The Crew
Photo by Shay Stemm
Alyssa Winkelman
Paddler/Sufferfest Queen
Alyssa is a 30 year old outdoorswoman. She has worked in the outdoor industry for the last ten years in a wide range of jobs that have allowed her to be outside as much as possible. She currently finds her work as a river guide, trail builder and ski patroller.
She did her first guide training on the Upper Sacramento River in 2012 and has since taken her skills as a river woman across the Western US and abroad. Her devotion to the outdoor industry grew out of gaining her B.S in Outdoor Adventure Leadership from Southern Oregon University in 2015.
She is passionate about rivers and the incredibly important role they play in our lives. Growing up at the headwaters of the Sacramento River instilled a strong interest in what the river provides to the state of California and the people that benefit from it.
The experiences of her life have led her to being devoted to connecting as many people with the outdoors as possible and educating those folks about the consequences of our human actions on the land.
Photo by Alice Burgess
Ari Kosel
Paddler/Chill Master
Ari is a 30 year old outdoor enthusiast who fuels her adventures with laughter, curiosity and her trusty bottle of sriracha. She grew up on the rivers surrounding her hometown of Mt. Shasta and went through her first guide training on the Upper Sacramento back in 2008. Since then she’s continued to find joy and growth on rivers across the United States and internationally.
Ari worked as a field instructor with the Northwest Outward Bound school and other outdoor education programs from 2015-2020, contributing to her interest in the environment and her desire to help people connect with nature. She is currently working towards a Masters in Psychology & Counseling with an empahsis on Community Mental Health at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Her B.S. in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems from UC Davis in 2014 is the source of her curiosity surrounding the Sacramento river’s vast network of stakeholders and users.
She is passionate about the intersection of recreation, environmental protection, education, and social justice in the outdoors.
Photo by Kyle Milne
Jamie Trapp
Filmmaker/Cheese Connoisseur
Jamie is a 26 year old filmmaker raised on Midwestern cheese and thriving on the big, vast adventure opportunities in Alaska. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017 with a degree in Environmental Studies and Film Production, and has since taken those skills all over the world to tell stories and inspire action.
She has worked as a sea kayak guide in Alaska and Greenland; sharing nuggets of glacial geology and her affinity for the arctic. In 2018, Jamie in a team of 4 became the first to kayak and rock climb across the Bass Strait, from mainland Australia to Tasmania. Afterwards, she completed a thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail and made a film, “Strait Up,” about the Bass Strait Expedition.
She feeds off of adventure, dirt, creativity, inspiring environmental ethics in people, and fun! It is her goal to connect people to each other and the land; to create welcoming environments for women, people of color, and all underrepresented groups.
