Why you should hire an AMGA/IFMGA Guide

These extremely rare “Unicorn” guides are the crème de la crème

Victor McNeil of Eagle Cap Mountain Guides is a fully certified IFMGA Mountain Guide. When he is not leading backcountry hut trips in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, teaching Avalanche safety classes and being the Executive Director of the Wallowa Avalanche Center, you can find him leading mountaineering and ski trips to Denali, Aconcagua, Pacific Northwest Volcanoes or retracing the steps of Ernest Shackleton on South Georgia Island and generally leading trips all over the world.

One of the best pieces of advice I have for strong skiers and snowboarders who want to improve their ability is to hire a certified AMGA/IFMGA ski guide. The International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations (IFMGA or UIAGM in French) is the international certifying agency for high mountain guides (ski, rock, alpine), while the American Mountain Guide Association is specific to the USA but operates under the IFMGA. The IFMGA was founded in 1965 in Switzerland and aims to regulate the mountain guide profession on a global scale by working with governments, supporting standardized laws and regulations, and establishing international training standards. Owing to Europe’s generally higher consequence terrain, as well as being the birthplace of mountain guiding, and a long tradition of ski guiding, hiring a guide is much more common in Europe (and other mountainous places outside of the US–think Canada, Argentina, Peru, Nepal, etc.).

In the US, many people think that hiring a guide is for newbies, or those who can’t figure out the terrain for themselves. I am an advanced level skier, so why would I need a guide to show me where to go? Well, you might be great at skiing, but what are your skills in avalanche safety, mountaineering, route finding, building anchors, and your ability to understand terrain and find good snow in constantly changing conditions? All those clips you have been watching of a pro freeride skier or boarder descending some gnarly line in Alaska, the Tetons, or the Alps often have spent days or weeks working with an IFMGA ski guide for avalanche safety, route selection, and snowpack conditions.

I first got to see how impressive these certified guides are several years ago when I was running ski and snowboard trips to the Portes du Soleil  in the French and Swiss Alps. The Portes du Soleil is one of the largest collections of ski resorts in the world, encompassing 12 resorts, 650 km of slopes spread out over the countries of France and Switzerland. I started skiing the Portes du Soleil in 2006 and have a good working knowledge of the different resorts, slopes, people, cheese producers, and best restaurants for a slope-side “gigot d’agneau” (leg of lamb), “confit du canard” (duck confit), or “vin chaud” (hot mulled wine). Back in the day, I used to typically hire two local French friends, Caro and François, to help with the cooking, driving, and showing people the vast terrain the Portes du Soleil has to offer. François grew up in the area and has been skiing and snowboarding at the Portes du Soleil for 25 years. He has also worked for a few of the ski resorts in the Portes du Soleil, and knows many awesome powder stashes, tree runs, and cornices to jump off of. A few years ago, François announced that he was expecting a baby at the beginning of March, which coincided with my trip. François seemed to think he could still work the trip, but I knew better (I have two kids, and this was to be his first). I began looking around for someone else to fill François’ role.

The AMGA (American Mountain Guide Association) provides certifications in “Ski” “Rock” and “Alpine.” A guide with a Ski certification from the AMGA will be a an expert Ski guide with tons of experience guiding skiing in all kinds of terrain and conditions. A guide with an “IFGMA” certification, will have earned certifications in all three disciplines. 

I remembered that a friend I knew from Oregon had married a ski guide. I also knew he was American, and likely had no knowledge of the Portes du Soleil. I didn’t imagine that he would be able to show people the hidden treasures like the local, François. Still, since ski guiding was his profession, I thought he would be useful. At that point, like many people, I really wasn’t aware of what being an AMGA (American Mountain Guide Association) or IFMGA certified ski guide meant. I made the call and asked if he would be interested in working a ski trip to the French and Swiss Alps with great food. He didn’t have anything booked for that time and said he would come along and work as a ski guide and driver of one of the vans.

We arrived in France a couple of days before the group and immediately cleared the jetlag cobwebs with strong coffee and croissants. Then we grabbed some excellent sandwiches from my favorite boulangerie (crusty baguette with jambon, eggs, crudité, and plenty of homemade mayonnaise) for our packed lunch, and drove up to the mountains. I figured I would show Victor around to give him a lay of the land so that he could get oriented and be able to help clients with where to ski. With an area as big as the Portes du Soleil it would be impossible to show him even a quarter of the slopes in a day, but something is better than nothing. Visibility wasn’t great but we did have about 5 inches of warm powder to ski. For about an hour I showed him a few areas, slopes, lifts, and pointed out some good lunch spots. That was pretty much where my expertise was eclipsed by his.

François-Xavier Woestelandt (“Fix” for short) is a French IFMGA guide. He skis with almost the same nonchalance and skill on a 45 degree icy couloir as on a blue slope. When the terrain gets spicy (like La Grave), having a highly skilled Mountain Guide helps quiet the nerves.

So I wasn’t just dealing with some ski bum who was marketing himself as a guide. I was dealing with an elite guide with skills that had been razor-honed through years of training, tests, and experience. A guide who had dedicated himself to safely climbing and skiing some of the most dramatic mountains in the world while leading clients and keeping them safe.

