Meet Christian King – 2021 Public Lands Stewards Intern

Growing up I moved around a lot and didn’t really stay in one place more than a few years. I was born in Denver, but when I was 7 I moved to Arizona, lived in a couple cities on the Southeast side of Phoenix over the course of 4 years until I moved to Texas in 2011. I lived there for 4 years as well living in 2 different cities again, and moved back to the Northwest side of Phoenix in 2015. From there I graduated high school in 2017 and moved to Flagstaff, AZ for a year to go to Northern Arizona University as an undergrad in Forestry. I realized soon though that I didn’t want to take the degree route and dropped out to join the US Air Force as a SERE Specialist. I worked for 2 years to join but was eventually disqualified in early 2020 for childhood asthma. From there I decided to pursue a career in professional mountain guiding, which brought me up to Washington State to train at the very start of 2021. The one thing that stayed constant throughout my childhood growing up was my love for the outdoors. There was always a rock climbing gym wherever I lived, and I could always go hiking. Over the past few years I’ve trained more and more to better my skills in mountaineering and wilderness survival.