The 2024 Redside Foundation Rendezvous

Schedule of Events

Pre-Rendezvous Courses

May 15th-16th Wilderness First Responder Refresher Course by Desert Mountain Medicine.

This course is open to the public, guides and outfitters. To register or for more information, click here.

May 15th-16th PRO-I Swiftwater Rescue Course by Swiftwater Rescue Institute.

This course is for river guides, SAR members, technical rescue team members, or others wanting to pursue the professional track. To register or for more information, click here. * COURSE FULL *

Rendezvous Schedule

Friday, May 17th

8:00 a.m. Registration Opens & Vendor Setup

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Backcountry First Aid for Horses

Dr. Shane Baird, DVM will teach his backcountry first aid for horses clinic for guides or outdoor enthusiasts who work with horses or would like to in the future. Dr. Baird will share valuable skills for dealing with common issues that can become devastating in the backcountry, such as colic, eye issues, and lacerations. You will also learn how to build a horse-specific first aid.

11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Community Resilience Model Training for Guides

Michele Preuss, LCSW, will lead a dynamic workshop to increase the well-being and resiliency of individual guides, guiding companies, and ultimately the broader guiding community. The more participants, the wider the reach can be. This workshop will be customized to guides and their specific needs and challenges.

4:00 p.m. Dutch Oven Cook-Off Start (set up/prep can start at 3:30 p.m.) Learn more & sign up here.

5:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Welcome Address

6:00 p.m. Dutch Oven Cook-off Judging and Dinner

7:30 p.m. Social Hour

8:00 p.m. Karaoke!

Saturday, May 18th

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. Breakfast

Breakfast will be served in the Velvet Falls Dance Hall.

7:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Health Fair (be sure to fast for blood draws)

Health Fair Mini Sessions will include talks such as health insurance navigation, financial health session, and sober curious.

8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. Navigating Health Insurance - Daniel Skelton

Daniel Skelton, Intermountain Agency, Inc., will educate guides on how to get insurance while being seasonally employed, how seasonal employment affects a marketplace policy, how to access services while being employed in a state different from where your primary insurance is and how income levels affect eligibility for medicaid in Idaho.

9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Sober Curious - Jon Totten

Jon Totten, founder & Executive Director of Dogsmile Adventures as well as Redside Foundation Board Member, will speak to his personal journey to sobriety and how others might understand their own curiosities about sobriety.

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. How to talk to the Police Part 2 - Nicole Owens

Nicole Owens, Executive Director of the Federal Defender Services of Idaho, will share valuable information about how to interact with Law Enforcement in various situations to protect and understand your rights.

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Idaho Search and Rescue - Jeremy Deim

Jeremy Deim, Vice President of Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue, will provide insights into how his team organizes resources to execute various types of search & rescue operations, best practices guides should be thinking about in the field, training required to do search & rescue, lessons learned from accident reports, what to do if you become lost and what happens when you push that SOS button on your GPS device.

12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Lunch Break. Check out the Vendors & The Health Fair

Lunch will be served in the Velvet Falls Dance Hall.

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Pilates Movement Session - Jonna Winger

Jonna Winger, founder & operator of Pilates in the Wild, will offer a guide health focused Pilates session to inspire movement and prepare our bodies and minds for the afternoon sessions.

2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Foundations of Health for Outdoor Professionals - Dr. Ryan Kindervader

Dr. Ryan Kindervader, D.O. Board Certified Physician, founder of Sapia Health, will provide an overview of the foundations of health, looking at the challenges we face as outdoor professionals (stress, migratory work, irregular hours, overuse injuries, mental health, nutrition, alcohol, etc) as well as dipping our toes into emerging tech, and then bringing it back to the lifestyle interventions that apply to all of these challenges.

2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Special Presentation for Guides - Greg McFadden

Greg McFadden, owner/outiftter of Canyons River Company, will present an opportunity for guides to become involved in resource stewardship.

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Interpretive Language for Guides from a Native Informed Perspective - Jessica & Sammy Matsaw

Jessica & Sammy Matsaw, founders of River Newe, will share ideas around developing a shared language for guides communicating with guests in a way that is informed and respectful of Tribal culture, heritage, and presence on their ancestral lands.

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. World premier of “Redside” - Seth Dahl, JP Pruess, Mark Martin & Brian Chaffin

“Redside” a film by Seth Dahl. Professional outdoor guides, Seda Witten, Mark Martin, and Jon Preuss, take us on a journey into the wilderness of their mental and physical struggles. As they share their challenges and celebrate the guiding profession, they reflect on how The Redside Foundation brings guides together. Following the film, a question and answer panel with Seth, JP & Mark will be led by Brian Chaffin.