Victor quickly began deciding where we should ski in a very casual way. Intuitively he began considering wind direction, aspect, sun exposure, and snowpack stability to put us on the best snow. His mind probed the terrain, observed drainages, figured out where the dead ends were and where cliffs could be approached and descended. He would ski over to a band of seemingly sheer cliffs and peer over the edge, looking for a way down. Then he would do a neat kick-turn and continue on until he found what he was looking for; a small chute that led through the rocks. We sidestepped and then dropped through a narrow notch in the rocks and found ourselves in a wide bowl of untouched snow. We skied beautiful arcing turns in the hot pow before hitting the tree line and skirting around a knob. A short traverse and we were able to ski all the way back to the lift. The next time down a few other skiers, emboldened by our tracks, had laid their own turns on the bowl. Victor simply traversed over a bit more to again put us in untouched snow. He continued along like this until the area was tracked out for his taste and then moved us to a whole new location. Within an hour jumping on the lift, he was leading me to hidden powder stashes that many of the locals don’t know about. After the trip I met with my friend François, who grew up skiing at the Portes du Soleil. I expressed my amazement that Victor was able to find so many amazing places on the mountain without ever having skied there before. François was not as surprised. “He is a highly trained high mountain guide, he will understand a mountain far better than the rest of us, even if he is not familiar with it. Anyone with those certifications is a true pro, the best of the best.” While local knowledge of a mountain is indispensable, IFMGA guides are often hired to lead trips in far flung locations they have never previously visited. Using their understanding of mountains in general, combined with often intense pre-trip research using topographical maps, mapping apps, proprietary weather stations, as well as potentially using the network of mountain guides, they are able to be prepared to effectively lead in terrain they have never set foot in. Often times, but not always, mountain guides will be willing to share information (“beta” as it is called), with other certified mountain guides from other countries. Since there are so few IFGMA guides in the world, they are often working in their home country, but also being hired to work in other places, so a local mountain guide may be willing to share routes and advice with an IFMGA guide from a different country, with the idea that it will be reciprocated when they also travel to a different country.

This is the IFMGA logo, which guides often display on their backpacks or jackets. Savvy but unscrupulous skiers who have not hired a guide may try to follow someone with a Mountain Guide badge to discover new spots, but that is not a good idea as they will draw the guide’s ire and could be dangerous if the guide is headed to terrain that the parasitic skiers are not prepared for.

The clients arrived for our trip and despite Victor’s laid-back demeanor, quickly began to understand that Victor was a guide of a different feather. Those who skied with him met us at the end of the day with wide grins and stories of great snow that they had all to themselves. Those who skied by themselves reported the snow to be poor and tracked out. Victor was simply finding the best conditions and best places for people to ski. With his deep knowledge of avalanches (he is also the Executive Director and lead avalanche forecaster for the Wallowa Avalanche Center) and twenty years of backcountry ski experience, he has the confidence to venture into places that most people wouldn’t attempt to go. It is important to note that most AMGA/IFMGA certified guides spend the majority of their time leading clients in “Backcountry” settings,

Victor’s vision of the mountain is also different because, like most AMGA/IFMGA certified guides, he spends the majority of his time in the “Backcountry.” These guides lead heli or cat skiing trips, or use skins and alpine touring skis to chase lines in mountains without lifts. In these Backcountry settings, there are no groomed runs, marked hazards, or signs. The guide chooses their route based on a host of factors and must be able to intelligently read the terrain to get the best, safest, snow, and route.

Many IFMGA and AMGA ski guides work as avalanche forecasters and educators in addition to their guiding jobs. While they typically won’t spend the time to dig a snow pit to evaluate the snowpack while leading clients (they try to take care of time-intensive snow evaluation techniques without clients), there are often opportunities for impromptu learning for interested skiers.

Now on all Saveur the Journey ski trips I work with AMGA certified ski guides or fully certified IFMGA guides. Each guide has their own style of guiding, but they have all been excellent. Clients marvel at the guides’ ability to ski all kinds of terrain on super lightweight bindings and skis, as well as their extreme efficiency and comfort on skis. Many clients call the guides “mountain goats” as they watch them climb, hop, balance, and scramble on skis on sometimes vertigo-inducing steeps. It is truly confidence inspiring to have your guide efficiently rigging up an anchor with various slings, carabiners, and ropes to lower you into a steep couloir, going about their practiced business with a nonchalance and deliberateness as you attempt to get your ski edges to dig into the hard snow while staring down a 1200 meter chute. Clients also begin to realize they are only scratching the surface of these guides’ abilities, evidenced by their stories of climbing and skiing the iconic and dramatic peaks all over the world.

As the week progressed, the clients became more and more impressed with Victor. Again and again, he found new powder stashes, kept clients in the coldest, best quality snow, and was able to match terrain to abilities. He has a very relaxed attitude, but I think a lot of that comes from a strong confidence in his skills. He doesn’t try to show off, spout his expertise and knowledge, or tell people that they are wrong. He is not threatened by people’s questioning of his decisions or routes. He goes about his work with a smile, a sense of humor, and an even-keeled personality and somehow, when you are skiing with him, the snow is just better.

Want to ski or snowboard with an IFMGA guide in Japan, Argentina, the Alps, or the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon? Join one of Saveur the Journey’s trips!

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