His college girlfriend — who later became his wife — had a poster of a place in the Adirondacks hanging in her dorm room, and he assumed it was someplace out West. She promised him that someday they would end up in the Adirondacks. She was right.

Now, the couple is celebrating 26 years in Wilmington and Loher’s next adventure will be serving as the new operations manager and events coordinator at the Whiteface Visitors Bureau.

Loher and his wife, who is originally from Albany, got married in the Catskills and one of their wedding presents was a gift certificate for two days of ice climbing in the Adirondacks. Being the avid rock climbers that they were, they had a blast and Loher recalls realizing that people were able to make a living from spending time outdoors. Loher called their guide back to ask about how to get certified to be an ice climbing guide — eventually, the guide offered him a job.

Most recently, Loher came from teaching biology and earth science at North Country School, but his entire resume is a litany of outdoor activity, camps and programs, with a good amount of adventure sprinkled in. He spent the first 20 years mostly guiding ice climbing, rock climbing and backcountry skiing. He has led outdoor programs and trips at colleges from Paul Smiths to Middlebury, Vermont, excursions which have taken him around the North Country.

A big part of his new job description is planning events for the Wilmington community. Many of Loher’s roles included aspects of event planning, and from the way he talks, it’s apparent that he’s bursting with ideas. Even the daunting aspect of pivoting around circumstances and weather excites him.

“Events take on a life of their own,” Loher said. “And I love that about events.”

As the assistant director of the outdoor program at St. Lawrence University, he ran climbing events and trips, as well as climbing competitions. For several years, during the summers, he also served as the outdoor program director at Camp Dudley on Lake Champlain, the oldest continuously running boys camp in the country.

“I learned a lot,” Loher said, adding that he made changes at the camp only after learning how they do things and then brainstorming during the school year about how to make improvements.

“I’m kind of gonna take the same approach with this new job here,” Loher said. “My first year is just learning.”

Loher looks forward to the learning curve and has a lot of respect for Michelle Preston, who left the bureau early this month to work at Haselton Lumber and begin establishing her own event planning business.

“There’s 17 years of institutional knowledge that I have to learn, that I’m really looking forward to learning because I love learning new things,” Loher said.

Chip Grundon, the president of the Whiteface Visitors Bureau board, said Loher was one of six candidates interviewed for the role and that he stood out because of his enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the area. After all, he’s worked at Whiteface as a ski patroller and the house his family lives in is on the same street as the first place they rented when they arrived in Wilmington more than two decades ago.

“He jumped right in running,” Grundon said, adding that Loher is looking forward to continuing all of the events that are so integral to Wilmington and even adding more events.

“I’m really excited, at this point after living here 26 years, to turn my attention towards this town,” Loher said.