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Perhaps you’ve heard it said or even said it yourself, “Oh, really, you summitted Denali. Did you hire a guide or climb it on your own?” Insinuating that the former is less worthy of respect. The stigma of climbing with a guide being uncool is outdated and often unjustified. On the contrary, climbing with a qualified professional can truly enrich your climbing experience. A competent, preferably certified guide, will improve your chances of success, provide for more climbing by maximizing efficiency and, most importantly, increase your overall safety.
As far as safety is concerned, there is never any way to completely eliminate risk from climbing, but an experienced guide helps reduce the inherent risk of the sport. No one seeks undue risk, but at times it’s difficult to assess the true level of risk involved. Evaluating the risk and managing it to an “acceptable” level is the benefit of an experienced guide. It is the expertise of a guide and what he has been trained for. The juggling act for the guide is to balance this risk with the potential rewards. A guide’s experience and good judgment will allow him to understand which risks are likely and which may have potential outcomes that simply outweigh the rewards involved. A proficient guide knows when to keep pushing ahead if there is a good chance for success but will not hesitate to turn back in the event that the risks simply outweigh the rewards.
For many, hiring a guide also is about convenience. You can think of a guide as an expert climbing partner on demand who has assessed the conditions and studied the route. You can book a guide almost any time whereas friends may not have the same schedule. Once you have booked a guide, you can rest assured that he will not back out of plans at the last moment. Further, the climber can focus more on climbing technique and less and less on route finding and anchor placement.
Climbing with peers is great for self-learning, but you will generally learn much more when climbing with a qualified guide, since he has the knowledge to teach proper, safe and efficient techniques. You are more likely to learn faster when you receive professional instruction, especially since it is highly personalized. The benefit is you become a better climber and learn more about tying knots and setting up anchors.
Perhaps the bottom line when you hire a guide is you will get more climbing in. The guide will know the approach and descent so you won’t waste any time. Chances are you won’t get lost, truly a bonus in white-out conditions. Because of a guide’s climbing experience and expertise, he can move more efficiently on the climb. Challenges like route finding, anchoring, and rope handling are all disciplines that trained guides do much faster then the average climber. This allows you to just concentrate on the climbing and enjoy the experience while getting more pitches in than you would otherwise.
Here is a nice quote from Gaston Rebuffat:
As for the guide, Gaston Rebuffat said it best: “Above all the guide is repaid by the pleasures of those he guides.”
Juxtaposed against this thought:
In the big picture the cost of hiring a guide almost immaterial, a bargain considering what you get for your money. |
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