Hiring a guide for glacier skills in the Alps

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 sheelba 06 Jun 2015
Looking to hire a guide for a days instruction on crevasse rescue and glacial travel this summer. We will be based in central Switzerland at Innertkirchen. Have contacted BMG guides through their website however I suspect none will be available in that area and we will have to hire a Swiss one. Does anyone have any experience of hiring guides in that area? Also what should we expect to pay for a days instruction?

Thanks
Sam
 jon 06 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:
I'd persevere with the Brits, if I were you. The sort of day you are after is far more a Brit thing than a Swiss one. Try contacting Graham Frost - he might be able to sort something out for you http://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/t.php?t=616758&v=1#x8056972 .

If you decde to try a Swiss guide then Kurt Egger in Grindelwald might be able to help, but as I say, it's not really his/their thing. http://www.grindelwaldsports.ch/de/egger-kurt.html http://www.grindelwaldsports.ch/en/summer.html
Post edited at 11:52
 Mark Haward 06 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

You may find you can get instruction over here from a guide. Some clubs organise a day of training to review glacier movement and crevasse rescue skills sharing the costs of the guide. I think the Brenin do an alpine preparation weekend too.
Not as good as a guide for the day but the instruction / photographs in Bruce Goodlad's book Alpine Mountaineering is excellent. You can practice many of the skills in the UK and then top them up on a dry glacier and then a wet glacier ( with suitable caution / back up ).
 Mark Haward 06 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

Forgot to say, Scottish Mountaineering Council have also done some excellent instructional videos and I'd imagine the BMC alpine video has it too,

OP sheelba 09 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

Thanks for the responses, I haven't had any luck yet. I have the Goodlad book. Doing stuff in this county seems like a bit of a waste of time and money
 PeterBlackler 09 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

I’d echo Mark’s comments that training in the UK can be worthwhile

We did a day’s crevasse rescue set-up (etc) course through Ben Bradford of Vertical Frontiers on Dartmoor and it was very thorough; certainly very useful as alpine preparation/revision for futher practice in situ

Ben’s is based in Chamonix now and does flexible alpine intro courses as here http://www.verticalfrontiers.com/alpine/alpine-skills-course/

Kind regards,

Peter
Post edited at 13:53
OP sheelba 10 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

Have found a guide but didn't appriciate just how much it would cost. Huge longshot but is anyone else looking for something similar, somewhere not too far away from mid to the end of July to spread out the cost?
 Mark Haward 13 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

After some thirty alpine seasons in various countries personally I still do a quick practice / reinforcement / trial of different strategies with whoever I am going to be climbing with. Often on a rainy day on Dartmoor, Wales, Lakes, Scotland. Obviously this is not a replacement for practicing on the real thing but is still valuable - especially if you have never done it before.
If you don't want to go to the expense of a personal guide you could join a course with a guide. Much more economical. You could find someone to teach you from a club etc. ( assuming they know what they are doing ) or you could get together with some mates and teach yourself from the excellent resources available in the UK first and then try out the skills on a dry and then a wet glacier.
One of the many key skills worth practicing on snow imo is how to set up an ice axe anchor whilst holding someone's weight on the rope and then attaching the rope to the belay. All fun.

graham F 13 Jun 2015
In reply to sheelba:

Thanks Jon!

Sheelba - we run courses all summer and might have a group you could join over here. We're in Evolene, so not too far from Innerkirchen.

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