Born and raised in Texas, Jayson led his first climbing trips during college to Reimer’s Ranch outside Austin in 1995. After moving to Colorado, Jayson “retired” from his career in architecture to spend more time outdoors. Since then, he has guided rafting, climbing, mountain biking and backpacking trips all over the western U.S. Jayson fell in love with wilderness medicine during his first NOLS Wilderness Medicine WFR course in 2005 and started on the path to teaching. He believes that teaching wilderness medicine is important because “it gives people the tools to travel in the wild confidently and take care of themselves and others.” When not working for NOLS Wilderness Medicine, Jayson can be found managing the local climbing gym in Tacoma where he currently lives with his wife, Jenn, and son, Brazos.