Job Title: Ultra-high-altitude climbing guide Employers: Mountain expedition companies Salary Cap: $45,000 Number of Jobs: 20 or 30 worldwide

When Guillermo "Willie" Benegas heard about the disastrous climb up K2 earlier this month that killed 11 people when an avalanche struck, he didn't spend any time second-guessing the climbers or their guides, despite having guided several expeditions up Mount Everest and neighboring peaks himself. 

"It wasn't anyone's fault. Things can go wrong—and they went wrong," he says. More than anyone, Benegas says he understands that the rewards of summiting the world's highest mountains come with substantial risks.

During 10 years as a guide for Mountain Madness, an adventure-travel company based in Seattle, Benegas has climbed Everest eight times and led a dozen other expeditions to peaks over 26,000 feet. In that time he's never had an accident or lost a client.

People he takes to the Himalayas come from all walks of life, from company presidents to bricklayers to retired lieutenant colonels. Benegas has guided his share of C.E.O.'s, but can't name names due to the confidentiality agreements he signed. To prepare, many of those clients go through Mountain Madness' Live Your Dreams program, where they may spend several years climbing progressively higher peaks in preparation for Everest. To climb the world's highest peak, Benegas says clients need perseverance, perspective, and a pack mentality.

Benegas definitely isn't in climbing for the money. Guides earn slightly less than half the $65,000 fee Mountain Madness and other outfitters charge climbers for each trip up Everest.

Since weather conditions limit Himalayan expeditions to spring and fall, Benegas supplements his income by guiding treks in South America, working on ski and avalanche patrol outside his home in
Salt Lake City, and from an endorsement deal with North Face, which has featured him in magazine ads.

For Benegas, though, climbing is less a job and more a way of life. Born in Patagonia in South America, he and his twin brother, Damian, who works as a guide in South America, started climbing in their teens. By the time he was 20, Willie had summited Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas. He moved to the U.S. a year later and, through hard work and ability, established himself as an elite guide, leading his first Everest summit in 1999.



By now, Benegas has traveled in the Himalayas so often that he considers the handful of local Sherpas he works with extended family, and they, in turn, call him Willie Sherpa. When a 7.6-magnitude earthquake devastated the Kashmir region in 2005, Indian officials let him bring supplies to secluded mountain villages, which are off limits to Westerners for political reasons. It was due to the fact that he'd helped rescue a member of the Indian army during an ill-fated summit attempt two years before that he was permitted.

With his 40th birthday approaching late this month, Benegas admits to slowing down, but not by much. When he tore a wrist ligament that put him in a cast last March, he didn't think twice about leaving a week later to lead a monthlong expedition of 10 climbers up Mount Everest. His idea of a good time is still more extreme than most, like the 100-mile endurance run in Utah's Wasatch Mountains he'll compete in over Labor Day weekend.

Everest has taught Benegas to embrace extremes, a sentiment he tries to instill in his Everest clients. "It's so much more than a guy with no experience who decides to pay $65,000 to climb to the summit," he says. "Trust me, he'll suffer like he's never suffered in his life. But suffering will make him grow. Then he'll realize it's the most amazing thing he's done in his life."

Gas Prices Around the World
Making Bucks on the Greenback
The Denver Party Circuit