Meet Garnet Hill Lodge’s New Outdoor Center Manager: Tim Emmerick

Posted in Adirondack Mountain and Stream Guides, General, Jobs at Garnet Hill Lodge

Here at Garnet Hill Lodge, we don’t just offer equipment rentals out of our Outdoor Center and then send you on your way. Our staff is dedicated to tailoring the perfect outdoor experience for you, based on your skill level and interests.

We’re excited to announce that we have a new addition to our team who fits in seamlessly with our knowledgeable and friendly staff, and is ready to serve as the gateway between you and our pristine, unspoiled section of the Adirondacks.

Find out all about Tim Emmerick, Garnet Hill’s new Outdoor Center Manager, and how this former New York City musician left the Big Apple to return to a nature-filled paradise in the Adirondack Park.

1) How did you end up applying to work with us at Garnet Hill Lodge?

My first interaction with Garnet Hill was several years ago when I worked as a staff guide with Adirondack Mountain and Stream Outfitters. The company is a local guide service that has been around for nearly 40 years, and works with the Lodge when they need extra guides for larger programs.

After several years of working with Garnet Hill in that capacity, I joined the Outdoor Center staff last winter, instructing and working in the shop.

2) What do your main responsibilities include as the Outdoor Center Manager?

My job is to coordinate and oversee recreational activities and manage the facilities. We’re insanely lucky to have a highly experienced, talented staff of operation folks, instructors, guides, and shop workers.

Much of my job is to keep an eye on the big picture, and make sure the staff has the resources they need to do their thing.

3) What are you most excited about with your new role?

I’m stepping into this role at a pretty exciting time for Garnet Hill and the Outdoor Center. There have been a lot of very smart, passionate folks around here for a long time, and they’ve set up this place to flourish.

What we have at Garnet Hill with our lodging, great food, over 50k of groomed ski trails, private lake access, and a border with 114,000 acres of public land, is a truly mind boggling combination of resources.

I strongly believe that the busier and more digital our world becomes the more precious places like this will become. I’m just thankful I get to help people experience this special place.

4) Do you have any other connections to the Adirondacks, professionally or personally, besides working with Adirondack Mountain and Stream Outfitters?

My family has roots in the Adirondacks going back at least three generations. My dad grew up on the southwestern edge of the Blue Line. I was raised mostly in the Buffalo area, but my family has had a camp near the Piseco Lake area my whole life.

My first summer job as a kid was guiding. That was mostly long (multi-week) canoe trips in Canada. Then I got away from the outdoors industry for a while and spent a number of years working as a professional musician based in Brooklyn. No joke!

I got further as a musician than I ever dreamed, but I missed the outdoors terribly. So I found my way back to the mountains.

5) What else is on your resume in terms of your educational background or any certifications you’ve received?

I’m licensed in New York State to guide hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, and paddling trips. I have a Public Vessel Operator license to operate fishing boats.

I’m an active Field Faculty member with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and through that school I’m a certified Wilderness First Responder, Leave No Trace Master Educator, and Professional Mountain Instructor.

And finally, I am an American Canoe Association Level II Kayak Instructor, and a Professional Ski Instructors of America Level I Nordic Instructor.

6) How do you spend your time when you’re not working at Garnet Hill?

I’m almost always doing something outdoors. I’m a passionate hunter, angler (fly/spin), backcountry skier (tele/alpine/Nordic), paddler, bushwhacker, and overall backcountry nerd.

I still love to play music, but just for fun these days. I also spend more time than anyone would ever guess chasing around my large, blind kitty cat named Bubba.

7) In your opinion, what makes Garnet Hill so special?

I already mentioned the truly unique blend of top-notch facilities, private land, and public land access – that just cannot be overstated. Another thing I love so much about this place is the history.

Garnet Hill is a genuine holdover from the golden age of Adirondack lodges. We’re one of the few lodges in the park that still employs staff guides to get you on a mountain top, a chef to serve you a gourmet meal, and a caretaker to keep the fire crackling and your glass topped off.

That used to be the way most lodges in the Adirondacks operated. Garnet Hill really does give our guests a taste of the old Adirondack tradition.

8) You clearly love nearly all outdoor sports – what’s your favorite activity to enjoy at Garnet Hill?

It changes every season, but right now I’m dreaming about skate skiing some first tracks on a perfectly groomed Old Faithful.

9) What do you love the most about the Adirondack region?

These mountains challenge me, thrill me, keep me calm, and remind me of my place in the world. In an era when the whole world is calling us to live a virtual reality, the Adirondacks keep me grounded in actual reality.

I’ll never see every spruce wave or vly in this park, and I like knowing that I live in a place this big and wild.

10) Is there anything else you’d like to share?

We’ve got some awesome new gear in the shop! Come in, say hi, and let’s get each other all fired up to get out on the white stuff this winter.

Learn more about what our Outdoor Center offers >>