Shane Rathbun

Lead Ski & Shasta Alpine Guide
AMGA Ski Guides Training

Shane was raised in northern California and has Native American ancestral roots in the local area tracing back to the local Wintun tribe. As a young child, Shane learned to ski on the slopes of the Mount Shasta Ski Park with his father at the age of 4. In 2009, Mount Shasta also became the first place he strapped crampons on his feet for the very first time. Shane still spends half the year living in Mount Shasta, California and the other half of the year living in Queenstown, New Zealand. 

Shane has extensive ski mountaineering experience. He specializes in Mount Shasta and has skied from the summit more than 20 times via 8 different routes. Shane has spent many years monitoring the weather and snow conditions on Mount Shasta, and honing his skills in pursuit of the highest quality snow conditions for top-down summit ski descents. In addition to Mount Shasta, he also has extensive mountaineering experience on Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, Mt Baker, Mt Lassen, the Alaska Range, Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, and New Zealand's Southern Alps. 

In addition to specializing in Mount Shasta, Shane also specializes in avalanche risk management. He is a certified explosives handler for snow avalanche control with 8 years of operational forecasting experience aided by all forms of explosives conveyance. He has worked as an avalanche forecaster and snow safety officer for a number of ski areas, and has performed avalanche risk management work for structures and roads for the New Zealand Government’s Department of Conservation and the United States Department of the Interior. 

Over the previous ten years, Shane has worked internationally as a mountaineering ranger at a number of national parks between the United States and New Zealand. As a ranger, Shane has responded to hundreds of search and rescue calls for service often involving complex scene management, helicopters, or technical rope rigging in places like Mt Rainier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Denali National Park, and Mt Cook National Park. He has accrued more than 100 hours as helicopter crewman and has experience preparing successful aerial search plans. Shane is a certified firefighter through the U.S National Park Service’s National Structural Fire Academy, and is also a New Zealand CAA-certified commercial pilot (fixed-wing).

Certifications/Education:

  • AMGA Ski Guide Course

  • EMT-Basic.

  • American Avalanche Institute - Avalanche Level 3

  • American Avalanche Institute - Advanced Winter Weather Forecasting courses.

  • New Zealand Police - Avalanche Site Controller training

  • Leave No Trace trainer