About Us

Babs Karney

Babs Karney (she/they) is a writer, actor, and the Operations and Administration Tender for Wild Mountain Retreats. Coined an "army brat" at an early age, Babs has lived and traveled throughout the United States, cultivating an early understanding of transition, adaptation, and finding home in unfamiliar places.

Raised by a Black queer woman, Babs carries her mother's legacy as a foundation for her own unfolding. Coming out later in life opened a door to deeper self-acceptance, and the last several years have been a journey of reshaping identity, connecting with ancestors, and tending to her own spiritual path. She believes deeply in the work of intergenerational healing, trusting that by healing herself, she is healing for the seven generations to come.

A lifelong creative, Babs has long made sense of the world through imagination, studying film and screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and becoming an active presence in Denver's community theatre scene since 2017. She describes herself as a clown in a human body, holding the wisdom that comedy and tragedy are never separate but always part of the bigger story. Her niece and nephew are her greatest teachers in play, curiosity, and the freedom of being unashamed.

Babs brings over a decade of operations experience, with a focus on nonprofit and grassroots environments. She is drawn to Wild Mountain's mission of creating accessible, land-based ceremonial spaces for Queer, Trans, and BIPOC communities, and has found in this work a place where she can show up authentically in every moment. She finds deep fulfillment in bringing structure and flow to mission-driven organizations—tending the behind-the-scenes work that allows transformative spaces to thrive.

“Roo” Ruth Wharton

Deeply rooted in earth, body, ceremony and a long lineage of guides from the School of Lost Borders, Roo (they/them) offers an abundance of love and fierce insight to those Roo guides and mentors. Beginning to guide wilderness rites of passage at the age of 21, Roo’s experience spans over two decades, supporting well over 1,000 people of all ages through initiation practices.

As a licensed professional counselor, wilderness therapist and guide, play therapist, and wilderness first responder, Roo has worked in wilderness programs, teen centers, counseling and crisis centers, schools, indigenous communities, and private practice settings supporting a variety of populations in meaningful life passages. Roo also founded and developed both the Women’s Fast and Queer Quest at the School of Lost Borders. Roo is deeply committed to offering BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ guide trainings each year at Wild Mountain.

Being gender expansive and having a strong focus on social justice, Roo is on the path of creating safer, more inclusive, and accessible space for more people. Roo continues to guide, offer training and mentorship in the wild mountains of Colorado and around the world. Traveling to support communities cross culturally, Roo is continually learning from diverse landscapes and people inspired by our differences, earth based common threads, and shared humanity.

Riziki Omonde

Riziki Omonde is an outdoor educator, world traveler and conservationist whose work is rooted in the powerful intersection of their identity, their lived experience, and a profound love for the natural world.

The child of a Tanzanian father and an American mother, Riziki carries a multicultural perspective that informs their approach to life. They see the interconnectedness of global ecosystems as a reflection of our own human communities—diverse, resilient, and essential.

As a queer, biracial individual, Riziki is deeply committed to creating inclusive and accessible outdoor spaces. They believe that a meaningful connection with nature is a fundamental human right, and they work to dismantle barriers for intentionally left out communities in outdoor spaces.

Riziki's commitment to healing and community is also personal. Having navigated the mental health system, including being institutionalized in a psych ward, they bring a vital perspective on trauma, resilience, and the restorative power of the natural world. This lived experience fuels their belief that nature and rites of passage work are crucial components of collective and personal well-being.

Praveen Mantena

A world traveler and cross-cultural nomad since childhood, Praveen (he/him) comes from an upbringing in Asia and the Middle East before calling America home. A life’s passion for guiding wilderness rites of passage was preceded by wide-ranging and eye-opening stints in the military, academia, the corporate/start-up world, and narrative art photography before the ceremony came calling. He currently coaches, advises and mentors the leadership teams of start-up businesses and non-profit organizations in the principles of conscious and inclusive leadership. Praveen’s own journey in wilderness rites of passage first began with guiding programs for the School of Lost Borders, before transitioning to adapting and evolving the ceremony into both broader and more specialized contexts. He is committed to bridging the timeless wisdom of the greater natural world with the sensibilities and challenges of our contemporary times, and finding one’s own courage, passion and guidance through it as a community leader.

