From a dairy farm in Bavaria to an off the grid cabin and wilderness guiding in Alaska.
My passion is seeing wildlife in their natural habitat, being in the mountains and deserts and finding remoteness, solitude as well as making connections with people and learning, sharing and experiencing other cultures. I have had a natural curiosity since I was a child and I am a born explorer and nomad.
My dream did come true when I moved to Alaska in 2002 and I became a wilderness guide.
My childhood was spent swimming in the lakes and working on a family farm in Bavaria, Germany. I am the oldest of 5 children. I did not camp, backpack or travel much at all. BUT I was always dreaming about it growing up.
I was not especially athletic or fit in my younger years, but I always had a natural curiosity about wild places and other parts of the world. After an Au Pair year in California I went backpacking in Alaska for 3 weeks and fell in love with the last frontier in 1996. In 2001 I moved to Alaska after winning a Green Card. For the last 22 years I have guided dozens of multi day wilderness tours by raft, kayak floating remote rivers in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Gates of the Arctic National Park. I have done more than 30 multi day tours in Katmai National Park kayaking the 90 mile Savonovski Loop and backpacking the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes exploring Novarupta.
In 2009 I started guided mountain bike tours in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona in the spring and fall near Hurricane Utah on the famous Gooseberry Mesa and in Northern Arizona.
https://utahmountainbiketours.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17AepQiEROc&t=4s
I started organizing multi day mountain bike tours in Utah, Colorado, Alaska, Switzerland, Sardinia and Germany with girl friends and I had so much fun that I decided to make this a full time thing and put together women’s adventure tours. 20+ years of guiding and traveling has taken me to 40 US states and about 35 countries.
https://katharinamerchant.substack.com/
https://www.instagram.com/kathimerchant/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharina-merchant-5094421
What else can do or know how to do?
I speak several languages: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish
Go without sleep, I am super adaptable, live in an off the grid cabin in Alaska, slept in bear country in a tent 250+ nights in Katmai National Park. Bivuaked at -40 in the middle of nowhere Alaska on the Iditarod Trail.
I know how to shovel cow shit or play classic music on a harp which I brought with me from Germany.
How many miles have I hiked or biked? Not sure. Many.
I also did many other jobs to support my guiding lifestyle including 2 summers ( 2021,2022) flying in a helicopter doing forestry survey work in the remote, roadless Kuskokwim region working for the state of Alaska.
Hundreds of nights spent in the Alaskan and Southwest backcountry, thousands of miles travled by bicycle and backpacking including Great Divide Route, Colorado Trail, Arizona Trail, Iditarod Trail as well as competing in ultra events such as La Ruta in Costa Rica, Breck Epic Colorado, Fat Pursuit, White Mountains 100, Fat Viking Norway.
2003 until 2020: long term involvement, co director and race director Iditarod Trail Invitational, building and managing ITI event from the ground up including establishing winter training camps and adopting ITI qualifiers in the US and abroad growing the field to allow 100 international participants. The ITI ultra is well known around the world in ultra racing circles and a household name in many european countries, New Zealand and Australia, where many particiapants come from. Establishing an annual winter training camp and in 2016 the Big Fat Ride in downtown Anchorag on 4th Ave including the Mayor and 500 fat bikers starting a 5 mile ride through the city along with a FAT BIKE EXPO and fat bike museum. Fat biking on Alaskan winter trails and continuing to grow and manage the ITI ultra on the famous 1000 mile long Iditarod Trail (mostly know for the sled dog race) was my passion for 18 years until my retirement in May of 2020.
https://itialaska.com/news/2020/5/13/kathi-merchant-retires
Other notable bikepacking tours, races, expeditions and travels:
2005: Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Canada to Mexico, 2500 miles in 30 days covering 70-90 miles per day and 12 hours per day in the saddle
winter of 2008: first woman riding a fat bike to Nome, 1000 miles on the Iditarod Trail 25 days
2017: 10 days bikepacking the Colorado Trail, bikepacking the Kokopelli Trail, 10 days bikepacking the Idaho Hot Springs Route and 10 days bikepacking the Monumental Loop in New Mexico
2018: bikepacking 10 days on the Oregon Timber Trail, Oregon
2018: 3 weeks trekking in Peru including the weeklong Santa Cruz Trek
2019: Grand Canyon Colorado River Rafting trip: 25 days
2021: spending a month in Cuba
2022: 8 weeks in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana driving 6000 miles and packpacking 7 days in the Drakensberg Mountains and in Lesotho
2023: 10 weeks trekking in Nepal 3 weeks and traveling in India, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, traveling 1000 miles by scooter
Futher experiences: paddling Esclante River, sea kayaking in Prince William Sound, 33 trips ranging 7-10 days guiding kayaking and backpacking tours in Katmai National Park, 3 rafting trips each two weeks long on the Kongaut River in ANWR as well as the Canning River/Marsh Fork and kayaking the Kokolik River with clients, paddling 100 miles in Wood Tikchik State Park, all 5 lakes conneted by 3 creeks.
3 times participating in the La Ruta 3 day stage race in Cosa Rica (2014,2015.2016)
womens mountain bike tours each lasting a week in Sardinia, Switzerland, Durango to Moab and the Palatine forest in Germany.
Other references/publications:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharina-merchant-50944218/
https://bikepacking.com/plog/rad-women-bikepacking-part-4-builders/
https://limitlesspursuits.com/events/events-parent/iditarod-trail-invitational/
