A quartet of Jasper ski guides have returned to town a little more decorated, after passing their Association of Canadian Mountain Guides exams earlier this spring.
Barb Sharp, Max Darrah, Mat Charet, and Jesse Milner all passed their ACMG exams, and earned certification at their respective levels.
Charet, Sharp and Milner each earned their Apprentice Ski Guide certification. They now have three years to accumulate enough field experience in all the required terrain, as well as conduct enough guiding excursions, to take the exam for their full Ski Guide certification.
Sharp, who during the week between finishing her exam and receiving her results checked her email about 10 times a day, said she was excited when she finally got the news.
“It was a relief because it’s a process, and it’s one that you don’t really want to repeat if don’t have to,” she said.
There is no exaggeration there. Exams are only held once a year, and they last nine days. Six of those days are spent trekking through the mountains in small groups, with candidates taking turns leading the group through different objectives. On the other days, candidates get tested on skills like rope and transceiver rescue.
Despite the process, Sharp said she actually had a good time. She said she treated it just like spending a week in the mountains—an activity she obviously enjoys.
Charet, who took his exam at the same time as Sharp, couldn’t be reached by press time.
In an email, Milner said he also enjoyed his exams, as is evidenced by the fact that he was awarded the Claire Dixon and Cornelius Brenninkmeyer award, which is given to the top candidate to complete the first two courses of the Canadian Ski Guide program.
As Milner and the others look toward further exams in three years’ time, Darrah has now earned his full mountain guide certification—a designation that took him seven years to achieve—and he now holds the highest internationally recognized qualification for mountain guides in the world: the International Federated Mountain Guides Associations badge.
“I’m done,” he said in an interview May 16, looking satisfied, but a little bewildered. He explained that for the past seven years he has always had another exam on the horizon, and after being in that cycle for so long, it’s odd not to have a next step to focus on.
Darrah also enjoyed his last exam. He said even though “it involves a fair bit of sacrifice, and engaging in a fair bit of risk,” it’s a rewarding process.
“It’s a great process, especially looking back at it,” he said, “and the best memories are the ones you wouldn’t necessarily want to re-live, but you wouldn’t trade them for anything either.”
At his last exam, for example, he and his group were kicking steps up Mount Whymper on a melt-freeze crust—which usually presents little danger of avalanche—when they heard a “whoomp.”
“We kind of had enough time to say, ‘ooh, that will get your heart going,’ but since we were on a melt-freeze crust we weren’t really worried,” Darrah said.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a huge swath of snow rip out, right down to the ground, and rumble 500 metres down into the basin. When avalanche experts later went to investigate, they confirmed it to be a size 3.5 avalanche, which is big enough to take out a car.
“It kind of helps put everything into perspective,” Darrah said. “The mountains are generous with their gift of humility, [and] they don’t care that you’re a professional.”
With their shiny new certifications recorded, there’s no doubt the latest crop of Jasper ski guides are professionals, a fact they all attribute in part to the community that surrounds them in Jasper.
“The fact that everyone who went from Jasper was successful on their exams, I think that speaks to the mentorship and programs that are here in Jasper, and the support,” Sharp said. She added that she has learned a ton by training with her peers here in town, and probably wouldn’t be where she is today if not for their help and guidance.
“I just feel really lucky to be part of a place like Jasper, where you get so much support from the community,” Darrah said. “I’m so fortunate to have so many great training partners, and I hope in some way to add some value to this little town.”
Trevor Nichols
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