West

West (any pronouns) lived in Colorado for most of their life, where they loved hiking and camping in the mountains. They became familiar with the Wild Mountain community through a youth group called Rooted. West now lives in San Diego and enjoys surfing, being in the ocean. and playing music. West is in 9th grade and attends a high school for the arts, where they major in theater, though they love all other kinds of art, such as music, film, and photography. West is so excited to be involved with the wild mountain community and cannot wait to see where this journey takes them.

Pedro McMillan

Pedro (he/him) is a queer elder with more than 20 years of experience with rites of passage work. A father, grandfather and environmentalist since childhood, he became an early eco-entrepreneur, founding and running a green business for 26 years before leaving to focus on rites of passage work. Being involved in rites of passage work since 1996, he has trained and assisted on many programs at the School of Lost Borders before stepping into the role of guide for the School in 2010. Pedro was also a founder of the Queer Quest and has offered guide trainings since 2016.

Pedro’s love for the land, ceremony and people helps create a safe and loving space for all who are called to the land. He is dedicated to inclusion, accessibility and safety for all. Pedro brings his wealth of experience and a poetic and passionate heart to this work.

Katheryne Lewis

Like most beings of African descent, Katheryne’s ancestral journey and healing is an ongoing process. Her family was originally brought to the plantations of Muscogee/ Creek, Yamassee, and Seminole lands (Georgia and Florida), where many of them still remain. Wanting to honor her family’s legacy of determination, hardwork and resilience, a legacy that has afforded Katheryne an abundance of opportunities and gratitude, she finds herself pouring her energy into the work of protecting and empowering our younger generation. Her experience includes a background in conservation and trail work through Montana and Wyoming where she challenged the idea of who was a part of the movement to protect our nonhuman/ beyond human world. Receiving her master's in mental health counseling, she studied Ecopsychology in efforts to help youth foster a sense of environmental stewardship in efforts to build a sense of belonging and purpose within the communities that are often left out of the outdoors narrative.

She is currently located on the traditional lands of the Multnomah, Clackamas, Cowlitz and many other tribes, commonly known as Portland, OR. There, she teaches graduate level courses on Ecopsychology and wilderness/adventure therapy and operates her own private practice, Rooted Counseling LLC. Her hope is to offer transformative nature based programs for the minoritized communities she predominantly serves as well as family systems looking to explore and heal their own complexities and harmful patterns that show up in all the systems they may occupy wittingly and unwittingly.

While there always feels like a million things to tend to, Katheryne is committed to the soul care of herself and her communities, recognizing that our work may never feel done, but we deserve rest and care, now and always.

Meiko Xavier

Meiko Xavier (he/him) is dedicated to the Trans and Queer community. Meiko has supported others through education, sharing his personal journey, and offering a communal space where transitions in the Trans community are honored and held as sacred. Meiko is a natural guide with twelve years of experience with rites of passage and field work in therapeutic recovery programs. His wealth of knowledge and compassionate heart supports people in finding their own healing through their relationship with the land.

Inspired by his experience with Queer Quest, Meiko co-founded Quest House, a post-operative healing home for Trans folks moving through surgically assisted rites of passage. Meiko has been involved with the Queer Quest over the last decade and currently serves on the Stewardship Council at Wild Mountain Retreats where he is a sugar daddy for thousands of migrating hummingbirds.

Yanitsa Rodriguez

Yanitsa Rodriguez (she/her/ella) is an apprentice for this upcoming BIPOC program. She previously apprenticed with Queer Quest at Wild Mountain and has continued to be involved in BIPOC Mirroring trainings held on the land at Wild Mountain. She is deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been in ceremony on this land and to have cultivated kinship with the more-than-human world of Wild Mountain through ceremony and fasting.

