The
most important element in any of our courses, is
the quality of the staff leading you. We are more
than aware of this, and truely believe that our
team of guides / instructors / leaders is outstanding.
All the guides that we use are bilingual in English
and the language of the Alpine country that they
are working in (be it French, Italian or German).
Our guiding team all live in the Alps at least for
the season, and they have a vast local knowledge
of routes, conditions, and weather systems. In addition,
they have great contacts, such as arranging priority
tickets for cable cars, which helps course flexibility.
The
guides have total responsibility for all decisions
taken on the mountain, to ensure your safey at all
times.
You can keep up to date with what the guiding team
has been up to by looking at the Icicle Chamonix
Blog headline on the left, and for those with RSS
news readers, you can subscribe to the news feed
for free. The blog is regularly updated by the Chamonix
team and guides.
Icicle's
Team of IFMGA Mountain Guides & UIMLA Leaders In the Alps
there are only two qualifications that are recognised
for leading groups in the mountains. The highest
is the IFMGA Mountain Guide, and
they are the only people who lead any of our skiing
or climbing courses in the Alps.
All our IFMGA Guides hold the International Mountain
Guide carnet (use of IFMGA logo authorised by
named course directors below), and have been selected
for their leadership style, personality, and sense
of humour, not to mention the fact that they aren’t
too bad at climbing and skiing either! All the
Alpine trekking and snow-shoeing courses are run
by UIMLA mid mountain guides (use
of UIMLA logo authorised by named course directors
below).
These instructors also run a lot of our avalanche
awareness courses. Our itineraries are planned
with guide to client ratios within the guidelines
outlined by the IFMGA and UIMLA. Each course itinerary
states these daily guiding ratios. These two qualifications
are your guarantee of the highest standards and
professionalism, and the holders of these qualifications
wear their badges with pride. Rest assured that
you are being led in the mountains by the best.
For more details on the guides qualifications,
please click here.
Icicle Guides & Instructor Team, and our office &
logistics team
This isn't a full list of our guiding team, but shows
most of the more familar faces who work often with Icicle,
and we try and keep it up to date. For
more information on the Icicle guide team's qualifications,
please click here.
Gilles
Stefano
Lindsay
Filippo
Rob
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
UIMLA
Leader
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
UIMLA
Leader
Guide
& engineer in
any spare time!
Popular
guide and
gear consultant
Also
a keen climber
and mountain biker
Passionate
ski
tourer & guide
Familiar
face on the
TMB and GR20
Mauro
David
Paolo
Vic
Narayan
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
UIMLA
Leader
Languages:
Nepalese
guide
He
works in Cham &
Verbier also in winter
Canadian
guide and
keen heli-skier
From
Turin, works
summer & winter
From
the English
Lake District
A
familiar face on our trips to Nepal
Ervin
Luca
Yves
Stephanie
Jean-Luc
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Aspi-Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Slovakian
guide, with new route on Everest
Popular
Italian guide from near G.Paradiso
Has
guided all of the
seven summits!
Previously
ice world cup competitor
A
great ski tourer & happiest on rock!
Francis
Evans
Laurence
Francois
Alain
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
Tanzanian
guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
A
true specialist in
guiding Mont Blanc!
Icicle
Kilimanjaro &
safari's head guide
One
of only 20 female guides in France!
From
village of Villes
in the Haute Savoie
From
the Pyrenees a trail runner & cyclist
Manuel
Bruno
Yannick
Pablo
Hallelujah
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Lang's:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
Tanzanian
guide
From
Argentina, via
Canada in Winter!
