Mountain Guide School
Mountain guides must be technically competent and experienced in the mountains, and also need to develop and foster a range of skills associated with client management, instruction, and group leadership. The Mountain Guide Training School provides training on all of these fronts.
Your course begins with a year of skills training modules, including field modules covering backpacking, skiing, outdoor leadership, wilderness first aid, mountaineering, risk management, rock climbing, instructor training, and alpine climbing. These skills are built upon each other, allowing you to gain confidence in more challenging terrain and more challenging situations as the Mountain Guide Training School continues.
But more than just technical training, the Mountain Guide Training School is the first of its kind to provide you with real life opportunities to teach, lead, and work with clients directly, throughout your training: The final year of the course is spent working as an apprentice instructor and guide. No other course (that we know of) allows you to gain actual work experience as part of your training.
Further, you will get to work in some of the most amazing places in the world. Your backpacking, skiing, and mountaineering courses will be run in Alaska or Patagonia, depending on the season, and your rock climbing course will be run on the north coast of Spain. Together, these are some of the most spectacular classrooms on Earth.
You further gain the tools necessary for success in the industry, with a series of seminars on things like teaching techniques, expedition planning, resume writing and other job skills, and formal risk management.
You will graduate with an electronic portfolio showing off who you are and what you’re capable of, ready to begin a life in the mountains.
Mountain Guide School Course Summary
The course begins with a 21 day backpacking trip, designed to introduce you to the basics of expedition life. It continues with a 21 day backcountry skiing course where you’ll learn the fundamentals of skiing, avalanche hazard evaluation and terrain management, and group management skills. You continue with a Wilderness First Responder course, the guide industry standard in wilderness medicine. Moving on, you’ll participate in a 42 day mountaineering expedition, focusing on glacier travel, snow and ice climbing skills, as well as continuing your ski and avalanche curriculum. After the mountaineering program, you’ll join a 42 day traditional rock climbing course where you look at climbing movement, traditional rock protection, and rescue skills. Finally, your first year concludes with a 60 day technical alpine course, combining the skiing, mountaineering, and rock climbing training that you’ve undertaken over the past 7 months.
Also during the first year of your course, you will participate in a series of short seminars dealing with topics like institutional risk management, education strategies, getting a job in the industry, and expedition planning.
The second year of the course is your opportunity to gain experience in the industry. It begins with a personally planned expedition: You and your course mates will plan and execute a 6 week mountaineering expedition to in Alaska or Patagonia, or you may choose to create your own expedition with friends.
Your apprenticeship continues with a 3+ month internship, allowing significant amounts of ‘face time’ with clients and conscious development of leadership and instruction skills. You’ll put to use the skills and leadership strategies learned over the previous year, and begin your professional development and resume building.
Your training concludes with a 120 day apprenticeship program, where you’ll work as an apprentice mountain guide to lead a series of mountaineering, skiing, backpacking, or rock climbing expeditions with us.
Armed with this well-rounded resume of skills and real life experience, you will be well placed to find employment in this dynamic and rewarding industry.
Mountain Guide School Module Detail
21 Day Backpacking Module
You’ll be picked up at 8:00 AM on the first day of your course and be whisked off to basecamp. You’ll have your first opportunity to meet your instructors and fellow students. The first few days are spent in basecamp reviewing program details, doing gear checks, going over maps, and packing rations for the backpacking section. As soon as we’re ready, we’re off to the field for a 21 day backpacking expedition. Your focus for this module will be to learn and practice foundational skills for the rest of the program. This includes obvious topics like navigation, route planning, cooking and camping skills, river crossing techniques, and the like. You’ll also begin to learn guiding techniques and skills such as communication skills, leadership theories and strategies, risk management processes, and client management techniques. The final week of the module is self led (i.e., you’ll be trekking without instructor supervision), rotating through the role of “leader of the day,” so that you begin to work as a cohesive team.
Wilderness First Responder (WFR) Module
WFR is the guide level industry standard wilderness medicine certification. In this module, you’ll learn and practice long term patient care in a remote setting. This is very different than “city” medicine, because you are looking after patients for extended periods of time (hours to days), and this gives different challenges. The course focuses on an understanding of how the human body works, and how to use that understanding to provide care.
Job Skills Seminar
This three day seminar will provide details about the WEA certification process, and will be a look ahead toward your internship and apprenticeship. You’ll learn how to “log” your guiding experience, write a resume and cover letter, what you should ask when researching companies to work for, and take a look at the industry from a big picture perspective.
21 Day Ski Module
This course will introduce you to mountain travel on skis in a winter environment. Highlighted topics will include: equipment selection, use and care; skiing skills; skinning skills; basic ski tuning; route finding; navigation and route planning; leading a group up hill and downhill; ski rescue sleds; snow shelters, winter camping and more.
This course also includes a Level 1 Avalanche Course, as avalanches are one of our primary concerns for safety in the winter mountain environment.
You will spend your first week at a local ski area (somewhere with lifts), where the group will be divided into novice, intermediate, and advanced skiers, and you will focus on ski techniques appropriate for your skill level. Evenings will be dedicated to working through the avalanche curriculum.
