Avalanche Awareness Wilderness First Responder Swiftwater Rescue Level 2 Adaptive Alpine Level 1 Adaptive Snowboard "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." –Hunter S. Thompson Bound at the age of 19 that sparked Jeff’s career in the outdoors. Shortly after that trip, he said goodbye to his childhood home in the Hereford hills of Pennsylvania and struck out for the mountains in a breezy old Jeep loaded with everything he owned. His destination was Gunnison, Colorado to pursue a degree in Outdoor Recreation Leadership at Western State College. The Gunnison Valley soon became home, and remains so to this day. Since that journey began over a decade ago, Jeff has worked as a field instructor for a wilderness therapy program in Utah, a river guide in Alaska, Utah, Idaho, and Montana, and a winter instructor for the ASC. Jeff has a Level I certification in both adaptive skiing and snowboarding and is trained as a Wilderness First Responder and Swiftwater Rescue Technician. When he’s not keeping track of ASC’s fleet of skis, bikes, boats, Jeff enjoys skiing, biking and boating, along with other outdoor adventures. Who is Jeff Perambo? To really know him you must know his roots. He was born one fateful July eve in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in Appalachian Pennsylvania. Descended from Pennsylvania Dutch farmers and Polish coal miners, a strong work ethic has always been deeply embedded in his soul. His father's father died of black lung, and his father is a respiratory therapist. The irony of this is not lost on him. Jeff knew from a young age that the fields and mines of the East were not for him. No, he knew he wanted to apply his rock solid work ethic to helping people re-create themselves. Upon returning from a month long mountaineering trip in the Chilean Andes at the age of 19, Jeff loaded up his Jeep and pointed it into the setting sun. His destination: the Gunnison Valley, Colorado. How long have you lived in Crested Butte? After a brief stint studying recreation at Western State College in Gunnison, Jeff realized that for him, the education he craved was not contained within those stone walls. Rather, it flowed in the rivers, soared in the granite walls, and played in the snow that fell on his new western home. He climbed, biked, skied, snowboarded, hiked the peaks, ran the rivers and otherwise explored the west from Arizona to Alaska honing his skills and soaking in his education. However far he roamed, however, he always returned to the Gunnison Valley. For 5 years Gunnison was his home, then he migrated up valley to Crested Butte in 2006, where he remains to this very day. How did you come to work with the ASC? How long have you been here? It was when he was at Western that Jeff first heard of the Adaptive Sports Center. After two seasons of volunteering for the ASC in the winters of '04 and '05, Jeff decided that he wanted to be a bigger part of this unique and wonderful place. Teaching people with disabilities how to ski, ride, climb or bike felt so much more important than guiding rich people down the river, his summer job. He was inspired by the determination and will to succeed in the participants at the ASC. He saw people finding pathways into new lives of freedom and adventure that they previously may not have seen. Needless to say, he was hooked. He began instructing for the ASC part time and then full time, and earned Level 2 Adaptive Alpine and Level 1 Adaptive Snowboard certifications to make him better at his craft. In the spring of 2011, Jeff decided he could bring more to the table and took a year round job as the Equipment and Vehicles Manager at the ASC. He also bought a house and adopted a dog, putting the final nail in the coffin containing his previous dirtbag, seasonal lifestyle. He was becoming kind of a big deal. What's your favorite restaurant in Crested Butte? When he's not out changing lives or fixing stuff, the Perambo can usually be found quaffing IPA and chicken tenders at his favorite establishment, the Brick Oven in Crested Butte, his favorite town nestled at the base of the best ski hill this side of Uranus, Mt. Crested Butte. It's a big, crazy world out there, and Jeff Perambo loves every minute of it!
