Highside Adventure Tours is a fast growing, guide owned and operated outfitter. Offering fun & exciting river rafting and outfitting services, HAT offers a lot of opportunities for fun loving, hard working and dedicated people. John Cantamessa started Highside Adventure Tours after working for some of the largest adventure tour companies in Colorado. After working for these companies for many years, he became frustrated with the quality of service they provided there guests as well as the lack of fun and fulfillment in the work place. That's when he decided to start a company with emphasis on caring about our guests & employees and showing them the many wonders of this very special place we call home.

RESERVATIONS STAFF
We are looking for cheerful, intelligent, outgoing team players who enjoy talking with people from around the world on the phone. Responsibilities include – telephone reservations, filing, data entry, responding to e-mail inquiries, inventory control, checking in guests, handling money, and cleaning of office space. These positions are available at all three of our offices - Summit County, Idaho Springs, and Buena Vista.
Requirements for position:
  • Computer skills – Basic knowledge of Microsoft programs such as Excel, Word, etc.
  • Ability to prioritize and answer multiple phone lines
  • Customer service skills
  • Money handling and register balancing skills
  • Ability to work flexible hours and schedules
Position dates: Job starts in Mid May to early June and goes through Labor Day.

RESERVATIONS MANAGER
Highside Adventure Tours is looking for a responsible, outgoing reservations manager to train and manage reservations staff at the Summit County location.  Responsibilities include training and scheduling of staff to answer telephones and take reservations. Additional responsibilities include group sales, entering data into the reservations system, checking-in guests, taking payments from guests. This person will understand and know how the entire office should run and will act as assistant office manager when needed.
Requirements for position:
  • Computer skills – Basic knowledge of Microsoft programs such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint,   • QuickBooks etc.
  • Customer service skills
  • Ability to prioritize and answer multiple phone lines
  • Scheduling/management skills
  • Money handling and register balancing skills
  • Ability to work flexible hours and schedules
Position dates: Job starts in early May and goes through Labor Day weekend

DRIVERS
We are looking for experienced full and part time drivers for our fleet of buses and vans. Our drivers are required to have excellent safety and driving records as well as being in good health. You must have a current DOT physical, Colorado CDL and be able to pass a pre-employment and possible random drug screenings. We will need a copy of your driving records. You will need to have a class B license with passenger and air brakes endorsements. Driving of buses does include the use a trailer. Minimum age 25.

EXPERIENCED GUIDES
We are always looking for guides with commercial experience. Our experienced guides will be required to run both oar and paddle rafts. You must have accurate and up to date guide logs, including training and certification, to be eligible for employment. By Colorado law you will be required to have a minimum of Basic First Aid and CPR, but higher levels of medical skills and swift water rescue will improve your job prospects and daily pay. We hire only professionals and we expect the highest level of professionalism from our staff. You will be working for a guide owned and operated company who's owner often gets on the river. You must be available to work from mid May until September to be considered for employment. HAT runs three different rivers and we expect our more qualified guides to train and be certified on all three rivers. Our more experienced guides must be willing to travel from river to river. We have a very close-knit staff and most of our guides return year after year, so we are primarily looking for new guides who are interested in more than just one season's work, and this will be taken into consideration during hiring.

INEXPERIENCED GUIDES
For information on how to become a professional certified Colorado State guide check out the certification program below held each year in May.

PHOTOGRAPHERS
Hat is looking for photographers with experience in digital photography to set up and run the photo program for HAT. Responsibilities include picture taking, processing, sales, and organization of the entire photo program.

VISA’S
Employees needing visas to work in the US need to contact us at 970-668-1228 or e-mail us your information at info@raftingcolorado.com.  Visa space is limited. If you are not an American citizen and already have a work visa please contact us for more information.

This program is not only for people wanting to become a professional guide but also for those looking to learn the skill of river running for personal use.

