The guiding profession
What it means to live in the mountains as a mountain guide
Spending 365 days a year among knots, ropes and carabiners… among woods, rocks,
snow and ice accompanying those who want to climb mountains, ski
in deep snow or climbing some of the spires of the Dolomites realise their dream.
The Alpine Guide (also known as a mountain guide) is the professional figure in charge of guiding hikers and mountaineers along trails and mountain routes and is a professional mountaineer, with in-depth knowledge of climbing, crossing snowfields and glaciers and all mountain-related activities, including emergencies. This knowledge is also imparted to hikers on the field. At the same time the Alpine Guide ensures that hikers are climbing safely, and therefore safe from all dangers (environmental and physiological) typical of mountain walking.
Thevarious national Alpine Guide associations are part of an international federation called the Union Internationale des Associations de Guides de Montagnes (UIAGM). The Mountain Guide Associations also include the Trekking Guides, the Mid-mountain guides who are trained and prepared for trekking. The added value of being guided on a trail, a wall, a glacier or a via ferrata is that of being accompanied by trained professionals who deeply love their profession, nature and land. Relying on an Alpine Guideor aMid-mountain Guide is the right way to experience the Dolomites and the mountains and above all the guarantee of quality service
THE LAW STATES THAT…
In Italy, the matter was regulated by Law 2 January 1989 n. 6, on the“Ordinance of the Mountain Guide Profession”. The mountain guide becomes the only professional figure authorised to teach and accompany all mountaineering and ski mountaineering activities. At the administrative level, the law provided for the creation of the Regional Colleges and the National College of Mountain Guides, and a Technical Commission to draw up training and refresher courses.
As defined by Provincial Law 23 August 1993 no. 20 et seq. “Ordinance of the profession of Alpine Guide, Territorial Guide and Ski Instructor in the Province of Trento”, a Territorial Guide is a person who performs the following activities by profession and limited to the provincial territory, even in a non-exclusive and non-continuous manner:
– Accompanying people on hikes in mountain environments, through trails and areas of particular naturalistic value, providing cognitive elements and information about the places traversed;
– Accompanying people on visits to naturalistic and ethnological environments or facilities.
HOW TO BECOME A GUIDE
To become a guide it is necessary to follow a training course, held on a regional basis every two years.
An initial pre-selection with CVs: is the theoretical and practical entrance test to verify that the candidate already has some mountaineering experience.
The course for aspiring guides: is a course of a dozen modules, with corresponding examinations, spread over a year and a half; after passing the examinations the student becomes an ‘aspiring guide’, being able to carry out the activity with certain limitations.
The Alpine Guide Course: it is accessed after two years of practice as an aspiring guide and it is the course that, after passing the relevant examinations, allows registration in the professional register as a true and proper
mountain guide.
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