Yanitsa comes from a resilient lineage of Nicaraguan immigrants who migrated to the United States during the Sandinista–Contra War. Her paternal heritage originates from the borderlands of Tejas and Mexico, where her people remain native to the land, bridging cultural gaps created by tribal displacement and the violent history experienced by Indigenous kin.

She cares deeply about the magic of affinity that emerges when BIPOC people come together to form communities of kin—where connection extends beyond friendship into shared realities and mutual belonging. As a first-generation Latine and Native person living in a time of forced resilience and necessary cultural remembering, Yanitsa views BIPOC relationship with one another and with the land as a powerful portal for resistance, healing, and reclamation.

Professionally, Yanitsa has worked on outdoor equity initiatives that center historically excluded communities in nature. Through her current work with Hunters of Color, she engages deeply in cultural survival, food sovereignty, and rewriting dominant narratives about who belongs in shared landscapes. She supports participants in connecting their cultural stories to the land while affirming that their presence and voices are essential in outdoor spaces. Her lived experience allows her to hold space for participants navigating layered identities, bringing both empathy and practical tools for cultivating belonging at the intersection of identity and tradition.

As an apprentice in this program, Yanitsa hopes to continue learning while supporting the guide team and the broader community of kin as a grounded and present beam of light during their time together. She remains curious and committed to ongoing conversations about identity, ancestry, story, and the magic that shapes collective existence.

Outside of her work, Yanitsa enjoys listening to and singing boleros, spending time in Mexico and Nicaragua, and being in the ocean.

Brent Harris

Brent Harris is a wilderness guide, artist, educator, and end-of-life doula whose work bridges the inner and outer landscapes of transformation. Deeply rooted and connected to the fresh water and glacial till of Michigan’s Great Lakes region, Brent invites others into deep relationship with nature as a mirror for their own becoming. Through a weaving of creative practice, nature-based reflection, and rites-of-passage mentoring, he supports individuals in crossing life’s thresholds—whether of identity, purpose, or mortality. His guidance cultivates presence, soulful creativity, and a renewed sense of belonging within the living world.

In addition to his doula and guiding work, Brent teaches sculpture and heads the 3D Media Department at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, where his teaching continues to explore the intersection of material, imagination, and transformation.

Chip Mitchell

Chip (he/him) is a seasoned wilderness guide with over 12 years of experience in outdoor leadership and facilitation. He has completed the Mirroring Training and the Monthlong Training, and will be assisting this program by helping hold the guide seat and supporting participants in daily rhythms, including meals. He is also an associate therapist and is always open to holding space for reflection and processing.

Chip comes from mixed heritage, with a Black father and white mother, and grew up across the Northeast and Midwest. From an early age, his father instilled in him a deep love for nature and a belief that everyone deserves access to the healing power of the more-than-human world. Aware of the many barriers that exist for the global majority to access and feel safe in outdoor spaces, Chip is committed to helping build bridges of connection, support ancestral remembering, and make nature-based experiences more accessible and welcoming.

Chip holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and adventure education and a master’s degree in transpersonal nature therapy, which included completing a three-day solo fast. He feels at home in nature and loves teaching practical skills that empower others to get outside with confidence. He brings strong experience in group development, team building, and outdoor facilitation, whether through skill-sharing, storytelling, or tending the communal fire. He has trained with Wild Mountain and apprenticed the Monthlong with the School of Lost Borders, and continues to season himself within this lineage.

Chip’s guiding style is heart-centered, attentive, and responsive. He offers deep presence during sharing and adapts his energy to the needs of the moment, ranging from grounded and quiet to passionate and animated. As a teacher, he demonstrates skills clearly and invites hands-on exploration. With years of experience working with youth, he also brings moments of playful humor. He sees himself as a fire tender, supporting participants in learning how to tend their own inner fire.

Chip is an identical twin and has been a climber for over 16 years. He enjoys conversations about movies, pop culture, therapy, and healing—and has a well-known fondness for Jason Momoa.

