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!
Lizzie
— guiding since 2017 —
She’s full of spunk, energy and skill. If you are in her raft you WILL know who the captain is. Lizzie runs tight lines on the river. Full-time raft guiding is what she does. There is no fall-back. She’s all in.
bb
— guiding since 2014 —
BB says, “God brought me to the White Salmon River like a horse to still waters and green pastures”.
Jean-Philippe
— guiding since 2016 —
Jean-Philippe est un guide d’eaux avec une carriere dans plusieurs pays. Jean-Philippe vit le reve saisonnier depuis de nombreuses annees, passant des journees enneigees dans une tente de prospecteur a la conduite sur des rivieres sauvages et isolees a travers le continent nord-americain.
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.
Grantis
— guiding since 2018 —
Growing up in Colorado, Grantis summited more than 100 peaks, but gravity brought him down to the river where he makes his living. He still regturns to the mountains for his winter work, but the summer is all about guiding rafts. Grantis has never dated anyone famous, but he is open to the idea. Ask him about his mad skills at playing, Exploding Kittens (its a card game).
Amelia
— guiding since 2017 —
I kid you not, we got Amelia to guide at Zoller’s becuase her transmission failed. A day in which good fortune smiled on us. Since becoming an adult, she has lived in a van or tent more than she has lived in a house. Now, we’re going to help Amelia get that transmission fixed, but we are taking away the keys so she can never leave us.
Harrison
— guiding since 2024—
After graduation Magna Cum Laude and holding the title to two state championships in two sports Harrison made the wise decision to put those sharp thinking skills and athletic abilities to proper use and jumped into guiding whitewater rafts. Just for fun, Harrison has memorized the order of every President of the United states and has every detail of Monopoly memorized. He is also a self proclaimed “semi-pro” cliff diver, although I have no idea what it means to be such.
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!
Cole
— guiding since 2023 —
From teaching sailing in the south to becoming a surfer (thats what you do when you get a van) to whitewater rafter/kayaker throughout the western US, Coal’s life is one epic adventure, not to mention his mad cliff climbing skills. On the river in the back of a raft, he is “mr. smooooooth”.
Phoenix
— guiding since 2022 —
Just like myself (Mark Zoller) Phoenix is a second generation whitewater guide. One of my favorite memories of Phoenix is of her and her dad sending it down the river R2 style for Father’s Day weekend. Not only can Phoenix drive a whitewater raft down the river, she also drives the “Duck Truck” ( ask her ab0ut it). And if that was not enough, she jams on the sousaphone in marching band.
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.
Erika
— guiding since 2024 —
Never in my career have I had more guests compliment a rookie guide like they did for Erika in 2024, her debut season. She absolutley cares about everyone. She is the Chief Officer of Adventure Child Development (she’s raising her little girl to be hard core just like she is). She and her husband live in the middle nowhere. So much so, there is no cell service.
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.
Malorie
— guiding since 2015 —
Malorie loves bad “dad jokes”. Ask her what her favorite one is.
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.
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.
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. And, he’s becoming one of he best 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.
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
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.