So you want to become a Canadian Ski Guide, eh! You want to move guests through the mountains and deliver an unforgettable alpine experience, whether mechanized skiing or ski touring. Or, maybe you’re so enthralled with the awe of powder skiing that you only see one life avenue: becoming a ski guide. A combination of factors got me to where I am now: an ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide, soon to pass my final ski guide exam. The joy of power skiing, the mountainscape, the logistics of ski guiding, and the incredible feeling of delivering a once-in-a-lifetime experience for your guests. Those are all key factors in my decision to pursue this career. For those looking to start the lengthy process, I’m hoping this deeper insight will influence your decision. I’ve shared some insight that may be useful when challenging the apprentice exam. You should start with the post below to get a general understanding of the ski guide certification process.

Related: The ACMG Ski Guide Certificate: What It Takes.

An Unconventional Format

The ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide Exam is an 8 to 9-day practical evaluation of an aspiring guide’s skillset on snow, ice and rock. It’s the first step in the ACMG ski guide certification process and grants you the ability to lead groups in technical ski terrain under the supervision of a certified ski guide. It’s an all-encompassing test where 3-4 students lead a rotating cast of examiners through terrain commonly faced when ski guiding. The routes chosen by the examiners often involve a technical alpine component (such as couloir skiing, rappels, roped glacier travel) with the occasional tree skiing. Under the examiner’s watchful eye, the students take turns in the “guide” position, setting the uptrack, evaluating the hazards, instructing the group on how to move through difficult sections, amongst other things. Examiners will often let the students get into trouble to examine their thought process and error correction. They’ll pull the plug only when truly necessary.

Most would think the evaluation process is arbitrary and extremely subjective. To minimize subjectivity when giving out marks, the ACMG provides 2-4 examiners through which the groups will rotate. After the exam, the examiners meet and discuss in great detail the students’ performance throughout the apprentice ski guide exam, assigning a fair grade at the end. A passing grade of 70% is required to obtain the certificate and continue to the final ski guide exam, after up to three years of industry experience. The exam is broken down into several evaluation criteria.

Criteria	Description	Example
Client care	Taking great care of your clients	Making your examiner feel like a million bucks
Risk management	Managing the hazards properly	Staying clear of a large overhead cornice
Technical systems	Setting up systems efficiently	Setting up a safe rappel anchor with ease
Professionalism	Professional behavior	Communicating to guests clearly and politely
Movement skills	Uphill and downhill skiing technique	Can you make the skiing look easy in hard wind crust?
Terrain assessment	Communicating with guests clearly and politely	Finding the best route for the uptrack
Application	Using the right guiding tool for the situation	Heel riser use on the uphill

One exam day is dedicated to a “sports” day where the examiners assess a student’s rope and crevasse rescue skills. It usually takes place on the edge of a wind lip, shallow crevasse or cliff. The challenges vary from a standard crevasse rescue scenario using the 6:1 drop loop to rappelling or ascending through multiple knots. The “sports” day is a welcome break from the stress of non-stop guiding in tiger country. Examiners will advise on the spot to improve your rope skills. Just be ready for the worst weather. I’ve had friends complete their “sports” day in wild winds, frigid temperatures or full-on whiteouts.

The Typical Exam Field Day

Starting in the wee hours of the morning, you’ll probably wake up around 5 AM thinking about the objective. After all, you’ve been trip planning until 10 PM the night before. You’ll have a calorie-dense breakfast either in a backcountry lodge or in your hotel room. You’ll meet your group around 7 AM for your AM guide’s meeting, where you’ll examine the weather, assess the avalanche hazards & risk, and discuss risk mitigation strategies. The examiner will introduce the daily runlist showing routes that can safely be completed given your risk assessment. In practice, the objective is already determined the night before, so you can prepare. You’ll then deliver your pre-trip briefing to your examiner in a clear, cohesive manner. Where to meet, what gear to bring, what conditions to expect on the route, etc. He’ll probably ask you pointed questions if your briefing is lacking details.

At the trailhead, the leading student will perform a transceiver check and an important equipment check. Throughout the field day, you’ll take turns at the front of the group. The examiners expect you to act as a guide, coaching your peers when you would expect the average guest to struggle or when the exposure justifies a careful approach. Good communication is paramount. For instance, let the group know what the route’s next section entails and when the next break will be. Instruct guests to throw a jacket on before travelling on a windy ridgetop feature. Laugh when you make small blunders. Keep things lighthearted when possible and be especially assertive when justified by the hazards. The examiner will drill you with questions. Don’t fret. The intention is not to challenge your thinking but to understand your thought process. They don’t know what’s going on in your head. I prefer to share my plan with the group during breaks to avoid the non-stop interrogation, which could affect my focus. The examiner will also ask you questions regarding navigation.

