Her official title was “Adventure Guide.” Unofficially, she was a safety inspector, a crisis negotiator for terrified tourists, a knot-tying savant, and, on one memorable afternoon, a minor arborist. "I’m not going to lie," Freya says, peeling off a pair of well-worn leather gloves. "The first two weeks were brutal. My hands were shredded. I was coming home smelling like pine resin and sunscreen, and my shoulders were screaming from hauling harnesses."
For most university students, the summer job is a transactional affair: trade time for currency, endure the heat, and return to campus with a few extra dollars in your pocket. But for 21-year-old Freya Mayer, a junior majoring in Environmental Design at the University of British Columbia, this past summer became an accidental masterclass in leadership, logistics, and lateral thinking. freya mayer - summer job
"She didn't ask for permission to solve the problem; she asked for guidance on how to solve it," says Marcus Tolland, the owner of West Coast Canopy Adventures. "That’s a rare filter. Most people see a broken system and walk away. Freya saw a broken system and asked for the wrench." The group of 30 arrived—a corporate team from a downtown tech firm. Half of them were terrified of heights. Freya’s environmental design coursework focuses on human behavior in physical spaces. She realized the zip-line platform was no different from a badly designed transit hub. Her official title was “Adventure Guide
And sometimes, that bridge is made of rope, suspended 80 feet above a creek, swaying gently in the wind. Freya Mayer is a student at the University of British Columbia. West Coast Canopy Adventures will be hiring for the 2025 season beginning in March. My hands were shredded
But it was a specific Tuesday in July that turned her summer job into a turning point. A thunderstorm had rolled through the North Shore the night before, forcing an emergency closure. When Freya arrived the next morning, the lead ranger was out sick. That left Freya—the senior-most guide on shift despite only having six weeks of experience—to perform the post-storm line inspection.
Instead of panicking or shutting down the course (which would have cost the company thousands in refunds), Freya improvised a solution. She called the owner on speakerphone, walked him through the visual inspection via video link, and then meticulously re-torqued four loose cable sleeves herself using a manual winch—a tool she had only watched YouTube tutorials on the night before.
The job was physically demanding. Between guiding groups of eight through the canopy, Freya was responsible for daily cable tension checks, gear inventory, and what she calls "the art of the pep talk."