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Benefits of Hiring a Certified Guide
Certified Guides are trained and evaluated in areas of leadership, client care, judgment, technical expertise, rescue skill, and environmental consciousness. These areas of expertise offer you, as a client, the most enjoyable and safest experience possible. Besides positive companionship on the mountain, a mountain guide also offers the benefit of organization and/or covering logistical details of an extensive climbing trip to a different region or country.
You as a climber, after an outing with a certified guide, come away with broader knowledge and practical experience in safety, gear usage, route finding, better awareness of terrain hazards, keen evaluation of proper weather conditions for safe climbing, and a sense for the type of climbing that you prefer.
Hire a guide to introduce you to another type of climbing, hone your rope and gear placement skills, or learn modern technique. You may be an experienced rock climber, but need some more practical experience or a refresher course in of anchor building. Hire a Mountain Guide! You may have climbed ice and rock, but want to gain experience in climbing multi-pitch, multi-day alpine climbs. Hire a Mountain Guide! Hiring a certified guide will greatly accelerate your learning, and in an environment of increased safety.
Since most certified guides will climb with clients in many different mountain ranges, across many mountainous regions or countries (regardless of their home base), you can choose a destination, and hire a guide to handle all the necessary logistics of climbing in a destination away from your home. Even the most experienced of climbers can benefit from hiring a guide as a travel companion, bringing a broad range of expertise to the trip, enhancing the overall experience and likelihood of a summit.
It is very common for a client/guide relationship to become a friendship and climbing partnership. Many clients return year after year for another adventure with the same guide. Together, you can see the world, and climb safe and often, trying a new route on the same or different mountain, perhaps in a different country. Who knows, your first guided experience may eventually lead your life in the direction of someday, obtaining your guide certifications, and sharing your experience with others, giving them, what your guide and the wonderful sport of climbing gave you.
Hiring a Mountain Guide
Choose a mountain guide by first identifying that they have been certified by an UIAGM / IFMGA member organization, or other similar certifying organizations of their country of origin.
If inquiring about a certified mountain guide who is based in the United States, you can contact the AMGA by calling 303-271-0984, to inquire as to the current status of an AMGA guide’s certification and membership, or reference their information on www.amga.com. In the US, you should look for a guides and guiding organizations who include the insignias of the AMGA and/or IFMGA in their informational materials, and those guides that maintain their annual memberships with their certifying organziation. To see what these insignias look like, visit www.amga.com, or www.ifmga.info.
If you are inquiring about a guiding agency, you should ask about there safety record, and ongoing training, as well as the certification of all their guides. You may also ask for a referral to several of their current clients.
Whether it’s on your home crags, in your local mountains, or any destination your imagine holds for your ultimate climb, Hire a Mountain Guide! A guide can help make your climbing dreams come true.
In the US, only the AMGA (www.amga.com) maintains accurate and current certification and membership status information for certified guides and accredited guiding companies. For the most current, and extensive information on certified guides and AMGA accredited guiding companies, please refer to the American Mountain Guide Association by calling 303-271-0984, or visit them on the web at www.amga.com. The lists on this site that feature AMGA guides, may not be complete, may contain inaccuracies, and may not be up to date as to membership status, or guide qualifications.
DISCLAIMER
Bradley Alpinist LLC, the Direttissima Group, and The Mountain Guide Bureau provide information about mountain guides and mountain guiding agencies as a causal endeavor to support professional mountain guiding, and the climbing industry. This service is a courtesy, as this site does not function as a placement service, referral service or a broker of guiding services, nor do we recommend one particular mountain guide or mountain guide service over another. It's up to the user of this site to utilize the information found here, coupled with any necessary additional information you may require in selecting a guide or guide service that fits your needs. You are encouraged to utilize the link provided on each guide listing to discover more information about your possible selection of a particular guide. By your use of this site, you also agree to hold harmless, Bradley Alpinist LLC, the Direttissima Group, and The Mountain Guide Bureau of any liability of any kind. By your use of this site, you also acknowledge that climbing activities of any kind are inherently dangerous, and can result in bodily injury and even death. Your usage of this site acknowledges that you have read and understand the risks associated with climbing as outlined and found on the Bradley Alpinist website under “Warnings!” Please refer to the “Warnings!” page on www.bradleyalpinist.com, before continuing.
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