Our Team
JUSTIN ISKRA
Executive Director
Justin moved to Wyoming in 2004 to attend University of Wyoming and it wasn’t long after moving that he began spending most his time at Vedauwoo. He visited Lander for the International Climbers’ Festival during undergrad and was finally convinced to move to Lander in 2013. He has spent innumerable hours in boulder fields all over Wyoming and is sometimes seen climbing on a rope.
VAL SHAO
Events and Marketing Coordinator | International Climbers’ Festival Director
Val has been climbing for over 10 years, after finding it as a PE course. What started as a requirement to graduate, quickly became a hobby after an "Intro to Outdoor Rock" course during the fall months in the Gunks of upstate NY.
During her travels, she arrived in Lander in 2021 psyched on the ease of access to the outdoors and the countless quality limestone lines all within a short drive. This year, she is thrilled to bring together the companies and brands that have fostered her climbing "career" for so many years as well as the countless incredible humans she's met all along her travels.
Board of Directors
Peter NicholS | Co-chair
Peter first came to Lander in a late 80’s Toyota 2wd Truck. It was a humble house on wheels that was not impervious to water but did have the capacity to go both forwards and backward through space. Peter now lives in Lander in a HOUSE! He teaches English Language Arts at Lander Middle School. Unreasonably passionate about rock climbing, Peter endeavors to share the stoke with the young people he serves.
Brian Dunnohew | co-chair
Brian is a Wyoming native that grew up hiking, camping and climbing in the Wind River mountains with his father and brother. He has helped develop boulders, routes and crags around Wyoming and northern Utah. He first fell in love with Lander while on a climbing trip to Sinks Canyon in 1999. From then on, Brian would spend as much time as possible in Lander until he finally made it his permanent home in 2018. Brian is frequently seen out at the crag with one of his whippets/velociraptors/noodle horses.
Kristen Lovelace | Vice Chair
Kristen moved to Lander in 2014 to work as a graphic design intern and live in a place that has climbing in its backyard. Quickly falling in love with the community and the potential for much growth, she took a full time job with NOLS. She is now a senior graphic designer for NOLS, and in her free time, she pursues ways to combine her passion for rocks and illustration.
Sydney Hartsock | treasurer
Originally from the Seattle area, Sydney first began traveling to Lander to work for NOLS and climb in 2009. Having fallen in love with Lander’s incredible community and access to outdoor fun over the years, Sydney made the move permanent in 2021. She now mixes consulting work focused on organizational change and transformation with occasional NOLS adventures for work. She can usually be found seeking perfect crag temps, trail rambling with her pup Arlo, and gobbling up all forms of story-telling.
Jake Dickerson | Secretary
Jake grew up in Colorado where he attended the University of Colorado and obtained a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After graduating, he moved to Lander in 2017 for the amazing limestone sport climbing and welcoming community. He joined the Wild Iris Mountain Sports team early on, and still works there as a buyer and manager. In his free time, he enjoys falling off of his projects and looking for new routes to develop. He can usually be found climbing slabs at Fairfield Hill.
Rick Guerrieri | Director
Rick began climbing in the mid 1970's. He spent almost 30 years working as a park ranger primarily at Rocky Mountain and Grand Teton National Parks. He first climbed at the Cirque of Towers in 1979 and began climbing on Lander crags in the early 1990's. Rick is active establishing new routes and repeating classic climbs. He has been a participant and volunteer in numerous International Climbers Festivals beginning with the second festival. Rick enjoys all the outdoor activities available in the Lander areas and the great climbing community.
Zach Nadiak, Director
Zach moved to Lander from southwestern Colorado in 2015. What started as a summer of climbing, turned into a full time move. Zach worked as a cook and bartender at the Cowfish Restaurant for several years and currently works for the Bureau of Land Management. The excellent access to numerous sport crags, and close vicinity to the Wind River Range, provides Zach with a lifetime of recreation within a few hours of town. Zach can usually be found enjoying shady afterwork crags or exploring lesser traveled cliffs on the weekends.
Amy Skinner, Director
Amy came to Lander in 1989 to explore what is now the magical Wild Iris. After many years of travel - climbing and fighting fires- she found home and started raising her family. Amy is an owner of Wild Iris Mountain Sports and one of the founders of The Houlihan Narratives. Her favorite place on the planet is on the back porch of the cabin at Pass Creek - telling and listening to stories with her children and watching the last light on the North Country.
Nate Liles, Director
Originally hailing from British Columbia, Nate has been visiting the Lander area to climb for the last 20 years. After some years of living nomadically in the western states he settled in Lander full time a couple of years back. Crag stewardship and access is a priority for Nate and he spends a great deal of his personal time replacing old bolts, training individuals and LCO’s how to sustainably extract and replace hardware, and working with land managers to preserve the climbing resource. He has replaced old bolts on hundreds of routes, mostly at popular, high-traffic single pitch cragging areas.
Tom Casey, Director
Tom moved to Lander in 2013 after serving an enlistment in the Army. Like many others, he came for the climbing but stayed for the community. He works at Fort Washakie High School where he teaches welding, woodworking, and automotive technology. Most of the time, he can be found in one of three places: at the high school shop, at the crag, or at home with his wife Rachel, their two young children and their dog Houlihan.
Interested in joining the Board?
Click on the link below to learn about Board Director Duties and how to submit a letter of interest.