Climbing.com’s Guide Zone

The entire experience would have been worth the course fee even if I were to never guide professionally a day in my life. Through the 4 days of the Lead Guide course I participated in, I gained many new skills. Learning rescue techniques was a very significant component of the course and they are something no climber should be without, regardless of free climbing skills or guiding aspirations.

Having worked with various certifying bodies in climbing, aquatics and lifesaving, I know that it bespeaks an underlying commitment to personal excellence as well as technical rubric when I walk away from a course wanting to retain not only the information presented but also modeling the character of my mentor.

I am thankful for the mentors and friends who have put the time and energy into my education, giving me the tools necessary to progress toward whatever end I choose in the long run. Committed guides and climbing educators who approach their role as more than just a job, investing themselves in the outcome of their students is no small thing. Anyone interested in getting more information should visit the PCGI website – www.climbingguidesinstitute.org – you may be surprised but you won’t be disappointed

Guide Profile: Gary Falk of Exum Mountain Guides

Age?
35 years young, my friend. Prime!!

Where did you grow up/Where do you live now?
I live in Jackson, Wyoming: Gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

What do you love about mountaineering?
I love covering a lot of terrain in style. The skill set required for safely completing a challenging objective takes years to acquire, and the art of moving efficiently through the mountains is very rewarding.

What was it (specifically or generally) that first peaked your interest in outdoor sports?
The realness of it all. Life outside the mountains rarely has moments where a poor decision can prove disastrous in an irreversible way. For example, a poor financial choice will rarely cause a loss of life or limb.

What does it mean that you “[help your] clients build confidence through progressive challenge.”? How do you achieve this in both short-term and long-term endeavors?
The key to building confidence is education. I feel that if I am doing my job, there will be a day when my client will be able to venture on his or her own and move safely through the mountains. This is achieved gradually through front-loading information specific to the objective at hand, and this builds experience. I like to compare experience to a toolbox. The more tools one owns, the greater the things they can build.

How do your experience guiding skiing, mountaineering and rock climbing lend themselves to one another, and where is the most beneficial crossover?
All three disciplines come together during those moments when I have to predict how a person is going to react to a given challenge. I have to make sure that the objective is correct for my clients skill set.

Do you prefer guiding rock climbing, skiing, or mountaineering?
It depends on what clothing I feel like wearing that day. Seriously, I have no preference. Any day guiding someone out in the mountains is highly rewarding for me.

What do you think are the three most crucial elements of a guide-client relationship?
Trust. Respect. Humor.

What is your primary motivation when you get out on the mountain, and how does that translate into the way you guide?
The order of my priorities is as follows: We are going to come back safely, we are going to have fun, and we will try to complete our objective.

How can someone looking for a guide know which one is right for them and their perspective trip?
Have a conversation with the guide and see if you will enjoy spending time with that person. Any AMGA certified guide would have the technical skills to complete the objective safely, so look for that as well.

What is your most memorable guiding experience?
Taking a father and his three grown children up the Grand Teton on the 60th anniversary of the father’s first ascent of the mountain. He could still out climb his kids.

Do you prefer trips in the States, or trips abroad?
It doesn’t matter. Any trip with motivated individuals is great.

What opportunities are unique to local excursions as opposed to long treks to remote destinations?
Beer, hot food and a comfortable bed at the end of the day.

What inspires you to keep returning to the outdoors, as an individual, as a group participant, and as a guide?
The outdoors is where I feel at home. Spending time with like-minded people and sharing a memorable experience is how I prefer to spend my time.

For more information contact Exum Mountain Guides / www.exumguides.com

Guide Profile: Andrew Klotz of Southwest Adventure Guides

Age? 37 

Where did you grow up? Kansas 

Where do you live now? Durango, CO 

What do you love about skiing?
To me, skiing is the ultimate mountain sport. It has the best elements of climbing and mountaineering, and once you get to the top, it eliminates the walking down-hill part and turns that half of the climb into the best part of the day. I think people climb and mountaineer for challenge, difficulty, and trial – but people ski because it’s fun.  

What was it (specifically or generally) that first peaked your interest in outdoor sports?
Hiking around Rocky Mountain National Park when I was 6 or 7 I had one of those moments. We call it getting the bug, but it is more like finding something. Also, I spent a fair amount of time at my grandparents cabin in Colorado, and I grew up constantly hunting and fishing in Kansas so I was always predisposed to outdoor activities.  

How have your individual pursuits prepared you for a guiding career?
Outside of guiding, I am very much interested in starting, owning, and running businesses. I own a firm that does economic and fiscal consulting, and also recently started a solar power company (CarbonZero). Probably 90% of my ideas go in the toilet – entrepreneurial adventures are high risk and constantly challenging, they require the ability to quickly adapt and a mental toughness to accept and deal with possibly catastrophic failure. Working in this world of professionals has taught me about being a “professional” – and that is something I try to bring into guiding as well.  