Your second and third week will be spent completing a backcountry ski traverse, while continuing to focus on avalanche skills, group management skills, winter camping skills, snow shelters, navigation, and leadership, risk management, and judgment skills development.
Expedition Planning Seminar
In this 3-4 day seminar, you’ll explore the intricacies of formal expedition planning. Topics will include creation of a formal, written risk management plan, rations plan, emergency action plan, and development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and medical protocols. You’ll also look at a myriad of resources available to you (weather, route, avalanche, etc.), to help you in your future planning.
42 Day Mountaineering Module
It’s time to hit the mountains. Building on what you learned in previous modules, you’ll attempt a large glaciated ski traverse, climbing peaks along the way. This course will focus on glacier travel skills, introduce climbing skills, anchor and protection skills, continue to improve ski, navigation, and winter camping skills, all while working towards higher level risk management, judgment, and leadership skills.
The course will include a week long “hard ice” section, where you’ll work on crampon and ice axe use, ice climbing skills, anchor building, and group management skills. From there, you’ll move up into the snow covered glaciers, covering topics like roping up for glacier travel, glaciology, crevasse rescue, alpine camping, and extreme weather procedures. As part of the traverse, you’ll have the opportunity to climb several peaks along the way, developing further your snow and ice climbing skills, protection and anchor building skills, as well as your ski ascent/descent skills.
3 Day Education Seminar
Up to this point, you will have taught several “informal” classes as part of your progression. Here, it’s time to look at the nitty-gritty of teaching. We’ll discuss lesson planning, various teaching and learning theories, and assessment strategies, all in an effort to help you develop comprehensive lesson plans and translate them into effective and engaging classes.
42 Day Rock Climbing Module
From out of the winter and mountains, you’ll find yourself 4 pitches up a wall in Northern Spain. The rock climbing module will build on the technical climbing skills learned on the mountaineering program, as well as opening up new skills. You’ll focus on movement skills, mental and physical training, rock protection, geology, and rescue skills. On this course, you’ll work toward two goals: Multi-pitch trad climbing and improvised technical rope rescue.
Unlike the other modules in the Mountain Guide Training School program, this course is mostly “car camping,” meaning that you’ll have access to a base, delicious food, and excellent Spanish culture. More than any other module, this will offer the opportunity for cultural engagement and learning.
21 Day Ski Mountaineering Module
By the end of the rock climbing module, you will have developed into a technically competent climber, ready to go in snow, ice, or rock. Now will be your opportunity to finish your ski progression and round out your skills.
There will be four components to this course. The first component is a Level II Avalanche Course, building on the knowledge gained over the past months. The second will be a weeklong backcountry skiing trip. This trip is to refresh and advance the your backcountry skiing skills and avalanche awareness. The third component will be an
introduction to new ski mountaineering skills such as making anchors out of skis, skiing on rappel, skiing on belay, ski rescue sled raises and lowers, continuing crevasse rescue, and advanced transitions. The final component will be a group of student-led objectives appropriate for the group and conditions. Students at this time should be guiding the group to an apprentice guide standard.
42 Day Alpine Climbing Module
This final “instruction phase” course varies greatly by group, skill level, and condition. It is meant to be an opportunity to consolidate skills, practice guiding techniques in a supervised environment, and finalize any curriculum points not yet covered or in need of reinforcement. Past objectives have included big peaks such as San Lorenzo (the second tallest peak in Patagonia), technical alpine climbs like Cerro Castillo, or long traverses such as a traverse of the Chugach range in Alaska.
By this stage, you will have developed the skills and knowledge base necessary to build and submit your portfolio for review by the WEA for your Outdoor Leader certification.
Plan Your Own Expedition (PYOE)
What you do on the PYOE is entirely up to you and your group. Past groups have attempted Denali/Mt. McKinley in Alaska, bolting multipitch climbs in Chile, or 6000m peak climbing in Peru.
Your goal will be to consolidate skills, gain personal experience, build your resume, and prepare yourself for your internship.
Internship
Internships are your first experience working as a guide in the industry. We have a number of partner companies that we often work with. However, we heartily encourage you to apply to any company you want, and will support you in this. Your goal for the internship is two fold. Primarily, you want to gain a foothold in the industry, hopefully with a company that you might want to work with long term. Further, you will begin to develop your professional resume for the WEA and skills development for your apprenticeship.
Apprenticeship
The final phase of your training will see you working as an apprentice instructor with the Mountain Training School. You will guide three expeditions with us, placed in any of our mountaineering, ski, or rock programs. Placement will depend on availability, your skill level, and our need.
Further, you will continue your instructor training, participating in several short education seminars to help continue to improve your lesson planning and teaching ability. Your final project will be the development of a curriculum plan for a particular skill. This includes writing 6-10 different lessons, making instructional videos, and planning assessment and evaluation standards to carry out the program.
Throughout this phase, you will work closely with a mentor to explore your goals, short and long term, work through skills learning, and to foster your guiding and instructional skills.
By the time you graduate, you will have the work experience and skills knowledge to build and submit a portfolio to the WEA for consideration as a Level II WEA instructor and the mountaineering and rock climbing addendums.
Your adventure will have begun.
Challenge Yourself.
