SMI is a Bishop based company offering mountaineering guiding and instruction (in the Sierra Nevada) throughout the year for beginning through advanced level mountaineers. Offerings include peak ascents such as Mt. Whitney, other Sierra 14ers, and all peaks in this great mountain range. Also offered are instructional programs and guided trips in mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing, back-country skiing, backpacking, avalanche courses, wilderness navigation, and custom offerings.

Participants on SMI trips get to experience first hand the unique environment of the Sierra Nevada. Guides are experts in the history, geology, flora, and fauna of this great range. The Sierra is accessible year round and each season brings its own unique environment to discover and explore.

SMI guides are based locally and have spent many decades exploring and guiding in this great mountain range. Come experience the Sierra through the eyes of guides who are intimately familiar with this special mountain range that they call their back yard!

SMI is based in Bishop along the base of the Eastern Sierra and operates trips throughout the range. During the winter months trips offered include peak ascents, back-country skiing, ice climbing, and avalanche courses. During the spring, summer, and fall rock climbing, mountaineering skills seminars, peak ascents, backpacking trips, and trout fishing are popular. SMI guides are experts in all these back-country adventures.

SMI has offerings for everybody, from the person new to the outdoors, trying it for the first time, to the seasoned veteran. Trips can be as short as a half day to a week or even multi-week excursions.

SMI is sensitive to people who have special needs and can arrange custom trips for people with some disabilities. SMI is the only guide service to successfully help a paraplegic reach the summit of Mt. Whitney in March of 2001.

SMI guides are intimately familiar with this great mountain range and have a deep appreciation for its pristine environment. Participants are taught good environmental ethics no matter if they are traveling in the middle of winter on top of a deep snow-pack or on well traveled summertime trails.

Some trips may or may not be appropriate for pets. The west side of the Sierra is within the boundary of Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park where pets are not allowed. The east side of the Sierra is within the borders of the Inyo National Forest and pets are allowed here. A well behaved pet is allowed on a trip where it is possible to keep somebody with them at all times; however, with many trips such as technical peak ascents it would not be appropriate for a pet to come along, due to the complexity of the terrain making it difficult for the pet to follow.