Our Guides
Mark Zoller
— guiding since 1985 —
I love it when people ask “does the river go in a circle”?
Richard aka “Rooster”
— guiding since 1985 —
Rooster spends 1/2 his year in Mexico and the other half here in the Columbia River Gorge. Its 100% sunshine in his life.
Rachel
— guiding since 2004 —
There is not a woman on the river that has guided as long as Rachel has, but she also has a secret identity. Under the code name “Yellow Elanor,” Rachel has about 50K Instagram followers. I’ll let you check it out to see why she is so popular.
Taylor
— guiding since 1993 —
Taylor grew up right here in BZ Corner and would beg my dad for a job as a little kid. Well, he got it!
Ryan
— guiding since 1997 —
Within Ryan’s first season with Zoller’s he became the 3rd most requested guide with the company.
bb
— guiding since 2014 —
BB says, “God brought me to the White Salmon River like a horse to still waters and green pastures”.
dave
— guiding since 1998 —
Dave owns over 30 kayaks. Something is very wrong with that.
Casey
— guiding since 2011 —
Casey says that when he became a guide on the White Salmon River that he was pretty sure he’d died and gone to heaven.
Nora
— guiding since 2018 —
Miss Smarty Pants! Nora started working in the office at age 15. She got her pilot’s license at age 16 and was the Valedictorian of her class. In 2018 was voted smartest river guide on the White Salmon River.
Graham
— guiding since 2018 —
“Zoller’s River School is NOT a pathway to employment” I always say. But then, I met Graham and could not say no.
David
— guiding since 2007 —
David applied for the job of CEO at Zoller’s. Quickly recognizing that David was a man looking for a title, I offered him the position of “Cheif Executive of Aqutic Happiness” (raft guide). The rest is history.
Shane
— guiding since 1998 —
Did you know that you can get Shane to do anything by offering him a Snickers bar? Its true. Try it!
Seth
— guiding since 2015 —
Seth showed up on a Monday as a rafting customer, heard about our river school that started in 4 days and by day #3 of the school I put my arm around his shoulder and asked him if he wanted a job.
Justin
— guiding since 2021 —
The one and only Rookie of 2021. While Zoller’s Outdoor Odysseys likes to brag about being the first outfitters ever on the White Salmon River Justin’s family goes back even further by starting their family dairy farm on the White Salmon River in 1884. Justin’s not that old, in fact he is hoping to start shaving soon.
Ben
— guiding since 1995 —
Starting his guiding career in Idaho where he grew up, Ben worked his way a little west and landed here on the White Salmon River. Ben is in contention for having guided more people down the White Salmon than any river guide ever.
Morgan
— guiding since 1995 —
When Morgan showed up in this valley he was dead broke having just finished college and took a job as a youth pastor at a tiny church. Becoming a guide was a true boost of income!
Zach
— guiding since 2006 —
Zach holds a fun record on the White Salmon River as the youngest person to ever guide a raft over Husum Falls (non-commercial) which he did at age 12.
Woody
— guiding since 2006 —
Woody holds a special record for running Husum Falls, which he ran twice in a span of about 3 seconds. It was epic and I’ve got photos to prove it!
Mckenzie
— guiding since 2010 —
As a little girl, McKenzie would write tickets to the guides for leaving their river gear out of place, quickly gaining the nickname “The Boss”. To this day, when she visits from Canada to help out, the guides greet her as “The Boss”.
Conor
— guiding since 2018 —
Every hard-core boater knows that the Columbia River Gorge is central to the best whitewater anywhere and that is exactly why Conor moved here. His second reason was to become part of the ZooRaft team.
Saunders
— guiding since 2007 —
Sunder’s parents told him to get a job or they would start charging him rent. So, he headed out of town to go boating. His car broke down in the parking lot of our rafting company and he had no money in his pockets. The rest is history.
Josh
— guiding since 2022 —
Josh showed up with amazing skills, but not yet old enough to guide the White Salmon River so we stuck him in the office and made him answer phones for a year! Happy 18th birthday and welcome to the team!
Bryce
— guiding since 2009 —
Bryce is super thankful for his degree in political science. It reminds him of how great it is to be a rafting guide. Bryce’s grandfather was the inventor of the self-bailing floor which absolutely revolutionized the rafting industry.
Jenny
— guiding since 2021 —
When Jenny interviewed for a position on our staff we asked her to show how bold she was and she promptly sang the national anthem. Acapella! Best interview I’ve ever been part of!
Jevon
— guiding since 2013 —
Special skills: Cliff jump testers. Bee and snake chaser.
Max
— guiding since 2009 —
Max wears glasses. But, he does not need them.
Malorie
— guiding since 2015 —
Malorie loves bad “dad jokes”. Ask her what her favorite one is.
Jason
— guiding since 2009 —
Jason drives an ambulance. Not for a career, but as a summer home. Yep, he’s a true hard core whitewater guide that lives the simple life all summer long so he can hang out with you on the river.
Tanner
— guiding since 2017 —
Tanner spent 3 weeks in the Grand with four Zoller guides and by the end of the expedition they convinced him to pull up roots from the Upper K and become a guide on the White Salmon. Tanner believes that Big Foot is real. And the tooth fairy.
Kendall
— guiding since 1991 —
Kendall showed up on the doorsteps of Zoller’s in 2000 and is currently the third oldest river guide on the White Salmon River, only because Mark and Rooster are still alive. His goal is to catch up in age with Mark and Rooster but he has yet to make any headway.
AJ
— guiding since 2019 —
A rugby player, engineering student and speaker of german. What a combo. She can communicate well in multiple languages, explain how to paddle whitewater in mathematical form and if you don’t respond well, she’ll tackle you!
Jerry
— guiding since 2001 —
Jerry cut his teeth guiding in West Virginia and like so many before and after him he set his compass to the Pacific North West and joined “team Zoller”.
Sean
— guiding since 2022 —
To me, it seemed out of the blue that Sean approaches me at church and says “Mr. Zoller, I want you to teach me how to be a whitewater guide”. Well, I had no idea that he’d be a bit of a phenom rafting guide. Now he’s on the river styling it with the best river guides in the nation.
Our Front Office Staff
Sherri Zoller
— The “real boss” since 2001 —
Don’t let the eight little grandkids trailing behind her fool you. She is actually the only person that knows what is going on around here.
Karen Smith
— Operation Staff since 2005 —
A mild-mannered Librarian in the winter, a wild woman in the office for summer. Karen has the power to make executive decisions.
Amanda Zoller-Higashino
— Operation Staff since 2008 —
She started working the front counter as a little girl and is now the retail manager. When a Hawaiian boy wanted to marry her she made him learn how to guide a raft first.
Jodie Wurzer
— Operation Staff since 2015 —
Wahoo! Jodie is in the house. Enthusiasm is her top three traits.
Mae Robison
— Operation Staff since 2016 —
With a humble start of pulling weeds and mowing the lawn, she proved she had the grit to work the retail center. Welcome to the big leagues.
Aurora Zoller
— Future CEO —
At age two she became the companies official greeter and looks forward to being old enough to join the staff and work the retail center. Until then she’ll keep setting up a lemonade stand and diverting business from the retail center