Related: The ACMG Ski Guide Certificate: What Does It Take?

What’s The ACMG Ski Guide Exam All About

For those wondering, the ski guide exam is a 9-day, hands-on assessment of a guide’s skills on snow. It is the final milestone in the ACMG ski guide certification. Think of it as an all-around, real-world exam. Small groups of 3 to 4 students take turns leading a rotating group of examiners through complex glaciated terrain. The routes selected often include technical alpine features like couloir skiing, rappels, and roped glacier travel, with the occasional foray into the trees.

Under the examiner’s watchful eye, each student rotates through the guide role by track-setting, assessing hazards, managing the group, and coaching everyone through challenging sections. Examiners may even allow mistakes to unfold to better understand a student’s decision-making and problem-solving skills, stepping in only when it truly matters.

Keep Your Head On A Swivel

As a ski guide, you’re constantly monitoring dangers, from avalanche hazards to hidden crevasses. It all boils down to minimizing your group’s exposure to hazards while managing the guests when the hazards can’t be avoided. That’s where backcountry experience in complex glaciated terrain, leading to sound decision-making, is critical. Without a doubt, the avalanche hazard is a major player. Ski guides will spend a considerable amount of time investigating the snowpack to accurately evaluate the avalanche hazard – whether that means sticking our head in the snow or ski cutting unsupported features.

In an exam setting or at work, you’re making hundreds of small decisions, almost every minute, from where you’ll ski down to how you’ll lower guests into a couloir and where you’ll take your snack breaks. All those decisions must work in tandem to complete the objective and deliver an unforgettable experience. Guides in training spend a considerable amount of time completing challenging ski tours to test their decision-making while facing hazardous conditions. Sometimes, you just have to get creative! We’ll “mock guide” our peers and perform a debrief after each day, offering constructive criticism.

The Art Of Track-Setting

On the ACMG ski guide exam, we’re expected to master the art of track-setting, otherwise known as uptracking. You didn’t hit that bench quite right – FAIL! Your uptrack is too steep – FAIL! You didn’t flatten the corners enough for your guests – FAIL! Jokes aside, setting an uptrack as perfectly through dense forest as in convoluted, alpine terrain is challenging. Fortunately, most apprentice guides have 2-3 years of ski touring work to practice those skills. It definitely gets harder when you’ve exclusively heli-skied during your apprenticeship.

Guides aim for an uptrack incline of 12-18 degrees, striking a balance between vertical gain and energy conservation throughout the day. It’s important to maintain a consistent angle across features while minimizing direction changes. I always tell myself: “Use all the real estate you can when setting a track”. Sometimes, it’s important to climb at an aggressive incline or speed up the ascent, such as when crossing crevasse bridges or to escape from sketchy overhead hazards. Like any other guiding skillset, it all comes down to good decision-making. Guides will spend many days purposefully uptracking through difficult terrain in hopes of mastering the art of track-setting.

Nail The Downhill Lines

Like most ski guides, we track uphill to ski downhill. I genuinely love the downhill component. It’s the reason why I spend 60-70% of my winter around helicopters. The ACMG ski guide exam will test your ability to guide your group on the descent in unfamiliar terrain. After all, you’re expected to navigate thoughtfully through zones you’ve never visited before, intending to deliver the best possible ski product. With experience, guides learn how to best manage their guests while avoiding objective hazards or reducing their group’s exposure.

There’s no substitute for hard-earned experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to land a dream heli-ski job early in my career. Heli-skiing allowed me to dial in my downhill guiding, often skiing 10 backcountry runs. Due to Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing’s massive tenure, I get to explore new terrain every day and downhill guide in a variety of weather and snow conditions.

Navigate Glaciers Like A Pro

Glacier travel is one of the core components of the ACMG ski guide exam. It takes years of experience to decode glaciers and understand what’s happening underneath the snow. An unroped crevasse fall is typically our biggest concern. With much practice, guides can determine the strength of a snow bridge based on outside temperature, bridge thickness and snow hardness – sticking our probes in the snow and feeling the resistance. It’s an essential skill when you’re travelling through an icefall.

As guides in training, we’ll spend days traversing icefields in a whiteout, testing our GPS and compass-based navigation skills when we can barely see the tip of our skis. Being able to decipher a sagging crevasse bridge in poor visibility is an acquired skill. Glacier navigation is complicated and inherently high-stakes. A mistake here and you might fall into a gaping hole.

Master The Ropes

Rigging skills are thoroughly tested on the ACMG ski guide exam. We’ll often lower our group into steep lines or belay a guest scrambling on a rocky ridge. Examiners dedicate a day to testing crevasse rescue techniques using various scenarios, including an unroped fall where the victim is unconscious and a rope ascent while passing knots.