Raei Bridges

Raei Bridges (they/them) is a neurodivergent soul on a journey of self-discovery and connection. Raised by the vibrant landscapes of the San Fernando Valley in California, Raei's roots are deeply intertwined with nature. From childhood daysspent playing in the mud, climbing trees, to observing insects with fascination, Raei fostered a profound bond with the natural world in any way that was accessible to them.

The transformative turning point came during the 2016 Queer Quest, an experience that ignited their spiritual connection to nature and set them on a life-altering path. It was here that Raei discovered a calling to become an outdoor guide, driven by the desire to create spaces where others can embark on their own journeys of authenticity and wholeness.

Now, with a mission to guide and inspire, Raei Bridges channels their passion into fostering a sense of belonging in the great outdoors. Through their work, they aspire to empower individuals to embrace their true selves and discover the profound beauty that lies within the intersection of nature and authenticity.

Raei Bridges has taken their passion to new heights by founding Black&Wild, an organization dedicated to creating transformative experiences in nature. At the helm, Raei orchestrates mindful wilderness trips and ancestral skills campouts specifically tailored for Black, Indigenous, & People of Color in the Northeast. Raei is a certified WFR through SOLO schools and a certified Kripalu mindful outdoor guide

Callum “Bear” Bobb

Bear is a trans guide who offers a grounded and fierce tenderness in support of the beautiful process of emergence that we call Rites of Passage. As a queer person descending from Ashkenazi Jewish and Scottish lineages, Bear brings insight from a lifetime of navigating liminal spaces and betweenness, and trusts that embracing the unknown is the first step into the borderlands of becoming.

Bear has come to guiding with the support and training from the guides at Wild Mountain and the School of Lost Borders, human and non-human. Bear has also been trained as a somatic psychotherapist and an Earth scientist. Their wide range of backgrounds has helped them see the interdependent nature of the human experience. While the culture of colonization insists that we should strive for control, predictability, and self-reliance, the Earth will never stop offering reminders that life on this planet is defined by invitations of relationship, change, and interdependence. Bear is honored to guide in a context that offers all participants these embodied reminders as invitations into their unique aliveness.

Bettina Straub

Bettina Straub is a rites of passage guide, educator, creator, earth steward, dancer and aunty. She teaches outdoor education and nature-based counseling at Naropa University. With over a decade of guiding experience, Bettina also brings a background as a mental health counselor and mindfulness instructor, having led meditation retreats and provided counseling in private practice and crisis centers. She is a certified Wilderness First Responder.

Bettina’s journey with rites of passage began at 18, with her own initiation into adulthood in the Italian Alps, fostering courage and a love for creative ceremony.

Originally from Germany, Bettina carries two homes in her heart— one rooted in her homeland with deep family ties, the other in the wild landscapes of Colorado. Her ancestral heritage leads her on a continuous path through collective grief and trauma.

Guided by the land, she weaves earth wisdom, mindfulness, trauma awareness, somatic expression and song into her programs. At the heart of her offering lies a simple invitation: to uncover who we are, bring our unique gifts to be in service, and cultivate belonging on this shared human journey.

Kim Moriyama

Kim Moriyama (she/her) is a joyful elder who brings the wisdom of nature to her work as a Rites of Passage Guide and Transformational Life/Leadership Coach and Facilitator. As a third-generation Okinawan-Japanese American, she has navigated many cultural, intergenerational and ancestral experiences, finding resilience, agency, joy, freedom, and peace by honoring her direct experiences in life.

She has built special relationships with the lands where she has lived, primarily the mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest and Western Colorado. With extensive experience as a Colorado Outward Bound Wilderness Instructor, Kim enjoys teaching others to live and travel comfortably in forests and mountains for extended periods and has backpacked hundreds of miles through mountainous terrain, completed 10-day solos, and has a deep and rich embodied contemplative practice.

As a coach and mentor, she helps others embody what they truly care about and get into action for what they really want. Kim believes that we are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole and delights in partnerships to achieve shared goals and mutual flourishing.