Keen
rock climber
and alpine guide
Keen
alpinist and a
canyonning expert
Argentinian
guide &
Aconcagua leader
Icicle
Kilimanjaro
second head guide
Yan
Severin
Anna
Marcellin
Christophe
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Lang:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Infamous
off piste
ski guide in Cham
From
the Jura, Sev
also works in NZ
Ice
competition
climber & guide
Skis
all winter in the
Val Thorens area
Christope
is a ski
patroller and guide
Benoit
Mohammed
Franck
Pascal
Enrico
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
Mt
Toubkal Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Lang:
IFMGA
Guide
Teacher,
paraglider,
and very keen skier
Mohammed
is also a keen trail runner
Good
rock climber
& expedition leader
Telemark
skier and
also an osteopath
A
keen ski guide
and ice climber
Jennifer
Craig
Serge
Jacques
Mark
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
UIMLA
Leader
Canadian
guide, from
the Canmore region
Canadian
guide, who
specialises in ice
Strong
ski guide &
expedition climber
Plays
in a jazz band
when not guiding
Savoie
resident all
year round
Eric
Pierre
Mark
Julien
Francois
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
UIMLA
Leader
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Strong
off piste ski
guide & heliskier
Vallorcine
resident &
all round good guy
Rare
Danish IML &
also ski instructor
Famed
for his love of
the Grand Jorasses
Grenoble
resident,
loves La Grave ice
Jacques
Sarah
Kingsley
Josh
Admin
team
Languages:
IFMGA
Guide
Languages:
Trip
/ course advisor
Languages:
Trip
/ course advisor
Languages:
Operations
support
Languages:
Paperwork
world
Guide
and also a
electrician too!
Keen
ice climber &
our logistics guru
Trail
runner, climber
& personal trainer
Climber,
trail runner
& in-resort liason
UK
based; Donna,
Jamie, Justin, Pete
FAQ
about guide qualifications
FAQ
about Icicle guides & hosts
How
do you select the guiding team? Personal
recommendation, climbing with them,
experience, personality and style.
We use over forty IFMGA Mountain Guides
and UIMLA Leaders, some of which are
featured in the section above. We
carefully match the guides to each
course, so that their skills are optimised.
Locally resident guides have great
knowledge of routes, conditions, and
the orographic micro-climate. Icicle
guides are chosen for their drive,
experience, knowledge, and professionalism.
They are exceptional in that they
have all climbed new routes or major
peaks such as K2. Your guide, as much
as the route, enhances your experience.
Is
there any difference between guides
qualifications if they are of different
nationalities?
No, the IFMGA and UIMLA qualifications
are international, and so you can
rest assured that a guides from any
country have been tested to the same
highly rigourous standards. The IFMGA
member countries include the UK, France,
Germany, Holland, New Zealand, Norway,
Italy, and the USA. UIMLA
member countries include Andorra,
Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy,
Poland, Spain and Switzerland. The
UK association of the IFMGA are the
British Mountain Guides or BMG, and
of UIMLA the British Association of
International Mountain Leaders or
BAIML. The IFMGA and UIMLA ensure
that each country branch qualifies
guides of an internationally agreed
standard. It often takes guides over
five years to qualify. IFMGA guides
can lead groups on glacial terrain,
climbing or skiing, while UIMLA guides
lead groups on moderate mid-mountain
terrain, either trekking or snowshoeing.
We verify every single one of our
guides qualifications annualy.
How
do you become a guide? There
are many stages and different approaches
to becoming either a IFMGA or UIMLA
guide. If you want further information
on these processes, click
here.
Do
all Icicle guides speak fluent English? Yes,
both English and French is fluently
spoken by all our guides working in
the Alps. Both are essential for the
Alpine courses, as the guides can
speak French fluently to tell the
hut guardians of any requirements
you have, to get advice from other
guides on the conditions they encountered,
and to get you onto cable cars quickly
(often avoiding queues). Speaking
fluent English is now a tested element
of the French Guide scheme, as it
is seen as the international rescue
language. All the guides who don't
speak English as their first language,
are carefully vetted for their communication
skills and range of vocabulary. Similarly,
all guides with a language other than
French as their first language are
vetted for their extensive ability
and knowledge of both French and English.
Why
are the majority from Chamonix? The
vast majority of our guides are local
residents, and we always try to use
guides who live in the Chamonix valley
as they know the area and the current
conditions better than those guides
who visit the region from other areas
of France or from another country
to work for a week here and there.
This doesn't mean they are all French
- far from it - there is a good mixture
of British, French, Italian, American,
Canadian, Argentinian and even Slovakian
guides working with us, to name but
a few.
What
do the Icicle course hosts do? The
key roles of the course hosts are
to organise course logistics, provide
advice, and to give daily route briefings.
Once the Guiding has finished for
the day, they run evening classroom
based instruction sessions to cover
technical aspects in greater detail.
The hosts also run our Chamonix Office,
and organise the course logistics;
check & fit equipment, book huts,
arange airport transfers, buy cable
car tickets, give advice and daily
briefings, and run the course instruction
sessions.