Highside Adventure Tours (HAT) prides itself on providing fun & informative Whitewater rafting trips on some of Colorado's most exciting and popular rivers. HAT's qualified training staff has years of river experience on rivers all over the United States and around the world. The goal of our certification program is to train and certify individuals who are interested in exploring the amazing world of whitewater. Our training will teach the skills, techniques, thought processes, rigging, knot tying, and safety/rescue techniques needed to become a professional river guide. We will also be covering river dynamics, characteristics of moving water, river hazards, an introduction to rope rescue, shallow water techniques, causes and classifications of rapids and self-rescue.
Click here for whitewater certification info
DATES: 5/23/08 - 6/11/08

Training will begin on the Colorado River with basic fundamentals and safety techniques. From the beginning, we will then be challenging ourselves daily on Clear Creek and the Arkansas River. We will be setting aside time every day to conduct Swift water Rescue and Recovery training. We will also have specific days with instruction in flips, swims, boat wraps, pins and much more. You will be expected to swim in the river potentially everyday...rain, snow or shine. By the end of training, trainees will have acquired far more than the minimum state requirement of 50 hours of on-river training (the average trainee receives 100-110 hours of training). It's important to us and it should be to you that your training exceeds the standards of the state and the industry.

Our instructors have thousands of river miles, and years of experience. Their histories range from the US Army, to the University of Oregon. We emphasize a variety of training styles, with one to fit everyone who shows up. We take training very seriously. It is the foundation of your rafting career, and the foundation of our business. Our pledge to you is that your training will be of the highest quality possible.

Training will take approximately 21 days depending on weather and individuals ability to learn the necessary skills. Even though we hire all most all of our new guides from the training course, we'd like to emphasize that you are not guaranteed a job after the program is over. We plan on hiring all of the people that train with us, and if it doesn't work out with us, we will give you information on other employment opportunities in the area.

Highside Adventure Tours will also be offering a Standard First Aid & CPR class during our training program. This class will be conducted during 2 evenings throughout the 18-day course and is not included in the cost of training. Typical cost for CPR First aid is from $25-$50.

*NOTE: Standard First-Aid and CPR is a requirement to becoming a commercially certified guide so if you wish to acquire it before arriving for school it is a good idea.

If you would like to participate in our professional certification program, please contact us to receive a guide school application or download the job application from this page. Full payment is required to hold your space in the training program (non-refundable). Space for this course has been limited to ensure more personal instruction

Once again, participation in the course does not guarantee full time employment with Highside Adventure Tours. After completion of the guide certification program, participants will have met all of the requirements for entry-level guide positions on rivers throughout Colorado. HAT will however, consider and give priority to those seeking employment that have trained with HAT.

FEEL THE SPIRIT * EXPLORE THE BEAUTY * LIVE THE ADVENTURE!

Guide Job Description

JOB SUMMARY:
Serve as a whitewater rafting guide on both paddle and oar rafts. Guides will run half day, full-day and multi-day river trips on the four different rivers – Clear Creek, the Arkansas, the Colorado, and the Blue.  Guides primary responsibility is to deal directly with our guests, seeking to provide the best possible guest vacation experience. Guides are part of a fast growing company emphasizing quality service, teamwork and most of all FUN.

GUIDE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Run ½ day, full day and multi-day trips on the Arkansas River, Upper Colorado River and Clear Creek. Captain both paddle and oar boats.
• Full-time Arkansas guides may be running occasional trips on Clear Creek (early season) and the Upper Colorado.
• Pack trip food.
• Clean guide areas, refrigerators and "kitchens".
• Pack and load necessary equipment for trips going out and unpack and unload after the trip is done;
• Maintain a good sense of humor and cooperative attitude in dealing with co-workers and guests.
• Communicate well with head guide, owners, office manager and co-workers.
• Learn about natural environment and history of area and share that knowledge with our guests.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:
Employees are evaluated on thoroughness in performing duties, pleasant attitude, dependability, punctuality, initiation, flexibility, mature judgment, willingness to learn and your ability to be a team player

QUALIFICATIONS:
Must be at least 18 years old. Must be willing to live and work at all of three offices in Colorado for the summer and must have a way of communication when away from the office (pager, cell phone or phone with answering machine). Must have a professional attitude, and be willing to learn and accept new ideas. Must be able to work long hours and not be subject to burnout and moodiness. Must work well under pressure and be a team player. Guides must purchase various gear such as a type III (minimum) lifejacket, a knife, whistle, cold weather gear (wetsuit or equivalent), a throw bag, dry bag, and personal cam-straps (purchases may be made through pro-deals).