Have you ever considered an alternate career? Any long-standing childhood dreams?
Fortunately or unfortunately, I already have other careers. I guess my dream was to be the full, real deal IFMGA mountain guide (mountain, ski, rock), but when I was younger I didn’t have the gumption or money to go for it, and now, at 37, with a family, I am coming to grips with the fact that it probably just isn’t going to happen. But I am really happy with my ski niche, and I fancy that I might be able to use my other professional skills to work for the guiding industry in some other capacity – perhaps for the AMGA someday. 

In what ways have you grown as an outdoorsman because of your time spent as a guide?
The AMGA process is difficult and it is possible to learn a lot there, from the process, the environments, the other students, and the instructors. But I think one of the more important qualities of being an outdoorsman working with people, and one that cannot really be taught, is the ability to properly apply humor, patience, and kindness. These are the qualities that I see in the best guides and that I try to emulate.  

How do you integrate education, safety, and recreation in a way that keeps your clients engaged and motivated?
Almost all of our guests or clients and I share something in common – a passion for the mountains – so that makes it easy. The only thing separating us is that I generally have more experience, training, or knowledge about what we are about to do. My goal is to be the ideal partner to whomever I am out with, and I have a lot of natural curiosity and am fond of people, so I really want to get to know whomever I am out there with. That rapport usually allows us to make the day successful.  

Have you ever had an experience that made you say: “I’ll never guide again.”?
Absolutely, we all have bad days in and out of the mountains – and sometimes when nothing is going your way it is impossible to not ask yourself whether or not there is something else you would rather be doing.  

How would you initially prepare/caution someone trying to make the jump from resort to backcountry, with or without a guide?
Every avid resort skier should make the jump to backcountry skiing. It is mandatory. Resort skiing is super fun and I will never become one of the purists who forsake it, but real wild mountain skiing is where it’s at. It is serious though, and like other mountain sports, you really do need some initial guidance and basic skills – getting up in the mountains skiing for the first time without some initial instruction is exactly as foolish as climbing up a multi-pitch rock climb tied in at the waist to your moms clothesline.  

Do you think that it’s a guide’s primary job to provide the How or the Where for their clientele? In other words, would you prefer to be a teacher or a leader?
All guests are different. Some just want to “go” have an experience and be lead and not mess with the details, while others are really interested in advancing their personal skill sets. I think my forte is teaching, so I probably tend toward emphasizing that.  

What, in your opinion, makes a trip successful?
Really, unlike lawyers, physicians, hairdressers, or just about any career, we have it easy with regard to delivering a quality product. All we are doing is facilitating access to the mountains – which sell themselves. So unless we really screw up badly, people generally leave satisfied that their money and time was well spent, with good memories, feeling physically worked and wanting more.  

Ever had any famous clients?
No, but I had some cool delta force maximum security prison guard types. One was also a semi-pro ultimate fighter, and they all brought guns with them on their trip. I was joking around with the ultimate fighter guy, telling him I wanted to fight him, that he was a girly man, all in (what I thought) good fun, and although he was a super nice guy, he was hardwired for confrontation. He just tensed up, and I think was about to kill or hurt me very badly. Fortunately, his wife calmed him down, we finished our freeze dried macaroni, and I am still alive.  

If given the choice between two trips, one as a guide and one as the client of a guide that is more familiar with your location, which would you choose? Why?
Guides, myself included, generally like the challenge of exploration: to figure out what is around the next corner, to problem solve, to overcome difficulties and challenges etc.. Guides also generally have personalities that prefer to be in charge and may have some difficulty with following. Having said that though, about ten years ago my wife and I went skiing with a guide in Canada and it was great. Sometimes, it is just perfect to sort of shut your mind off, let someone else solve the problems and just simply ski.

For more information visit: www.mtnguide.net

Guide Profile: Mark Sedon of Adventure Consultants

Age? 39.

Where did you grow up?
Christchurch, Auckland, Ohakune, Wanaka, still in the process…

Where do you live now?
Wanaka.

What is your rock climbing experience?
From new routes in New Zealand to the big walls of Yosemite, never that technically difficult, but I don’t mind a bit of loose rock, or run outs, and I love exposure.

What is your training background?
Ski Patrol for many years, avalanche instruction, Search and Rescue, which all led to my IFMGA Mountain and Ski Guide qualification.

Where do you guide?
New Zealand, 7 summits, 8k Peaks in Nepal/Tibet.

What is your favorite part about this job?
Getting the opportunity to guide in places I have never been. Exploring and going on life adventures with enthusiastic people.

Most gripping or scary time on a climb?
Watching a Sherpa from another expedition with an oversized pack flip upside-down on the vertical Yellow Tower of Ama Dablam. He was screaming for help while his pack was choking him and his harness was coming off. I rapped down and got to him as his harness was down to his knees with about 30 seconds to spare before a 1000m fall…

What success are you most proud of?
Sailing to Antarctica and guiding some first ascents without maps or any knowledge of the area. Just climbing what you can see, following your nose.