I spent several days rehearsing rigging techniques, practicing knots while watching TV and running through diverse rescue scenarios with my peers. A few examples:

• An unroped fall with an unconscious victim
• Ascending a rope with knots
• Rappelling through knots
• Drop loop and z-pulley rescue systems
• Building bomber snow/ice anchors (T-slots & V-threads)

Ever Heard Of The “Backcountry Butler”

The often forgotten component of ski guiding is client care. Sure, when we think of ski guides, we immediately think of powder skiing through an untouched white canvas. What guides don’t tell you is that 50% of our job is about caring for our clients and optimizing their experience. Examiners will judge you on quality-of-life decisions like taking a break in a sheltered location or emphasizing sunscreen use. They’ll even evaluate your coaching skills when working through challenging sections. That’s part of the game, and how a guide gets a great tip at the end of a day!

You might have to teach your clients how to remove skins on a summit while the winds are howling. You might have to sprinkle some fresh snow on an overused uptrack to increase grip. All those small things contribute to the guest experience. At the ACMG, the bar is set high.

A Note On The Ridge Active Insulator

Premium outerwear designer Strafe was kind enough to send me their cutting-edge mid-layer, The Ridge Active Insulator Jacket, for testing. I’ve now taken it on a few ski tours, through old-growth forest, on huge glaciers and far into our backcountry playground. The Ridge Insulator is the perfect replacement for my old, raggedy mid-layer, which was falling apart at the seams. The fleece lining is not only comfortable, but also provides just the right amount of insulation for winter, high-output activities like ski touring or mountaineering. The insulation is strategically placed to maximize breathability. The jacket is also incredibly light, keeping only essential features such as a hood, wrist and waist elastic cinching and a few zippered pockets. The thin, yet durable, Pertex face fabric complements its low weight while granting it some water resistance when the snow starts flying. The Ridge Active Insulator is the only jacket I need for the ascent in mild to moderately cold temperatures. Since the synthetic insulation retains warmth when wet, I simply throw on my shell layer for the descent. The jacket just looks darn good, and the athletic fit is great for my slim, 6ft build in a size medium.

Features:

• Lightweight & air-permeable body mapped Pertex® Equilibrium NetPlus® & brrr° 4-way stretch fabrics
• Exposed body mapped PrimaLoft® Active Evolve insulation
• Fully lined integrated hood with elastic along the opening
• Zippered hand & chest pockets
• Mesh electronics sleeve inside right-hand pocket
• Elastic binding at sleeve cuffs, hood edge, & hem
• YKK® Vislon® & Regular Coil zippers
• Weight: 10.2oz/290g

The post The ACMG Ski Guide Exam: How I Trained For The Ultimate Test appeared first on The Uptrack.

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.

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.

The post The Apprentice Ski Guide Exam (ACMG): Trials and Tribulations appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: The ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide Exam: Trials and Tribulations

What’s The ACMG Ski Guide Certificate?

The certificate provided by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) is the ski-centric chapter of a mountain guide’s training, involving ski touring and mechanized skiing (helicopter and cat-assisted). The other two chapters are the Rock Guide and Alpine Guide. Some call it the PhD. of mountain travel. Completing all three chapters makes you a full mountain guide certified by the ACMG and IFMGA, the latter operating internationally. Being part of the IFMGA means you can work all over the world. As a victim of the outdoor sport’s skyrocketing popularity, the ski guide program is especially highly sought after. The committee lets in up to 25 students yearly out of more than 200 applicants. That’s 12.5% of applicants.

Given the tough competition, all students vastly surpass the minimum admission criteria – most apply several times over. It goes without saying: the bar is high… and for good measure. After all, ski guiding relies heavily on experience and good judgement, which takes time to cement. For years before my admittance, I wondered what got applicants ahead of others, as I was trying my best to stack my recreational and professional ski touring and guiding resume. It honestly was a source of anxiety, always questioning my strategy, wondering if it was the “right” way. Talking to my peers, most students have been eaten up by this burning feeling. Bear with me, I’ll go the long way around to answering this question. I promise I’ll point out some crucial lessons from which aspiring guides could benefit.

Two Distinct Paths: ACMG Or CSGA

Let’s start with the basics. Two associations certify ski guides in Canada: the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) and the Canadian Ski Guide Association (CSGA). While the ACMG offers a full mountain guide certification through the three chapters (ski, rock and alpine), the CSGA focuses exclusively on mechanized ski guiding, helicopter and cat skiing. They’ve recently started offering a touring module that isn’t as widely recognized by employers as the ACMG ticket.

So here are the questions you’ve got to ask yourself. Do you want to be a fully certified mountain guide and guide in other countries? Do you want the variety of ski touring and mechanized guiding? Do you want to operate as an independent guide (guide for hire)? If the answer is no to those questions, the CSGA program might be a better fit.

A Forgotten Past

I figured I might as well use my journey as a case study. I wasn’t born into a family of renowned mountain guides or in the supposed birthplace of ski mountaineering. Really, I was born in Montreal, a bustling city, among a family of well-educated, loving parents working busy white-collar jobs. I grew up skiing in Mont-Tremblant, QC, but not the kind of extreme skiing I now adore. My family wasn’t particularly outdoorsy, but thankfully took me out skiing every winter. In my late teens and early twenties, I started backpacking as a way to escape the stress factors found in the city. I absolutely loved the adventure as well as the solitude that came with the backcountry environment. In 2016, I graduated with honours in mechanical engineering. I was a hard-working student with a particular aptitude in mechanical design and 3D modelling. After working for three years in an office, I was done sitting in front of a computer, 50-60 hours per week. My vision worsened, my lower back ached, and my wrist was throbbing. I watched silently as my body slowly withered away. I craved a more hands-on job. I needed to make a big move.

