Guide or ski teacher what do you use?

A snowHead

Hello everyone,

I'm interested in what people generally use and why, is it a ski teacher or mountain guide?

What are the reasons you might choose one over the other?

I image lots of people will say guide off-piste, ski teacher on piste, but where is the line drawn?

Whats your perception of these mountain pro's regarding the limits of the qualification?

Brit or local?

Cheers

Chris Very Happy

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Some of the very best mountain guides won't necessarily be the best teachers, or even have the best technique (and by that I mean the most recent technique, the way as a developing skier you probably want to ski - they will without question all be very skillful skiers).

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Other than when on glaciated terrain, a ski teacher qualified to take parties off-piste can give you a really beneficial day. One thinks of easiski at Les Deux Alpes, Phillipe at Val Thorens, and Christian at Wengen. OTOH, guides can be very good at passing on tips related to the route you are on. I don't think there is a straightforward answer. I have found personal recommendation good - I also found, when I was a member, that the SCGB had a knack of selecting outstanding leaders for their off-piste holidays. admin has done the same for the sH bashes.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

skierchris, I'd have thought it was obvious. An instructor is principally interested (one hopes) in improving your technique. A guide is principally interested in ensuring your safety (and navigation) particularly in mixed or glaciated terrain. They have little interest in whether you can ski better after a day with them. There are some who combine the two, but not many.

Many guides had extremely stable and bullet proof ski techniques that would not get close to passing instructor's exams. Many guides are qualified in both.

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Thanks guys it's interesting to hear your thoughts, keep em coming!! Very Happy

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

To be become a fully qualified mountain guide you just need to be able to ski to a certain standard which is arguably a lot easier than the relevant amount of climbing & mountaineering experience & ability you need. Therefore whilst a lot of guides will be sh1thot skiers this is not necessary to become a guide they just need to be able to get down stuff. This last point is particularly the case as a broad general rule when it comes to British mountain guides where their professional focus tends to be more on leading clients up stuff than skiing. With this in mind a guide is just that, someone who will take you around, hopefully with some local knowledge, making the most of the conditions safely using their training. They are however in vast majority of cases not trained in tuition when it comes to skiing or boarding. So when picking between a ski instructor or a guide one should take that into account.

After all it is free

skierchris, A good question and one faced this year by a party I go with. Answer may well depent on chosen resort. They were in Klosters and used Ski School Saas,who can offer instructors in off-piste, but not Guides. Their permitted areas were vast ( no glaciers in Klosters/Davos ? ) and their delight was to give the Clients an exciting day whilst also improving their capabilities in off-piste. Most resorts will have vast acres which can be reached from lifts and are not glaciated and I would go for the off-piste instructor over the Guide. However, always ask of the Ski School before committing, stressing just what you want and what level you are at.

I had some great days once , in Val, with Jean Phillipe, a Guide but with a wicked spirit of adventure (on our prompting ), whereas most Guides take absolute safety as their top priority.

When you have done more, the Guide will again come into his own, possibly having you skinning to reach untracked areas , or making interesting local journeys but quite probably not offering much by way of instruction--the odd tip , perhaps.

Brit or local ? If you are still wishing to develop technique then I would go for Brit, BASI, instructor to get it in words you can fully understand. Then, when using other nationalities later, you can feed in their slightly different nuances with a good background into which to absorb them. I say this having had some years of confusion between conflicting Swiss and French instructor/ guides and have since gained greatly from majoring on BASI instruction plus Phil Smith's videos and I can now get on with all of them.

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I always go for local guides, I just think you get much more out of the experience with a good local guide particularly if they are from the area. From a learning perspective there is one Brit I use to hone my technique but I prefer to use locals To go off piste in other resorts again because I like tapping into their local knowledge and I just think there are some Austrian and french dudes I have skied with who purely on a skiing skill level have been a class apart from any Brit I've skied with.

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Interesting stuff guys,

I've skied with a few guides who can rip.

Local knowledge is key I think and although snow pro's can work all over, surly you have a better chance of finding the goods if your with a local. And also of course
they tend to have a better idea of the avi risk and snow conditions if its home turf.

Thanks for the messages

Very Happy

snow reports

Generally when I have been skiing with guides it has been through the local ski school and they have been dually qualified.
I don't really do gnarly stuff and am a gentle off piste kind of off piste skier. The main difference I have come accross though is that guides often have bits of string and cutlery about their person which they occasionally attach to you if I look like having a fit of the vapours so they can get me down something. Instructors don't usually do this.

You know it makes sense.

midgetbiker, Clinics usually have pretty specific technical focus My Camps or Backcountry courses are more about the skiing, but definitely also about building up some helpful skills. Technique is in there for sure, I do like to cover a few mountain skills too. Just getting people to look at the terrain in a different and more playful way can be amazing fun for all. The steep camps are aimed at good skiers who for example, might have always wanted to ski something like the ENSA but never had the opportunity or skiing partners to do so. Or people looking for something a bit different from the old VB. The thing about Chamonix is you can find challenging skiing everywhere it great.

My qualification allows me to teach/guide off-piste including ski tours up to single day tours, I just have to stay away from the glaciers, as that’s the guides territory. Having said that I’m going through the Kiwi ski guides program and that will qualify me to guide/heli guide on glaciers. It still won’t help in France but its all good skills none the less.

Thanks for the interesting points of view!!

Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

To answer your question - you probably do not want either - Best to have a qualified ski guide. A ski guide in canada (ie. through the canadian ski Guide association) has to be a ski instructor, an avalanche professional, highly trained at 1st aid, and a ski guide - so trained in moving safely though all types of mountain terrain on skis. However hiring a ski guide is a bit of waste unless you are going to venture off piste..

A snowHead

Austrian ski school, the higher level groups operate a "those who fall behind get left behind" policy and just rip the whole mountain.

A snowHead

skierchris,
Just my 2 pennies worth....
local or brit guide? Well, of course there are a number of local brit guides and instructers (like you chris!), many of which can rip just as hard if not harder than the indiginous crew, and of course an individual guide can and often does have good local knowledge of several different resorts/areas. A benefit of hiring the same guide, regardless of where you ski, is that they will know what you like to ski, how far you are prepared to hike, how steep to go to get that buzz without overcooking it and so on.

As an extra, if you are interested in learning how to go 'backcountry' independantly, going with a guide to somewhere they have not been before is a great way to see how they make their decisions and so on...

in the above I meanguide or instructer...

Overall I think its fair to say that recommendation is the best way to find the right guide/instructer, as not all guides are ski specialist and not all instructers are good at 'guiding'. And this is true regardless of nationality!

just muddying the waters!
Cheers Guy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Guides have a very long training in snow craft / avalanche knowledge. I have been amazed in the past at many guides precision in predicting where will be dangerous and where will not. Last season with a guide we skied most areas off a ridge - an untracked slope with only our tracks on it - but left one patch which looked much the same to me. The guide saw some other people about to ski that patch and made us stop and watch in case they needed rescuing. They were extremely lucky - they set of a moderate size avalanche but managed not to be caught in it. In avalanche conditions I'm not sure I'd be quite as confident with a ski teacher (though I'm sure some are fine).

PS obviously I hire guides (I stopped taking proper lessons a while ago but guides do often give tips).

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Well this year I was lucky enough to have a "Live in" ski teacher. I did the guiding at first, but it was a real priviledge to turn up on the weekend and have somone tell me where the best powder was stashed.

Help!!

Guide or ski teacher what do you use?

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