6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Dinner

Dinner will be served in the Velvet Falls Dance Hall.

8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. The Pisten Bullys

Ketchum's original alternative country western band. "The Pisten Bullys are the real deal. Very talented musicians and true gentlemen. Tremendous energy on stage. Performing an awesome variety of covers and well written originals."

Sunday, May 19th

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. Breakfast

Breakfast will be served in the Velvet Falls Dance Hall.

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Yoga/Meditation Session - Lori Kohls

Lori Kohls, PT, DPT, RYT-200, will help us begin our final day with mindful movement and presence.

9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Life Flight Demonstration

Life flight will be back to demonstrate and educate guides on their operations on a scene along with how guides can assist with landing zone preparation.

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Sleep Health for Guides - Dagny Deutchman

Dagny Deutchman, PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology at Montana State University, will present to guides on understanding on how they can optimize sleep health during the busy season, as well as transitioning back to their frontcountry lives, and how this is crucial for overall wellness.

11:00 a.m. - Noon Raffle Winners & Closing Statements

Health Fair

The health fair is free for any attending guide.

Services available:

  • Skin cancer check

  • Physical therapy

  • Eye sight check

  • Chiropractic care

  • Blood work

  • Ask a MD

  • Ask an expert with a women’s health nurse

  • Living will preparation

  • Financial health assistance

  • Sober curious/Substance-free support

Michele Preuss, LCSW practices both in school social work and in private practice. She is located in the Wood River Valley of Idaho. Michele's areas of interest and training are in IFS (Internal Family Systems), the nervous system, and mindfulness. She has been teaching the Community Resiliency Model for over four years and is excited to bring it to the guiding community again at the Redside Rendezvous. Her husband has been guiding in the mountains of Idaho over twelve years now so this community is near and dear to her heart. In her spare time she enjoys rock climbing, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, making her own soap, and being a mom to a three year old named Owen.

Dr. Kindervater, D.O. Board Certified Physician, Founder of Sapia Health

I started this practice after a decade of treating the nation’s sickest and most broken patients in emergency rooms. I now focus on preventing illness with 21st century tools that allow us to optimize your nutrition, improve your movement, mobility, and performance, and use cutting edge treatments that show real promise to increase your functional lifespan. I’m interested in getting to know the real you, and helping you meet your goals, whatever they are. We have patients of all shapes, sizes, and health status. I like to think it’s not where you start from, but where you’re headed that matters. 

Life Flight Network is a not-for-profit patient transport service providing helicopter, fixed-wing, and ground ambulance transport throughout OregonWashingtonIdaho, and
Montana. Our mission is saving lives with industry-leading care and transport. This aligns with the values of Life Flight Network’s owner consortium of non-profit, world-class healthcare systems.

Every employee at Life Flight Network is dedicated to saving lives by providing exceptional, safe, and expeditious ICU-level care and transport. For over 45 years, Life Flight Network has provided award-winning service and support to patients, hospitals, and EMS, ensuring all patients receive the highest quality care and transport.

From the mountains of Montana and the backcountry of Idaho to the plains of Washington and the Oregon coastline, our services are woven into the regions we serve. We live, work, and play in these communities. Residents and visitors alike entrust us to come to their aid when they need us most—a responsibility we do not take lightly.

Daniel Skelton graduated college with a degree in business management and computer science and went into insurance straight after. I love numbers and as such am happy to really dive in to which plan suits your needs for the best value. Feel free to reach out with any questions, I specialize in Individual and Group Health Insurance, as well as Medicare. When I’m out of the office I love to be up at the cabin and relax in the water on the weekends. Now that I no longer play collegiate Lacrosse, I now have also picked up playing spike ball, pickleball, and skiing to stay active.  

Greg McFadden has been a member of Team Canyons since 1994. He has been enjoying his role as Canyons owner/outfitter since 2010. While he continues to harness his creative skills, he also takes pride in honoring the true foundations of Canyons established by the original owners, Les & Susan Bechdel. The long-standing cornerstone of Canyons is safety. As a kayaker, a boatman, a professional ski guide, a business owner, a snow safety manager, and a watercolor artist, Greg still manages to find time to guide a trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon each year for AzRA. He is often found riverside with his paintbrush, capturing his greatest inspiration…the river itself.

Dagny Deutchman pronouns are she/her/hers and they/them/theirs, I am a proud member of the queer and Jewish communities, and I have a fascination with bringing things together.

Whether it’s finding the academic overlaps between sleep, mindfulness and self-compassion, or working on collaborative art installments, or conservation work with storytelling—my passion lies in the exploration of unlikely, interrelated topics. I strive for all of my work to embody many different types of knowing including movement, art, science, community story sharing.

