next year i would like to get a guiding qualification as some time in the next few years i quite fancy doing a summer guiding in the alps.

Any tips? advice of courses to do ? people to do them with? any other pointers?

cheers

nicks

Feel sure you have to have a French Qualification to guide in France. 🙁

yeah i heard about that a few years ago when i was in morzine ..not good times.

The only realistic way to get a British qualification which will allow you to legally guide in France is to get your International Mountain Leader award + a well-recognised UK biking qualification such as Scottish Mountain Bike Leader.

To get this requires:

UK Mountain Leader – 20 logged days of hill-walking experience + 1 week training course + 20 more days + 1 week assessment

SMBL – 20 logged bike rides, 2 days TCL training, 1 day TCL assessment, 20 logged bike rides, 2 days SMBL training, 1 day SMBL assessment

IML – 20 international walking days (summer) + 20 international days (winter) + Summer training course (1 week) + Winter training course (1 week) + 10 further summer AND winter days + Summer assessment course (1 week) + winter assessment course (1 week).

If you're starting from scratch, expect it to realistically take you around 3 years and cost you something in the region of £3k.

On the other hand, if you're not fixed on France, other countries are more lenient (Spain, Austria) and even some areas of France are more tolerant (Morzine/Portes du Soliel is the hardest place to guide).

And you'll need to do a first aid ticket as well.

If you want to do your SMBL, I'd recommend Jules Fincham in Aviemore or Jonathan Collins in North Wales.

Jules Fincham was who I did my SMBL with and it was really great. He makes it a lot of fun and you'll do some fantastic riding around Aviemore which you probably wouldn't find otherwise. His website is Cyclewild Scotland

i quite fancy Verbier, Italy or Austria … thanks for the names i will look into them.

cheers

Nicks

nicks – comments re. IML apply to Switzerland and to the Aosta valley in Italy (includes Pila, La Thuile). Austria is less bothered.

Note that you may find plenty of people on the ground working without an IML in France and elsewhere, it's your choice if you want to go that way but both the French and the Swiss have made IML (or their local equivalents) a legal requirement and things could rapidly get very complicated if a client was to have a nasty accident, etc.!

Just get yourself a high mountain first aid course certificate and avoid some areas of France and you will be fine. Common sense is way more important than meaningless qualifications.