Burnt to a Crisp: Why Mountain Guides Experience High Rates of Burnout

Mountain guides are at elevated risk of burnout because their work combines long hours, high responsibility, physical and emotional demands, unpredictable schedules, and seasonal financial uncertainty. The transition out of a demanding season can bring its own challenges, including restlessness, sleep disruption, low mood, and difficulty adjusting to a slower pace.

Here it is, the day you’ve been waiting for. You get to sleep in your own bed, wake up without a 3am alarm, and bask in the glorious silence of a quiet house.

And yet: you feel agitated, restless, and toss and turn all night despite feeling completely depleted. You feel flat and down instead of how you think you should feel (grateful and happy). You have been looking forward to this moment all summer, but now that it’s arrived, you just feel apathetic.

Why Do Mountain Guides Struggle with Burnout?

Seasonal workers face a unique pattern of work-related stress. This is especially true for those whose work intensifies during the summer season, such as mountain guides, outdoor educators, park rangers, wildland firefighters, hospitality workers, among others.

High intensity, high demands.

Seasonal work can consume enormous amounts of physical, mental, and emotional energy. Instead of working a predictable eight-hour workday with established breaks, mountain guides may be working multiple days straight. There may be long hours, early mornings, minimal sleep, and very little time or energy left over for other parts of life.

High responsibility and risk.

Mountain guides work in high-stakes environments in which they are directly responsible for the welfare of other people. Making complex decisions in high-risk situations can be equally exhilarating and exhausting.

What can be fun also is stressful.

Seasonal work can involve relocation, travel, and a constantly changing environment. While seasonal work may appeal to people who enjoy these aspects of novelty and adventure, they simultaneously can be stressors in themselves. It can be hard to maintain routines around self-care, sleep, and other parts of life with an unpredictable schedule. After a few months, this can take its toll.

Financial anxiety.

Seasonal work often comes with a time stamp, which can kick anxiety around finances into overdrive. You may find yourself struggling with questions of what’s next even before the season ends.

What Does Burnout Look Like in Mountain Guides?

While burnout can look different from person-to-person, symptoms can include:

·       Exhaustion

·       Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much)

·       Irritability (having an especially short fuse)

·       Feeling overwhelmed by everyday decisions

·       Loss of interest in activities typically enjoyed

·       Social isolation

·       Feeling numb, flat, or mentally checked out

·       Feeling restless and directionless

What Helps Mountain Guides with Burnout:

Thankfully, there are many things that can help ease the intensity of work-related burnout in mountain guides.

Be gentle with yourself and embrace the transitional period.

Patience and self-compassion are critical in the early phases of transitioning out of the season. It can feel like psychological whiplash to go from a high-intensity, high-risk work environment to a completely open schedule. Putting pressure on yourself to jump immediately back into productivity can have a paradoxical effect – not only will you feel more stressed, but the anxiety may actually get in the way of productivity.  

What is needed here is time. Your brain is working on overdrive to integrate the intense experiences you just had, and adjust to a new pace of life. If your schedule allows, take the opportunity to rest and gently ease back into routines. Do more of whatever fills your cup, whether that is time with friends, finding solitude in nature, or traveling someplace totally different.

The key here is to notice when you are putting pressure on yourself to feel a certain way, and to instead meet these thoughts and emotions with understanding and kindness.

Rebuild Routines and Structure.

While a true break may be necessary for mental decompression following an intense season, eventually it will be time to get back on track with habits and routines. When many parts of life have been “on hold” for months, it can feel overwhelming to know where to begin.

Make a list for yourself of all the things you both need to do and want to do. Identify 2-3 priorities for the next week. Then, make an action plan – what are the actual steps involved with getting started? The more that you can break these down into small, manageable pieces, the more likely you will be to follow through.

Tackling goals one step at a time eases the feeling of overwhelm, while also creating necessary momentum for the next chapter.

Reconnect with What Matters.

Rest and recovery can help recharge spent batteries at the end of a long season, but it’s equally important to consider how you want to spend your time once you have more of it.

Values are compass points that give our lives direction and meaning. These compass points can shift and change alongside life experiences, stressors, and traumas. Your values may be different today than they were at the start of the season.

Ask yourself: “What matters most to me right now outside of work?” It could be spending more quality time with loved ones and less time on your phone, giving back to your community, taking care of your physical body, or reconnecting with spirituality.

When Should a Mountain Guide Seek Professional Help?

For symptoms of burnout that continue to escalate to the point that they get in the way of daily life, impact relationships, or cause significant distress, consider reaching out for support from a mental health professional - especially one who understands the complexities and nuances of outdoor culture. Therapy modalities such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are effective for treating stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and other concerns. Some individuals also find benefit from medication management as well.

Conclusion

Coming out of a long, difficult season is a big adjustment. Given the high-intensity, high-demand, high-risk nature of many types of seasonal work, it is understandable why many mountain guides wrap up the season feeling burnt to a crisp.

Just as your body needs time to recover after intense exertion, so too does your mind. You can facilitate psychological recovery by meeting yourself with compassion and patience, easing back into routines and habits, and reorienting yourself to what matters most in this new chapter.

Little by little, these efforts can take you from “burnt” to “toasty” and, eventually, “just warm bread.”

This post also appears on psychologytoday.com.

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‍Author Bio

Dr. Annie Mueller is a licensed clinical psychologist who works with outdoor athletes as they navigate grief, loss, trauma, or big life changes. Her clinical work also addresses anxiety, depression, trauma, and health and aging-related changes. Book your free 15 minute phone call to learn more about how online therapy for burnout can help.