Greg Witt, Alpenwild Chief Adventure Officer

Greg Witt, adventure guide and author, lives the adventures he writes about. His explorations have taken him to every corner of the globe. He has led mountaineering expeditions in the Alps and Andes and paddled wild rivers in the Americas. He has dropped teams into golden slot canyons, trudged through deep jungles in Africa, Central America, and Asia, and guided archaeological expeditions across the parched Arabian Peninsula. He lives most of the year in the Swiss Alps, near the border of France and Italy. He is as at home on the Haute Route as he is hiking in the Jungfrau, or eating apple strudel in Zermatt. Some weeks, Greg hikes more miles than he drives, which means he wears out his boots faster than he wears out tires. He has crossed the Grand Canyon on foot more than a dozen times, climbed Colorado's three highest peaks in three days, and while guiding in the Alps in a typical summer hikes over 700 miles, gaining nearly 100,000 vertical feet-the equivalent of climbing Everest nine times. In the summer of 2017 he hiked and guided on all four of the great Alps Treks—the Tour du Mont Blanc, the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route, the Bernese Oberland Traverse, and the Eiger to Matterhorn trek.

He is a Wilderness First Responder, a Fellow with the Royal Geographical Society, and a Certified Switzerland Specialist. His passion for the Alps always focuses on sharing the experience with others through guiding, and his engaging writing and presentation style. Alpenwild's roots go back to the summer of 1970, when Greg first visited and fell in love with the Swiss Alps as a teenager backpacking through Europe. As an avid world traveler with a hunger for adventure travel and off-the-beaten path corners of the world, he returned to the Alps many times. In 1986, he started the travel company which enabled him to share his love of the Alps with Europe-bound travelers. Greg is the author of 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Salt Lake City and Off the Tourist Trail (US Editor) and Ultimate Adventures: A Rough Guide to Adventure Travel. His featured releases for 2010 included Exploring Havasupai: A Guide to the Heart of the Grand Canyon (winner of the National Outdoor Book Award) and Best Easy Day Hikes: Salt Lake City. He is the author of Alpenwild's Best Hikes in the Swiss Alps (2012). His 2014 release is 50 Best Short Hikes in Utah's National Parks. His popular video series, Haute Route Essentials, has earned him the title "Mr. Haute Route."

During the summer of 2010 he became the first North American to receive the Alpsteinpass award for his expertise in hiking and guiding in Appenzell's Alpstein range. He was the 2015 recipient of the Goldflower Award from Switzerland Tourism in recognition for Alpenwild's high standards in its Switzerland tours. In the summer of 2019 he was recognized as the first American to be awarded the Wanderpass in recognition of completing the Via Alpina, a 19-day, 230 mile trek across the Swiss Alps

"Greg is very intuitive in planning and maximizing our time based on weather, energy level and scenery. It’s clear that he’s thought hard about what works and what doesn’t work. We had an amazing experience."        – S.H., Indiana

"Greg’s knowledge and love for Switzerland just enhanced every aspect of the tour. He’s extremely flexible, and is able to adapt each day’s activities to our needs, and the weather." – S.M., Alaska