Aspiring guide

[270boarderman]

I'm with the U.S Navy and live in San Diego. I joined the navy to help give me a solid foundation and money towards college. I'm on shore duty and have 2 years left in San Diego. My goal in life is to make a living in the mountains. I want to work for and hopefully own a guiding services.
I'm looking for someone with mountaineering and/or rock climbing experience that could meet up at a local crag or be able to bag some peaks. I need someone to teach me the way of the mountains.
I have backcountry snowboarding experience (been a couple of years so I'm kind of rusty) and have avy equipment but not certified. I have a little rock climbing knowledge but nothing to brag about. I currently have a harness and shoes. Ill be buying rope soon.
I'm willing to work on my free time for knowledge!!

Please message me or let me know anyone you recommend contacting.

[logsden]

Good luck to you.The industry is going through significant growth and many changes currently. Join the American Mountain Guides Association, familiarize yourself with the certification process, the state of the industry (they have some interesting survey info available), and get to know a couple guides in your area. They'll give you the scoop.

The industry and it's relationship to the government land management system is evolving and will deeply impact your future if you choose to go the guide service ownership route (and likely an ever increasing impact on you directly if you simply go the "working guide" route). Spend time getting into this and getting involved with land management issues locally. Regardless of where you go in your career, this WILL affect you as an outdoor recreationalist.

And just get out and go climbing. The process to become a rock, alpine, ski, or mountain guide is a long one. Years. Stay psyched, share that psyche with those around you, and expect to spend a long apprenticeship developing the skills you'll need before you dive into the "learning to be a guide" process. The cool part is this means you get to look forward to years of climbing your brains out ... and you get to call it "professional development" when your family asks why you haven't showered in a week and live in the back of your '93 Tacoma...

[DukeJH]

Being a guide will also require more than just climbing ability. You must be able to work with diverse groups of people from the highly skilled climber using the guide service for logistics support to the completely green climber requring training and education. Expose yourself to as many climbing partners as you can to learn how differing personalities can affect a route, weekend trip, or an expedition.

Good luck.