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Our Team
Robert Patenaude
KWT President and Certified Hiking Guide
 Rob has been hiking and backpacking throughout the Canadian Rocky Mountains for decades and along with a wealth of incredible experience he holds many certifications and training credentials. He is a certified ACMG Hiking Guide, Canada's only internationally-recognized certification, a certified MPHIA wilderness interpretor, a purple stage outdoor leader, Scouts Canada's highest certification, he holds an advanced wilderness first aid and CPR certificate, and has been trained in various wilderness skills and survival techniques. He is also an accomplished entrepreneur, with over 20 years experience running his own companies, and is a master woodworker when he can find the time.
Troy Patenaude, BA, MA, Ph.d (a.b.d.)
KWT Program Leader and Certified Hiking Guide
 Troy is as knowledgeable a guide as you'll find anywhere and just as committed to his craft. He is in the middle of his PhD right now, studying cultures and healing through the arts, and uses this as an interesting bridge between the many cultures of people he guides on his wilderness outings. He is a certified ACMG Hiking Guide, a certified MPHIA wilderness interpreter, and is certified in advanced wilderness first aid and CPR. He has hiked and backpacked throughout the Rocky Mountains, all over Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, throughout England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, in the Alps in Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France, and in the jungles of Guyana, South America. He speaks French as well and has worked with various First Nations tribes throughout South America, and the coast and mountains of BC. His knowledge of traditional plants and medicines, history, traditional living skills, healing practices, and traditional stories and songs makes any journey with him a fun and completely new experience.
Various First Nations Elders
KWT Inter-Cultural Sharing Facilitators
 We have developed many relationships over the years with elders from many nations around North America, especially Western Canada and the Northwestern United States, including Cowichan, Nuxalk, Blackfoot, Ojibway, Mohawk, Nakoda, Cree, Lakota, Nez Perce, and Cherokee. They all contribute in their own unique ways, and all are gifted and experienced inter-cultural facilitators and community leaders.
Tabatha Schneider-Glawe
Certified Rafting Guide
 Tabatha's water guiding certifications may only be surpassed by her incredible charm and free-spirit. She is the trip leader for all our river rafting excursions on the Kootenay River. She is a certified white-water rafting guide, a swift-water rescue level 3 technician, and a certified PADI diving instructor. She has led groups on shark-feeding tours in Honduras, swimming with wild dolphin tours in New Zealand, and snorkelling with Humpback Whale tours in Tonga. Her latest journeys have taken her out to Bamfield on Vancouver Island's west coast as an assistant dive researcher for marine biologists on a sea urchin and sea star project. Her love for ecological conservation efforts, nature, and eco-tourism make her a perfect complement to our KWT team and responsibility policies, and her personality is often integral to all interesting conversations at the dinner table.
Marilyn Patenaude
KWT Manager and Artist
 Marilyn is a multi-talented artist, chef, accountant, cleaner, administrator, and decorator and helps ensure smooth running and transition periods in our kitchen, cabins, and lodge. She fills in superbly when needed for our signature gourmet meals after a long hike or day on the river, and just as easily helps keep things clean and efficient for our guests, whether in the cabins, lodge, or over the phone. Her years of experience running a catering business and cleaning business in Calgary show through, as she adds a love and charm to her cooking and to the facility that you can feel. Marilyn is also our resident artist, whose imagination has filled our wilderness cabins with their own personal charm and cozy atmosphere. Her talents extend to her successful bi-annual painting retreats held out here in the Rocky Mountains and her attention to detail resonates in both her painting and interior decorating.
Jeff Webber
KWT Head Chef and Maintenance
 Jeff's hands are always working magic whether gently finessing knives for a gourmet garnished fruit platter or hammers and wrenches in the maintenance of our facility and natural power systems. He has been a close family friend and next door neighbour for decades and has developed his skills and training over the last 10 years. After completing his culinary arts diploma at SAIT in Calgary, he has juggled construction jobs with cooking jobs around western Canada. Inspired by his parents' love for cooking and his passion for entertaining while living in Australia, he has worked the past decade in various restaurants and kitchens from the Calgary area to a series of five-star wilderness lodges in Northern Manitoba. Most recently Jeff has worked as a Sous Chef for hunting, fishing, and wilderness camps during caribou, goose, and polar bear tours in these five-star wilderness lodges. His meals included in our packages rival those of the most expensive restaurants in the nearby mountain towns, including Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper. And his sense of humour and amazing stories, ranging from polar bear encounters to adventure travel in Peru, Columbia, Australia, Chile, and Europe, make him as colourful a character as his Exotic Spinach Salad.
Kim Bowen
KWT Assistant
 Kim is the safety net of our wilderness retreat keeping everything moving forward for the guides, cook, crew, and guests. She may be found shopping, at the computer checking emails, organizing program dates, cooking, cleaning cabins or the lodge, starting the outdoor hot tub, delivering wood for fires, or driving guests to or from various destinations. She worked with Jeff as an assistant in the five-star wilderness lodges of Northern Manitoba and they are proud to announce their love for each other at any given moment. They are a great team and Kim's cheerfullness and kindness are as much a glue to their team as it is to ours at Kootenay Wilderness Tours.
Zoe
Assistant Guide and Tracker
 Hailing from the beaches of Vancouver Island, and just as comfortable with the terrain of the Rocky Mountains, Zoe is a wilderness adventurer extraordinaire. She's traveled throughout the wilderness of western Canada, by boat, backpack, and paw, and is proud to bark about her encounters with the orcas and seals of Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island, the grey whales of the Pacific Ocean near Bamfield Marine Science Centre, a black bear at the start of the West Coast Trail, and many moose, deer, and elk on the various trails near Cross River Cabins in the Rockies. She will fill your trip with smiles, kisses, and perhaps a little envy as you watch her gracefully bound to the tops of steep slopes with four legs (as we hobble along with our two). Besides making new friends, Zoe's favorite things to do are going on long walks in the wilderness, chasing squirrels, playing with sticks, and eating wild salmon.
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