The mountaineer was dragged down by an avalanche in Patagonia, on Argentina's border with Chile. An Austrian woman, also an experienced climber, sustained severe injuries.
The Georgian Mountain Guide Association (GMGA) which has been developing adventure guiding institutions and training programmes in the country since 1998 is now officially a member of the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA).
I was 23 when I started backcountry skiing. I’d been recreating in the mountains my entire life, resort skiing, backpacking, and climbing volcanoes in the Cascades. I’d taken a National Outdoor Leadership School mountaineering course, and I was writing for a ski magazine. And yet I felt completely lost about where to start. So I borrowed some gear and took an American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) Level 1 course, which at the time seemed like the only way to begin.
AIARE’s three-day recreational Level 1 comprises 24 hours of education, usually about eight hours of classroom learning followed by two eight-hour field days, and offers a crash course in snow safety, avalanche terrain, and companion rescue. It has long been the standard entry point for backcountry beginners.
When Martin Volken, owner of North Bend’s Pro Guiding Service, earned his
IFMGA guiding pin back in 1996 in his native Switzerland, much of the town turned out for the ceremony including the mayor. “You are a high-altitude representative of the Swiss tourism industry,” the mayor told Volken. “I expect you to act like a professional.”
Such is the importance that Europe places on its guides.
In the United States, guiding has avoided such esteem. Nowhere is that more true than with ski guiding, which is too often viewed as anathema to American backcountry skiing’s DIY ethos, despite the fact that it can keep inexperienced skiers safer, show many backcountry skiers a far better time than they’d experience on their own, and add to even a seasoned skier’s mountain sense.