After months of rumination, I decided to get back to my roots, skiing in big terrain. I googled “ACMG” and looked into the ski guide program. It sounded so appealing, but little did I know, it would take years of hard (fun) work to get there. I ended a healthy relationship, abandoned my stable engineering job and packed my bags. Destination: Revelstoke, BC. I was 25 by the time I was fully dedicated to the path. In my mind, I was late to the party, and I needed to fast-track the process. Boy, was I wrong! This was totally the wrong way to go about it.

Enjoy The Journey Safely

Here’s a quick reality check for aspirant guides: there is no shortcut to getting in. So you might as well enjoy the journey. Thinking I was pretty old for starting on this path, I ground away at high-paying night jobs (serving tables) that allowed me to complete the pre-requisite courses and tour almost every day to the point of burning out by March. I was so focused on the objective of getting into the program that I had a hard time finding enjoyment in skiing. I had a few too many close calls with fast-moving snow, I was buried to my neck by a size 2.5 avalanche, and I lost a few toenails due to frostbite. It came to a point where I would complete an epic, week-long traverse and compromise on my own and my partner’s safety to see it yet become another line in my already extensive ski touring log. In retrospect, I had it all wrong. In a perfect world without this self-imposed agenda where accolades matter, this should have been about exploring new terrain through which few have travelled before, pushing my limits, and just having a grand ol’ time in the wild, most importantly, without compromising on safety. Isn’t that what guiding is all about: safety, followed by client care and enjoyment? It’s a curious irony: I was so obsessed with grasping the apple that I abandoned all the principles by which it is governed.

After an initial failed application, a Hail Mary that didn’t have enough substance, my second go got me into the ACMG Ski Guide program. I got the news in July; I should have been thrilled. In reality, I was numb, and I let out a sigh of relief. I figured: at least now, I won’t put my life on the line to add an impressive trip to my resume. Listen up, folks, don’t be an Oli. Take your time, wait for the right conditions and enjoy the journey… safely.

So What Did It Take?

By the time I applied for the second time (four years since starting on the guide path), I had accumulated the following:

• 203 ski touring days in total
• 41 days of multi-day traverses in complex, glaciated terrain, either tent or hut-based
• Most of my experience was in the Columbia Mountains and in the Rockies. I had a single 5-day tent-based traverse on the Coast
• A season’s experience working as a tail guide in the heli-ski industry.
• One practicum week in a ski touring lodge and a few days shadowing avalanche safety courses
• A few seasons of resort “guiding” on a part-time basis in Revelstoke
• Way too much time spent building The Uptrack
• A life-altering passion for ski touring and skiing in general

I tried to ski tour as much as I could and complete 1-2 big traverses or camping excursions every winter. I remained ambitious in my goals, sometimes taking on an objective that was way beyond my capabilities at the moment. My risk tolerance was way beyond what it is today.

I’m just one example out of many variations. Talking with some of my peers, I found out ACMG students come from diverse backgrounds. It seems like everyone has a vastly different journey. Some have little to no work experience but have completed massive expeditions traversing large swaths of alpine land and entire mountain ranges on skis. Some have a shorter recreational ski touring resume, but have worked in the ski guiding industry for 10 years. The scale truly swings around both extremes.

How To Work In The Ski-Guiding Industry?

It’s a pretty broad question that has been asked many times over and for good reasons. There’s a surprising lack of information online. I might write a piece about that at some point. My advice: persistence is key. I relentlessly contacted guiding operations about potential job opportunities. The job will not magically come to you – you’ve got to get your name out there and know the right people. It’s intimidating, but it’s the only way. The guiding community is very much a word-of-mouth industry. Generally speaking, mechanized skiing operations employ more tail guides than their ski touring counterpart. Managers tend to hire in May-June for the following winter, but job opportunities can come up much later. It’s hard for operations to predict staffing until September-October when bookings are confirmed. I also found it easier to get a job once the employer figured out I had already applied for the ACMG Ski Guide certificate. I figured it shows I’ve got decent experience in the mountain, I share a hardcore passion for skiing, and I’m serious about the career path.

Ski touring operations tend to take on potential students for a week-long mentorship opportunity at their lodge. Folks call this a practicum. It’s an unpaid work exchange where you get to follow two guides and their group in glorious, untouched terrain in exchange for completing basic lodge tasks. While generally speaking, this is a great deal, some operations tend to abuse the willingness of aspiring guides to get free labour out of it, but I won’t get into the matter at this time.

Any Questions?

This is it for today. I truly hope this piece answered some of the questions about the ACMG Ski Guide certificate and shed some light on the thick veil that hides the topic. There’s always more to discuss, but that will have to do for now. Feel free to reach out through my Contact page or Instagram for additional questions. I’ll be more than happy to answer to the best of my knowledge.

See you on the slopes!

The post The ACMG Ski Guide Certificate: What Does It Take? appeared first on The Uptrack.