What makes you a good guide?
Having my own summit ambitions subdued below the two most important things on an expedition/climb. Safety first, followed by the client’s enjoyment, the summit comes third.

What is the most important part about being a guide?
Being completely comfortable on the terrain and working well within your own personal ability. Never extending yourself too far and always having a big reserve to help your clients if things happen to go wrong. You see and end up helping a lot of unqualified guides working on the 7 summits trail who are at their limits and then something goes wrong and they either are out of juice, or just don’t know what to do because something un-expected happens.

What type of climbing is your favorite? Why?
I love exposure so enjoy climbing and guiding technical ridges with rock and ice steps in them where you can move fast over small difficulties.

Where is your favorite climbing destination? Why?
Antarctica, because I can gaze and dream about so many unclimbed lines. It is clean and pristine, 24hr sunlight and just SO spectacular. Picture this, skiing down perfect corn, sun sitting low in the sky with hours of alpenglow, icebergs floating in the bay with whales swimming by and an 80ft yacht waiting for us with a bottle of Malbec and an Argentinean roast beef…..

Why should a climber hire a guide?
Some of my clients’ wives insists on them hiring a guide. It increases the safety margins. Our classic line on summit day on Mt Everest is that “we are working for your families, not you”. Also, many of our clients are busy with their careers so have limited time to organize an expedition.

What advice do you have for climbers who hire guides?
Try to always go with an IFMGA Mountain & Ski Guide. If not, then be very careful. You get what you pay for. Go for a respected company and ask around.

How can customers prepare for a guided expedition?
It can be tough and depends on the spare time they have. Personally, I find long hill walks the best, or mountain bike riding. But it depends where you live. Exercising an hour or two a day, then going for something long on the weekends, like an overnight hike, or a 6 hour walk. Get used to living in a tent. Then resting the week before and ensuring a good diet.

Where do you recommend that rock climbers travel with guides?
Remote alpine rock routes where you might have to travel over a glacier to get to the route. Long, committing climbs high in the mountains where only a small part of the climb is technical rock. There is still the access and the descent issues that need to be dealt with.

For more information visit: www.adventureconsultants.co.nz

Guide Profile: Marty Molitoris of Alpine Endeavors

Age? 36.

Where did you grow up?
Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Where do you live now?
Rosendale, NY.

What is your climbing experience?
20 years so far – rock, ice, and alpine.

What is your training background?
AMGA trained and AMGA certified in the Rock and Alpine disciplines. Member of the AMGA instructor pool for the SPI and RIC programs.

Where do you guide?
Home base is New York – Shawangunks, Catskills, and Adirondacks. In addition to this, I offer trips to areas throughout the US and abroad.

What is your favorite part about this job?
Meeting, climbing, getting to know our guests, and sharing the experiences of the climbs with them.

Most gripping or scary time on a climb?
I’ll leave this one blank…

What success are you most proud of?
Being fortunate enough to make a living doing a job I love.

What makes you a good guide?
You’ll have to ask my guests that one – I do list their comments on our website under “references”…

What is the most important part about being a guide?
Introducing the sport and teaching vital technical and safety skills to others so they can take that information and experience and head out on their own trips.

What type of climbing is your favorite? Why?
Alpine climbing. It puts it all together – the approach, camping, glacier travel, rock and/or ice climbing, not to mention the incredible scenery.

Where is your favorite climbing destination? Why?
Can’t answer that one – there are so many areas I have not yet been to…

Why should a climber hire a guide?
To increase their overall climbing experience – learn a new technique, improve existing skills, climb a route they are not comfortable leading on their own yet, etc.

What advice do you have for climbers who hire guides?
Take some time to make some calls and/or emails. Look at their experience/credentials (seek certified if possible); call and talk with them about what you want to do and get a feel for them (and decide if you would like to climb with them or not).

How can customers prepare for a guided expedition?
Each trip can be vastly different. I would suggest the best way would be to start with some reading about the area, then do a “training” day or two with your guide (if it is a more involved climb/trip). This will not only give you more experience, but also show how the two of you will work together.

Where do you recommend that climbers travel with guides?
Anywhere they feel the need – from crags in their backyard to routes they have been dreaming about. Guides teach vital skills as well as pass on some hard learned experiences.

For more info visit: www.alpineendeavors.com

Read more GUIDE ZONE profiles on the next page

Guide Profile: Ryan Stefiuk of Alpine Endeavors

Age? 30.

Where did you grow up?
In central New Jersey, major suburbia.

Where do you live now?
Marlborough Mass. I’ve taken a year off from full-time guiding to find out what it’s like to work in a classroom as a science teacher.<

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