My specialties are community building & education, storytelling & public speaking, health-behavior research, habit building research, data management, and creative collaboration.

I want to know what projects lie in your heart and how I can help breathe life into them.

Jon Totten was born and raised in Wisconsin where fell in love with the great outdoors as a young boy.  He headed west to Idaho at the age of 18 in search of a higher education and a career in the wilderness.  Idaho’s vast mountains, rivers, and lakes didn’t let him down.  Upon graduation from the University of Idaho, Jon became a professional outdoor educator with the North Idaho College Outdoor Pursuits program where he spent 12 years leading countless adventures and falling deeply in love with sailing.  Jon would eventually earn his US Coast Guard Captain’s license and leave the college to work as a professional sailor piloting boats in the San Juan Islands of Washington state and throughout the Caribbean Sea.

Sammy & Jessica Matsaw, River Newe is a Community-Driven Mission: Our elders are our knowledge keepers & our youth see the world in a new way.

We promote and advocate intergenerational learning experiences within Shoshone-Bannock Traditional Knowledge and Teachings. This takes place in our traditional spaces, places, wild landscapes and rivers through four values Honor, Protect, Restore, & Heal. 

Nicole Owens graduated from the University of Idaho College of Law in 2007 and began her career defending indigent clients.  She believes that people are inherently good, and that poor people deserve the same opportunity and respect as the rich.  She looks for the humanity in everyone and pursues compassion and dignity while defending her clients.  She has worked for the Idaho State Appellate Public Defender, the Ada County Public Defender, and is currently the Executive Director of the Federal Defender Services of Idaho.  Because of her work, she understands the importance of mental health support and preventative care. When she isn’t in the courtroom, you’ll find her skiing, hiking, and rafting. 

Seth Dahl is a 4th generation Montanan from Great Falls and now resides outside Bozeman where he lives with his wife Caylin and 10 month old daughter Jennings Mae.

Seth served seven years in Montana’s Army National Guard 1-163rd Infantry Battalion and deployed to Iraq in 2004. Upon his return, he studied photography at Montana State University and later graduated from The University of Montana School of Journalism in 2011.

His love of people and adventure found an outlet on Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon River where he seasonally guided for fifteen years. Seth enjoy’s fly fishing, hunting, art, working on his wooden McKenzie River driftboat, and bouncing down dirt roads with Caylin, who always sees the animals.

Jeremy Deim is the Vice President of Idaho Mounatin Search and Rescue, a volunteer organization dedicated to saving lives through search, rescue, and mountain safety education.

Dr. Shane Baird, DVM was born and raised in Boise, ID and spent as much time in the wilderness as possible, hunting, fishing and doing anything outdoors. With his love for animals and desire to constantly learn, he decided he would like to become a veterinarian. Shane went to school at Colorado State University for his undergraduate degree and stayed to get his DVM. He along with his wife Jeanine managed their mobile vet clinic called Mobile Veterinary Services.

Jonna Winger grew up with movement as a central focus of my life. From an early age, skiing, soccer, hiking and running became a lifeline for fun and mental maintenance. In my early 20's, I had a back injury that brought me down – and I was told the only option was surgery. While the surgery took away the pain for a bit, I was never able to get back to the activities I loved. Enter: Pilates. 

When my physical therapists introduced me to Pilates, I was instantly hooked. Finally, I’d found a movement method that empowered me and gave me the tools to create a foundation from the inside out. Inspired to learn as much about Pilates as possible, I completed my Pilates training in 2010 through Polestar Pilates and had the great fortune to continue to work and learn at Pinnacle Performance in Salt Lake City Utah. 

Lori Kohls, PT, DPT, RYT-200, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2008 with a doctorate degree in Physical Therapy. I started my career in pediatrics, and spent many years traveling as a contract physical therapist working with all age groups. This allowed me to work in many settings and expand my skills and expertise. Recently, I have taken several advanced training courses in treating the fitness athlete and runners.

In addition to using traditional treatments to deal with musculoskeletal issues and sports injuries, I adopt a hands-on approach and utilize a variety of alternative treatments including dry needling and cupping to provide clients with the most comprehensive treatment possible. I have been dry needling for the past several years with excellent results.

The Pisten Bullys are an original alt country western band based out of West Ketchum whose catalog consists of songs about living in Idaho and a large amount of covers that encapsulate the tonal mission of the band. The make up of the Bullys include James Tautkus (vocals, guitar), Chris Zarkos (drums), Drew Kirk (guitar, vocals), and Sean Kovich (bass, vocals). The pride of the Bullys aims to throttle down keeping folks on the dance floor two-stepping and have a good time. Country, dance, lose your mind, all night long.