Kim loves co-creating pop-up communities in nature for people to discover, nurture, and remember the sense of belonging with the land, our ancestors, and kin that helps us all navigate the journey of our lives honoring the truth of who and what we really are through all seasons of life.

For fun, Kim loves to travel, garden, dance, sing, make delicious, nourishing food and serves on the Wild Mountain Stewardship Council.

Timotéo(Téo) Ikoshy Montoya II

Timotéo(Téo) Ikoshy Montoya II (he/him) is a writer, multimedia artist, and rite of passage guide with Wild Mountain and School of Lost Borders. He is a creative writing MFA candidate at The Institute of American Indian Arts, hosts The Indigenous Futures Podcast, and shares other creations and conversations at ARCHAIC_INTERFACE, a multimedia exploration of post-human, postcolonial, and Indigenous futurisms.

A cultural and racial hybrid, Téo's heritage spans Scottish-French roots through Kentucky and Indigenous ancestry from Southern Texas. An enrolled member of The Lipan Apache Band of Texas, he was raised in the Sierras of Northern California, and studied Cultural Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, with a focus on the impacts of colonization on Indigenous diets. He now resides in O'Ga P’Ogeh, on the lands of the Tewa peoples (currently known as Santa Fe, New Mexico).

With a decade of IT experience, Téo provides operations and media support to organizations. As a board member of Wild Mountain, and the native-led nonprofit The Cultural Conservancy, Téo is committed to upholding Traditional Ecological Knowledge, kin-making with the more-than-human world, and rites of passage as vital cultural technologies needed to meet the crises unfurling from our hyper/dis-connected globalized world.

Selina Leticia Chacon Borquez

Selina Leticia Chacon Borquez (they/them) carries soulful gifts of traditional massage, trauma-informed bodywork, rites of passage and ancestral healing. They also offer their healing medicine through preparing nourishing meals to nurture their community. Selina attended Wild Mountain’s BIPOC Rites of Passage Guide training in 2021, which brought them ever deeper into their devotion of decolonial, liberatory healing, and ancestral work.

Selina's love for community, the land, the unseen and their other-than-human family is where they feel most alive and anchored. Their integral animist connection and conversation has been unbroken from the time of their birth in the Sonoran desert, on the lands of the Yaqui people, in Tucson Arizona. Selina has been in a lifelong apprenticeship with their ancestors from both Spanish and Indigenous Mexican roots. These ancestors walk intimately through the rhythms of their life and work, Selina councils with them as sources of their medicina, and tends their relationship to their ceremonial lifeways reverently. ancestralha.com

Sam Balka

Sam is a life-long dancer, a cultural explorer, and an outdoor adventurer. He originated in the creek beds and urban daydreams of Eastern Pennsylvania before moving out West and re-meeting the land. He has been a wilderness guide since 2017, a rites of passage guide a la School of Lost Borders since 2020, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with a private practice since 2025.

He is a queer gender expansive gay man, and deepening into the practice of his ancestors through Earth-based Jewish spirituality. His mission as a participant in this life is to serve as a conduit of healing and restoration for human and non-human landscapes to achieve flexibility, sovereignty, liberation, and wild vitality! He wants us to know that we are animals, that we are the same land that we belong to and love.

He comes to this work in service to queerness, liberation, and community, to the unknown, to the land, and to our bodies. Through wholeness in being, authentic expression and embodiment, ceremony, celebration and joy, through wildness and through darkness, through action and through dance… He finds his niche and joy of participation and service in this life. http://www.rootedrites.com

Ciela

Ciela is a Siberian Husky guide and therapy dog in training here at Wild Mountain.

She loves to explore the land, run, and play. She reminds us to be curious about nature and relate with child-like innocence. She loves bunnies, pine trees, and skijouring.

Ciela takes care of her pack and loves receiving people from the land and hearing their stories. She sits in circle with us and often invites cuddles and lots of laughter. She is excited to meet you and welcome you to her home at Wild Mountain.