Guides
We are a small team of talented professionals with a wide range of skills and experience.
We love what we do, and we do it with passion.
We look forward to working with you.
Alex Teixeira Owner
Lead Guide
Alex grew up skiing and exploring the wild places of New England. These early explorations led Alex to rock climbing, mountaineering and backcountry skiing and from there into guiding. Alex began guiding professionally in 2007 in an effort to combine his passion for climbing and teaching. In 2014 Alex took over as owner of Mooney Mountain Guides from his mentor and friend Art Mooney, providing the opportunity for sharing his passion for the mountains into his life’s work.
Alex believes that guiding is so much more than just putting the rope up. It is about creating an experience that not only adds to the quality of life of his guests, it also expands their relationship with the Earth and with themselves. “Creating experiences for growth is what I enjoy most about my work. The guests I climb with the most become my friends, and I get to watch them transform into climbers and planet activists.” As a father, business owner, teacher and experienced guide he has a keen sense of risk and how to manage it to create unforgettable experience for his guests.
AMGA Certified Alpine & Rock Guide
AMGA Assistant Ski Guide
AMGA SPI Provider & AIARE Instructor
Mooney Mountain Guides Owner, Lead Guide
AIARE Level 1, 2, Pro 1 & Pro 2 Certifications
Certified Wilderness First Responder
Email: [email protected]
Laurie Watt
Woman’s Program Coordinator
Laurie fell in love with hiking and skiing in the mountains as a kid but it wasn’t until she had sent her kids off to college that she was able to fully embrace mountain life. While raising her family and cultivating a career in Physical Therapy, Laurie found time to trek and climb in Alaska, Switzerland, Africa and Patagonia. Those trips stoked the fire for more time and experiences in the mountains. She expanded her skill set to rock and ice climbing as a guest of Mooney Mountain Guides. Once the kids were off, Laurie committed to the process of becoming a guide. Through training, mentorship and many days out, she has progressed through the AMGA training in the rock, ice and alpine disciplines.
Laurie’s passion is to provide opportunities for beginner climbers, especially all women groups, to try climbing. “I love watching women discover that they are much stronger and more capable than they know”. Laurie guides rock and ice climbing as well as routes on the glaciers of Mt. Baker.
AMGA 2024 Guide of the Year!!
AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor
AMGA Apprentice Alpine & Rock Guide
AMGA Ice Instructor Course Completed
AIARE Level 1, Companion Rescue and Pro 1
Wilderness First Responder
Email: [email protected]
Art Mooney Founder
Lead Guide
Art is the founder of Mooney mountain Guides and an AMGA Mountain Guide/IFMGA Licenced Guide
Wilderness First Responder
Ted Teegarden
AMGA SPI Provider
Ted’s passion is to share the mountains with his guests. He has traveled and climbed all over the US spending significant time in the world-class locations that our country has to offer but finds his home nestled in the superb White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here Ted loves to climb and instruct on the steep waterfall ice and sunny rock cliffs that climbers have been cutting their teeth and training on for over a century. Ted started guiding and working in the outdoor education field in 2003 and has only deviated from the industry since then to spend one season working as a sternman for his lobsterman father-in-law in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Ted splits his time as the Accreditation Manager for the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) and guides for Mooney Mountain Guides as a certified AMGA Rock Instructor and AMGA Ice Instructor. He guides both rock and ice climbing and teaches AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Programs, training the next generation of climbing instructors.
AMGA Certified Rock Instructor
AMGA Certified Ice Instructor
AMGA Apprentice Alpine Guide
AMGA SPI Provider/Examiner
Certified Wilderness First Responder
Email: [email protected]
Ben Mirkin
AIARE Provider
Ben loves to play outside, in almost any way you can imagine. He works full time as a professor of Adventure Leadership at Northern Vermont University – Lyndon. Prior to NVU, he spent the 9 years at The White Mountain School and served as director of White Mountain Climbing Camp. Ben has taught college Adventure Education courses at UNH, Plymouth State University, and the University of Northern Colorado, in addition to leading extended wilderness courses throughout the American northeast, northwest, Canadian Rockies and Alaska as well as guiding for Mooney Mountain Guides since 2013.
Ben is an avid backcountry skier, mountain biker, and a rock and ice climber. He is excited to share his passion for using the outdoors to help students learn and teach.
Guiding and Teaching Credentials
- AMGA Certified Rock Instructor
- AMGA Certified Ice Instructor
- AMGA Certified Single Pitch Provider / Examiner
- AMGA Assistant Ski Guide
- AMGA Apprentice Alpine
- Certified Wilderness First Responder
- AIARE Level I, 2, and 3 Avalanche Certification
- AIARE Course Leader
- AMGA 2024 Educator of the Year!!
Chris Oconnell
AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor, Apprentice Rock Guide
Certified Wilderness First Responder
Todd Goodman
AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor
