Meet Your Alaska Adventure Guides
Professional training. Years of local experience. Genuine enthusiasm for this place. This is the team that makes McCarthy River Tours work.
The guides who lead McCarthy River Tours’ trips combine technical river expertise with extensive seasonal experience in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, returning year after year to run the same rivers and refine their knowledge of this specific wilderness. Every guide maintains current certifications in Swiftwater Rescue and Wilderness First Responder training (80-hour minimum), ensuring they can handle both routine river navigation and emergency situations in remote terrain.
Beyond technical qualifications, our guides bring familiarity with local geology, wildlife behavior, weather patterns, and the human history that shaped this landscape. Whether you’re navigating Class IV rapids, exploring glacier ice, or paddling among icebergs, you’re traveling with professionals who prioritize your safety while creating the kind of experience that makes Alaska unforgettable.
Nik Merlino
Founder & Lead Guide
Nik started McCarthy River Tours from a tent in his yard in 2010, noticing the need for high-quality adventures in the Wrangell Mountains after falling in love with the Kennicott Valley in 1990. He honed his rafting skills in the desert Southwest, and bringing a Grand Canyon-trained eye toward quality, comfort, and safety protocols, his goal remains simple: provide the best rafting experience in Alaska. When he’s not on the river, Nik’s usually planning the next route, testing new gear, or figuring out how to make backcountry meals even better—because details matter when you’re days from the nearest road.
Gina Merlino
Lodging Operations Manager
Gina manages our lodging operations with the same attention to detail she brings to everything—which means meticulously sourcing the coziest bedding, coordinating room decor, and implementing color schemes that make our properties feel welcoming after long days on the river or trail. While she’s not leading trips herself, Gina ensures the off-river experience matches the quality of what happens on the water, creating spaces where guests can rest well and start each day ready for adventure.
Evie Merlino
Junior Guide in Training & Chief Unicorn Spotter
Evie started her raft career at an early age and has developed specialized skills not yet mastered by senior guides, including the ability to spot unicorns in their icy glacier abodes and an expert eye for firewood quality. As our resident food taste tester and approval authority, she maintains rigorous standards for backcountry cuisine. Her enthusiasm for rivers, glaciers, and all things Alaska is genuine and contagious—ask her about ice formations and she’ll tell you things most adults have never noticed.
Chris Timmons
Reservations & Concierge Manager
Chris is likely the first person you’ll chat with when planning your adventure, and he knows how to connect the dots between lodging, rafting, glacier hikes, flightseeing, dining, and everything else that makes a McCarthy trip work smoothly. Originally from Iowa, he brings Midwest friendliness to Alaska logistics, helping guests navigate the planning process with patience and practical advice. If you’re a Cubs fan, you might recognize him from TV—he caught a home run at Wrigley Field, proving he’s good at being in the right place at the right time, which is exactly what you want in someone coordinating your Alaska adventure.
Jake Bartolic
Lead Trainer & Backcountry Guide
Jake likes to say he grew up “West of Nevada”—and while we don’t judge him for his home state, we’re glad he made his way to Alaska. As our lead trainer, Jake oversees swiftwater rescue protocols, backcountry safety systems, and the techniques that keep both day trips and multi-day expeditions running smoothly. He’s one of our most experienced backcountry guides and genuinely loves the human and geologic history of the Wrangells, always ready to connect landscape features to the stories of how they formed or how people navigated them. His training approach is thorough without being preachy—he wants guides prepared, not just certified.
Macey Schieffer
Guide Manager & Lead Day/Multi-Day Guide
Macey started her boating career in Colorado, spent a few years guiding Montana rivers, then found her way north to Alaska and hasn’t looked back. As Guide Manager, she coordinates scheduling, maintains equipment standards, and ensures day and multi-day trips run with the kind of attention to detail that makes the difference between good and excellent. Her naturally cheerful and friendly demeanor isn’t an act—she genuinely enjoys people and rivers equally, which makes her the kind of guide who remembers your name, notices when you’re cold, and knows when to crack a joke versus when to just let the canyon do the talking.
Leo Perelman
Day Rafting Supervisor & Multi-Day Guide
Leo was born and raised in Montana in a river rafting family—his mom is a former Grand Canyon guide, so he literally grew up on the water. He moved to Alaska to boat with McCarthy River Tours and found home. As Day Rafting Supervisor, Leo makes sure all the details are in place for tours: gear checks, weather assessments, timing coordination, and the hundred small things that determine whether a day trip runs smoothly. He also moonlights as an excellent, story-filled multi-day guide in his “spare time,” bringing both meticulous attention to logistics and the kind of river tales that make campfire conversations memorable.
Veronica Hafner
Lead Day Guide & Glacier Specialist
Originally from East Tennessee, Veronica moved to Alaska seeking fun and adventure, and she’s mastered both. After guiding glaciers across the state, she came to McCarthy River Tours to equally master raft guiding—and she’s succeeded. Veronica is our top day guide, combining expansive knowledge of the Kennicott Valley with an infectious personality that puts even hesitant adventurers at ease. Her attention to safety isn’t just protocol—it’s genuine care about making sure everyone has a good experience, which means she notices who’s nervous, who needs encouragement, and who’s ready to charge an iceberg plunge.
Anna Kanengiser
Lead Multi-Day Guide & Backcountry Chef
Anna is one of our rockstar lead multi-day guides, filled with an abundance of fun factoids about Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and a sly, playful sense of humor that keeps campfire conversations lively. She genuinely loves sharing the backcountry with guests—not in a performative way, but with the kind of enthusiasm that comes from someone who’d be out there anyway and is glad you’re along for it. Anna is also a backcountry culinary chef, which means you’ll eat better on remote rivers than you probably do at home, and her Dutch oven desserts have achieved legendary status among repeat guests.
Sophie Littée
Multi-Day Guide & River Veteran
Sophie first came to the Wrangell Mountains to run rivers in 2003, and while she’s rafted all over the world since then, the vast wilderness kept calling her back to Alaska. She’s returned every year because some places just get under your skin. Sophie loves to go with the flow—both as a guiding philosophy and a river technique—and she’s quick to share the experience with anyone willing to go. Her keen eye for safety comes from years of reading water in all conditions, she’s always quick with a laugh, and her sourdough pancakes have converted multiple guests into attempted sourdough bakers back home.
Kevin “Albo” Albinson
Lead Guide Emeritus
Kevin has spent over 20 years in the river industry and many of those years rowing the rivers of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park with us. Beyond guiding, he helps coordinate the behind-the-scenes projects that make trips unique and authentically Alaskan—whether that’s gear systems, menu planning, or the logistics that keep multi-day expeditions running smoothly. You could say he “knows a thing or two about a thing or two,” which undersells his expertise but matches his Minnesota-bred modesty. Kevin grew up paddling all sorts of watercraft throughout the United States, and his broad experience shows in how he reads rivers and adapts to changing conditions.
The Crew Behind the Scenes
Not pictured here are the support staff, shuttle drivers, gear washers, and logistics coordinators who make every trip possible. River guiding looks like one person rowing a boat, but it’s actually supported by a team ensuring equipment works, schedules align, food arrives, and the hundred details that enable guides to focus on what matters: getting you safely through beautiful country and back with stories worth telling.
Ready to meet these folks in person?
Call us at 888-609-RAFT.