Hopefully, you’ll reach your objective within an appropriate timeframe. And, if you don’t, it’s all good as long as you can justify turning back given the hazards and weather. The examiner may try to push you towards completing the objective at all costs. Stick to your guns if you’re convinced proceeding further would compromise the group’s safety. By the end of the day, you’ll circle back to your vehicle or the lodge where you’ll meet for a PM guide’s meeting. The examiner will ask you how your day went and provide some key feedback. Next, you’ll have dinner and plan for the next day. Now, rinse and repeat on the next day. There’s no doubt: it’s an incredibly time-consuming process. On my exam, I barely had a few minutes of rest each day. Be prepared for the exhaustion that ensues.

The Feedback And Error Correction Process

Examiners will provide important feedback at the end of every day and in the field. After all, they know you are being certified as an apprentice ski guide and have barely worked in the industry. They don’t expect perfection, but they do expect the students to learn from their mistakes. It’s especially important to take their feedback with grace and apply the key points over the remainder of the exam. I remember one of my examiners described me as a “sponge”, soaking up all the feedback and “wringing” it out (applying it) on the next field day. Flattering compliment, I know! Be a good sponge.

In the same vein, the examiners value error correction. They are adamant about its importance. As a working ski guide, you’ll make daily mistakes, hopefully small, trivial ones. It’s important to assess your decisions with continuous introspection and correct errors that would put clients at risk or be detrimental to their experience. Examiners will happily have you skirt too close to a hidden crevasse, hoping you’ll turn the situation around and instruct your guests to backtrack while you find an alternate route around the hazard. That’s okay! On the flipside, they would rather avoid having you make the wrong decision and drag your group through hazardous terrain because you’re too scared error correct.

Managing The Anxiety

The ACMG apprentice ski guide exam is a stressful evaluation. The process is admittedly unforgiving, highly demanding, and very costly. Most exams range in the $3000-5000 range. A failed exam has to be reattempted at your cost the following year. Not only does the exam fee burn a hole in your wallet, but it also introduces a year delay to your career plans. The missed opportunity cost induces a huge financial hit since you won’t be able to work as an apprentice ski guide in the ski industry, a position that comes with a healthy wage bump. Just know, there are ways to ease the mental struggle.

The ACMG provides an insightful video series on stress management during the exam process. Some students even consult sports psychologists to arm themselves with useful coping strategies. Getting to know your exam group well and training in the field with them helped in minimizing the pre-exam stress. You’ll quickly get over the awkwardness of “mock guiding” your peers. During the evaluation, it’s best to get along with your examiner, laugh at your failures and find ways to enjoy the journey. After all, you’ll be bagging peaks, rappelling into couloirs and figuring out complex glaciers. It’s just skiing – we love it for a reason! I recommend working with your group when trip planning at night so that you’re all on the same page come morning. Healthy and effective group dynamics go a long way to easing the stress during the exam process. By now, you probably already know that. Ensure you follow an energy-dense diet and drink fluids often. You’ll be expending a wild amount of energy in the field. When I’m stressed out, I tend to forget the basics of nutrition in the backcountry.

Training For The Apprentice Ski Guide Exam

Being admitted into the ACMG Ski Guide Training and Application Program (ACMG TAP) is extremely competitive. By then, you’ve got years of personal and professional experience under your belt and several advanced avalanche certifications. Your rope skills are ultra-dialled and probably better than most fully certified ski guides who haven’t rappelled into a couloir in years. In other words, you’re already most of the way to the apprentice ski guide standard. I spent the winter and spring before my late-April exam working as a tailguide for a heli-ski operation and volunteering at ski touring lodges. I also set time aside to complete classic ski-mountaineering objectives in complex glaciated terrain (see the Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale).

A few weeks before my exam in the Canadian Rockies, just north of Lake Louise, I spent a few days with my exam group on commonly guided routes such as Mt Gordon on the Wapta Icefield, Mt Hector, Cirque Peak and Sub-Observation Peak. We took turns guiding our group in the manner we would on the exam. From a good vantage point, I photographed key terrain features and bought ski touring guidebooks to study the area from my home base. Spend some time locating popular trailheads to avoid any confusion during the exam and improve your pre-trip briefing delivered at the start of each day. I often practiced rope skills and crevasse rescue techniques in the evenings. Ask around for beta about the area in which you’ll be assessed. Local guides are a great source of information and will no doubt give you a hand if you mention that the information is for an apprentice ski guide exam.

Good Luck With Your Exam

Well, that’s about all I can think of at the moment. I’ll add some sections to this post as I think of additional insight. By all means, reach out through my Contact Page or Instagram if you’re looking for specific advice or beta on an area you’ll visit. I’ll do my best to help you out! I hope you’ll one day challenge the apprentice ski guide exam and be successful.