Forrest Stavish
Owner, Manager, & Guide
Dan Riethmuller
Head Guide
Chayce Torres
Guide
Kevin Marsh
Guide
Will Payne
Guide
Nick Queen
Guide
Anthony Dercole
Guide
Joel Fluty
Guide
Elizabeth Stavish
Co-owner, Administrative Support
Forrest Stavish
Position: Owner, Manager, & Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: Assistant Rock Guide, Ice Instructor, Single Pitch Instructor
Other Certifications Held: W-EMT, AIARE Level 1
As native of Western North Carolina, Forrest grew up exploring the beautiful mountains he and his family call home. Forrest started rock climbing twenty years ago after being introduced to the world-class bouldering at Rumbling Bald, NC. Not long after that bouldering trip, he got his first taste of exposure on Table Rock in the Linville Gorge. Since then, Forrest has climbed and guided extensively all over the Southeast and has traveled to places like Red Rock, Joshua Tree, and New Hampshire as well as to the alpine of the North Cascades.
Forrest has had extensive training through the American Mountain Guides Association. Forrest has volunteered with his local fire department for the past decade, serving as Lieutenant, Captain and Assistant Chief. He is also a member of the Appalachian Mountain Rescue Team as well as a Mountain Rescue Technician for NC Emergency Management. In addition to climbing, Forrest enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and exploring the great outdoors with his wife and daughter.
Dan Riethmuller
Position: Head Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: Apprentice Rock Guide, Apprentice Alpine Guide, Single Pitch Instructor, Ice Instructor
Other Certifications Held: AIARE Levels 1 & 2, Wilderness First Responder
Introduced to the outdoors at a young age, it wasn’t until college that Dan found climbing. A fall trip to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia was all it took to get him hooked on the sport. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Adventure Education, Dan has pursued climbing as both a career and a hobby across the country, spending winters in North Conway, New Hampshire climbing steep ice and working several in the North Cascades. He has guided major several major alpine peaks including Rainier and Denali. Not much compares to the exposure of North Carolina rock though and that good old southern sunshine, so Dan finds himself drawn back time and time again.
Climbing and climbing education have always been a priority; Dan has completed his AMGA Rock and Alpine Guide Courses and is one of only a handful of AMGA Certified Ice Instructors in the country. When not climbing, you can find Dan trail running with his wife or working on his truck.
Chayce Torres
Position: Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: Single Pitch Instructor
Other Certifications Held: Wilderness First Responder, LNT Master Educator
Chayce found his love for climbing during a NOLS course in Red Rock Canyon. Soon after he moved to Colorado, where he taught snowboarding, mountain biking and worked at his local climbing gym. After moving back to South Carolina, Chayce’s passion for teaching led him to obtain his Single Pitch Instructor certification.
Climbing has allowed him to explore crags all over the Southeast, Colorado and Washington, as well as abroad in Mexico, Switzerland and France. When he’s not climbing, you can find Chayce working at his local bike shop and building out his camper van!
Kevin Marsh
Position: Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: AMGA Single Pitch Instructor
Other Certifications Held: Wilderness First Responder
Kevin is a North Carolina native from Boone who discovered his passion for the outdoors early on. In 2008, he moved to Colorado to attend Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, where he earned a degree in Outdoor Education. Following his graduation, Kevin became an instructor in the school’s outdoor education program and spent over a decade living and exploring the American West. An avid skier, Kevin worked as an EMT on ski patrol in Colorado and Montana. His climbing adventures have taken him all over the American West, with notable ascents on Utah’s desert tower formations and high alpine rock routes in the Wind River Range and Rocky Mountain National Park.
Kevin’s enthusiasm for climbing is matched by his dedication to sharing this passion with others. He has recently embarked on the American Mountain Guides Association guide track program and is currently an AMGA certified Single Pitch Instructor and Wilderness First Responder. Kevin and his girlfriend have recently settled in the Asheville area, where they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first son, Nico, this summer. During the winter months, Kevin plans to spend time in Ecuador, where his girlfriend is from, and ski Ecuador’s 6,000m volcanoes and explore the vast rock climbing opportunities throughout South America.
Will Payne
Position: Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: Single Pitch Instructor
Other Certifications Held: Wilderness First Responder
Nick Queen
Position: Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: Single Pitch Instructor
Other Certifications Held: Wilderness First Responder
Nick spent eight years in the US Marine Corps Infantry and advanced to leadership positions during his service. His military experience provided a solid foundation for his next endeavor: obtaining a degree in Outdoor Education through Brevard College’s Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education. Through WLEE, Nick found an affinity for climbing and made it a priority in his curriculum and his spare time, never passing up an opportunity to meet the rock head-on to practice and learn. He is excited to teach and share his love of the outdoors with others.
Nick has his sights on additional certifications and many more routes to climb, but you may catch him paddling local rivers, hiking with his dog, or riding and working on one of his motorcycles in his spare time.
Anthony Dercole
Position: Guide
Other Certifications Held: Wilderness First Responder, AIARE Level 1, Paramedic, NC Emergency Management SAR Technician, Wilderness EMT, NC Rope Rescue Technician, NC Emergency Management Advanced Swiftwater/Flood Rescue Boat Operator
Anthony found the mountains early in life hunting in southern Colorado. After serving in the military, he discovered climbing and decided to pursue a career in guiding. He ran and maintained a climbing wall for a gym for three years and then took his first American Mountain Guides Association course. After gaining Single Pitch Instructor certification, Anthony honed his rock craft in the Southeast at crags in Virginia and West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina before venturing west and becoming an Apprentice Rock Guide and then taking his Ice Instructor Course, all while putting countless hours into rescue training.
Anthony serves as a Mountain Rescue Technician on call for the North Carolina Emergency Management Mountain Rescue teams and is a boarded EMT and a Firefighter/Paramedic. When he is not working, Anthony enjoys spending time climbing and mountain biking with his wife and two daughters. In the winter, you can find him in the mountains on ski patrol and ice climbing.
Joel Fluty
Position: Guide
AMGA Training and Certifications Held: Rock Guide
Other Certifications Held: Wilderness First Responder
Joel started climbing in 2001 as a senior in high school. While getting a degree in photojournalism from Gardner-Webb University, Joel cut his teeth on the rock of Western North Carolina and started making trips to the West at every opportunity. During college Joel organized and lead climbing trips around the Southeast for the outdoor recreation department.
After graduating, Joel took a job guiding backpacking in Yosemite National Park where he spent the next five years climbing Yosemite’s splitter granite and traveling/climbing around the Western US. Joel has climbed extensively across the United States from grade VI big walls in Yosemite to the sandstone of the Southeast. Joel now lives full time in North Carolina where he and his wife are raising their two boys.
Elizabeth Stavish
Position: Co-owner, Administrative Support
Other Certifications Held: MBA, LNHA
Elizabeth supports the business operations of Fox Mountain Guides alongside her husband Forrest. Though not a guide herself, she enjoys adventuring on rock, ice, and in the woods with Forrest and their daughter Rosemary.