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Ricky Becker
In the fall of 2011 Valley Catholic welcomed Ricky Becker, one of the area’s premier guides and outdoorsmen, to its staff as Outdoor Club leader. Ricky’s most well-known as a whitewater guide, but he’s also a mountaineer, back-country skier, kayaker, fly fisherman, backpacker, naturalist . . . if it’s anything in the outdoors, Ricky’s done it.
Ricky’s been one of Riverdrifters’ top guides since 2005, specializing in the White Salmon (but he also guides the even bigger-time Wind River). He was born on the White Salmon—his dad has been supervisor of its dam, the Condit, for the last 33 years. (The 98-year-old dam was breached in October, 2011 and its lower section restored to its native wildness. The upper and middle sections have always been wilder than wild. The breaching and eventual removal is a fascinating subject; you can learn more about it at http://www.whitesalmonriver.org/.)
Ricky has worked extensively in wilderness therapy with Sage Walk, The Wilderness School and is finishing a Master’s of Social Work at Portland State, for which he interned as a counselor at Morrison Child and Family Services as an Adolescent Counselor and Youth Care Specialist. For the last six winters—when there was no whitewater guiding to be done—Ricky worked at Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort, where he was in charge of all parking-lot operations: bus transportation, snow removal, customer service, equipment maintenance, and employee scheduling and relations.