with happiness and adventure. He now finds joy in teaching those same skills to his life partner and two daughters.

Heaps Headshot
Heaps Headshot

WILLIAM HEAPS

Operations Director

Will started his outdoor education in Appalachia, found his passion for adventure in the Rockies, and found his home in the Sierra Nevada. Thanks to parents that booked campsites instead of hotel rooms to save on travel expenses, he is quite comfortable laying his head close to the ground to sleep. Along the path to becoming an Eagle Scout, Will learned the outdoor survival skills that have given him the confidence to leave behind civilization and live in the wilderness. Will began camping as a child, backpacking as a teenager, and climbing/canyoneering in college. He graduated with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and worked near Zion National Park as a therapist. Finding that he yearned to spend even more time in the wild, he left behind the life of a therapist and went full time into guiding with Lasting Adventures during the summer of 2015. Will loves being a guide because it affords him the opportunity to invite others to share in the experiences that have given him the hope to carry on through difficult times. When your life is simple enough to fit all necessary possessions in a backpack, you have plenty of room left to fill yourself with happiness and adventure. He now finds joy in teaching those same skills to his life partner and two daughters.

KARA MACEROSS

Yosemite Site Director

I grew up in a small town of Beaver, PA and loved spending every waking moment in the outdoors as a child. Once I was taken on my first backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park I was hooked and eventually decided to change my career from the Fashion Industry to the Outdoors and that was the best decision I ever made. I then took an Outdoor Educator course with NOLS in the great Wind River Range for backpacking and rock climbing, got my Wilderness First Responder certification, and have since taken kids out into the outdoors from the White Mountains in New Hampshire to the desert in Joshua Tree National Park and challenged them in activities that include backpacking, rock climbing, white water kayaking and canoeing.

In my free time I love going canyoneering, backpacking, trail running, researching new cheesy jokes, cooking and eating lots of yummy food, climbing multi-pitch routes in Red Rocks, road tripping, playing lots ‘o’ board games, writing for my blog, star-gazing, chasing rainbows and ultimately lounging in my hammock.

I believe in the philosophy that you should never stop learning and I am very much looking forward to learning even more about Yosemite, where I got first bitten by the outdoors bug, and sharing that knowledge with all the participants on Lasting Adventures trips!

KARA MACEROSS

Yosemite Site Director

I grew up in a small town of Beaver, PA and loved spending every waking moment in the outdoors as a child. Once I was taken on my first backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park I was hooked and eventually decided to change my career from the Fashion Industry to the Outdoors and that was the best decision I ever made. I then took an Outdoor Educator course with NOLS in the great Wind River Range for backpacking and rock climbing, got my Wilderness First Responder certification, and have since taken kids out into the outdoors from the White Mountains in New Hampshire to the desert in Joshua Tree National Park and challenged them in activities that include backpacking, rock climbing, white water kayaking and canoeing.

In my free time I love going canyoneering, backpacking, trail running, researching new cheesy jokes, cooking and eating lots of yummy food, climbing multi-pitch routes in Red Rocks, road tripping, playing lots ‘o’ board games, writing for my blog, star-gazing, chasing rainbows and ultimately lounging in my hammock.

I believe in the philosophy that you should never stop learning and I am very much looking forward to learning even more about Yosemite, where I got first bitten by the outdoors bug, and sharing that knowledge with all the participants on Lasting Adventures trips!

MATTHEW SCHILOWITZ

Education & Curriculum Director

Matt is an outdoor educator and guide who loves working in the outdoors. He graduated with a degree in Outdoor/Adventure Education from Plymouth State University in 2019 and has since been traveling, teaching, climbing and exploring all over the country. Matt spends most of his time rock climbing and on remote adventures, especially around Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. He is also very passionate about education. In addition to showing people how much fun the mountains can be, Matt works hard to teach people about the amazing natural wonders of our planet, and the importance of protecting wild places. Working in the outdoors has always been a dream job, and is balanced with personal hobbies. After a day of climbing he enjoys relaxing by swimming in an alpine lake, drawing landscapes or practicing astronomy, one of his favorite subjects to teach. Matt is really looking forward to his fifth year working with Lasting Adventures, and his first year on the Admin Team.

I believe in the philosophy that you should never stop learning and I am very much looking forward to learning even more about Yosemite, where I got first bitten by the outdoors bug, and sharing that knowledge with all the participants on Lasting Adventures trips!

MATTHEW SCHILOWITZ

Education & Curriculum Director

Matt is an outdoor educator and guide who loves working in the outdoors. He graduated with a degree in Outdoor/Adventure Education from Plymouth State University in 2019 and has since been traveling, teaching, climbing and exploring all over the country. Matt spends most of his time rock climbing and on remote adventures, especially around Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. He is also very passionate about education. In addition to showing people how much fun the mountains can be, Matt works hard to teach people about the amazing natural wonders of our planet, and the importance of protecting wild places. Working in the outdoors has always been a dream job, and is balanced with personal hobbies. After a day of climbing he enjoys relaxing by swimming in an alpine lake, drawing landscapes or practicing astronomy, one of his favorite subjects to teach. Matt is really looking forward to his fifth year working with Lasting Adventures, and his first year on the Admin Team.

CIARAN

Gear & Prep Room Manager

At the age of three, Ciaran was transplanted from the gorges of upstate New York to the mountains of Oregon. He immediately took to the new lands and grew up with his hands and feet in the dirt. Educated through Waldorf pedagogy and public school Environmental Education through STEM courses, Nature and the outdoors were at the core of his developmental years.

In 2017, Ciaran finished a BA/BS degree in international outdoor leadership with a focus on South American countries. As his senior capstone, Ciaran designed, filled and lead a three week trip through Ecuador. This trip focused on community service, sustainable travel and of course the expanses of the Andes. In addition to this venture, Ciaran has spent his last four years working in both adolescent therapeutics and teen adventure trips to Hawaii. As a first year counselor and guide, Ciaran is emphatically excited to live and breath the Yosemite valley.

CIARAN

Gear & Prep Room Manager

A Pacific Northwest local, Nick grew up in Bellingham, Washington surrounded by the splendor of the San Juan Islands, Puget Sound, and the Cascade Mountains. As a kid, he loved exploring the wide range of outdoor endeavors Washington has to offer, before moving to Arizona for university. He developed a love for instilling wonder, appreciation, and respect for the outdoors in others when he started guiding fellow students across the spectacular American Southwest, and graduated with degrees in Exercise and Wellness, and Parks and Protected Area Management. He has worked as a wilderness guide in Colorado, discovered a deep love for Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada with Lasting Adventures, and returns to Arizona in the winters working as an AASI certified snowboard instructor. Nick is passionate about exploring unfamiliar places, our connection and responsibility to those places, and enabling everyone’s potential through outdoor recreation!

Meet the Lasting Adventures Guide Team