Yosemite Student Trips & Training

Guide Training Course - Itinerary

  • About the Trip: This is a comprehensive guide's training course, offered to the general public to give eager outdoors people the skills that they need not only to be successful in their mountain pursuits, but to be successful in obtaining jobs in the industry. Our course is 21 days and will include:
  • 1. Hiking/Trekking guiding skills.
  • 2. Rock climbing, mountaineering instruction and teaching skills with AMGA guidelines and AMGA professional instructors.
  • 3. Fly fishing guiding skills (with fly-fishing skills your opportunities for year round career guiding increases 100%)
  • 4. Small business skills including how to get a job in our industry. Learn what is important to potential employers and how to secure the job.
  • 5. Basic overview of Wilderness First Aid techniques.
  • 6. Guest lectures from industry leaders in the field.
  • 7. Actual days guiding with clients as an apprentice.

  • This course is about teaching you how to be the best possible mountain guide you can be. The course is about learning how to be successful in the guiding industry. At SYMG we feel that if you can be a great guide, you can carry these skills not only in a career as an outdoors person, but also in any career.

  • Group Size: 4-13 students.
  • Grade: As a potential professional Mountain Guide, your fitness level will be expected to be at a peak, with some days throughout the course being very strenuous.
  • Equipment: You'll be expected to have your own backpack, sleeping bag, tent, and rock climbing shoes. SYMG can provide all other rock gear, fly-fishing gear and any specific equipment needed throughout the course, if you don't own them already.
  • Cost of the Course: $1985.00 per person on groups with 7-13 people. (There will be a small group surcharge of $600.00 per person on groups with 4-6 people).
  • Your Cost Includes: All Meals, campsites, permits, guest speakers, course materials, group equipment, certificate of course training upon completion, and your daily guides.
  • Not Included: Personal gear. Transportation to and from trailheads.
  • Meals: All meals are provided, (except on your "day off."). Meals begin from the welcome dinner one day 1 through lunch on day 21. One of the key components to your training will be how to plan, shop for, cook, and execute fantastic backcountry cuisine (a trademark of SYMG).
  • Preparation: It is recommended that all course participants have read, and are familiar with such texts as Medicine for Mountaineering, Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills, and any additional relevant text.
  • Day 1: We will meet at 3pm at the Pines Village Bakery on Bass Lake in the Pines Village before heading to our campsite in the Sierra National Forest. The spring course may vary from the fall course, depending on conditions. Set-camp, have introductions, welcome dinner.
  • Day 2-5: 4-day portion of Rock Climbing. Learn basic techniques of safety, site management, and general training in and around Yosemite. No outdoor rock climbing experience required.
  • Day 6: Guest speaker for the day. Spend the day with an industry leader learning about the history of guiding in the US, legendary stories of the past, and critical information for the future. SYMG has been fortunate to work with such legends as Yosemite pioneer Doug Robinson, Outdoor landscape photographer Howard Weamer, and even Sir Edmund Hillary has been around our campfires on three occasions.
  • Day 7: Wilderness First Aid (WFA) taught by one of our guides with a certified WFR or WFR/EMT. Learn about emergency medicine in the field and how to respond in the most practical manner. Note, this will not certify the participant in WFR or WFA. This is meant to be an over-view that will help with a certified WFR or WFA exam. SYMG recommends all participants take a certified WFR or WFA course before or after the Guides Training Course.
  • Day 8: Prepare for your 7-day exploratory backpacking trip. Learn how to pick an itinerary, prepare the food, pack the equipment, introduction to clients, etc.
  • Day 9-15: Backpacking trip. Learn route finding, client management, stargazing, camp set-up, weather analysis, flora, fauna, history, geology, conversation management, soft skills, etc.
  • Day 16: This is a "day off." You've earned it! Take an exploratory hike into the wilderness area, take a swim in the local swimming holes, climb a wall in Yosemite, wash your clothes and take in a movie in town. It is your day to relax and re-charge for the final week of the course. We'll meet back at 9am the next day in the office.
  • Day 17: This will be an "office day." Learn the inner workings of the business: marketing, sales, organization, and logistics. With these skills you can again double your opportunity for year-round gainful employment in the industry.
  • Day 18: Learn about fly-fishing. How to fish and how to guide fishing. Spend the day on the waters with our guide, learning one the best ways to insure you year round work.
  • Day 19-20: Spend these special last 2-days being a guide yourself, by accompanying an already booked trip, either an overnight or day trip(s). You'll be working with an experienced guide as an assistant or even as the lead guide with your mentor guide as the assistant. This is the culmination of the trip to "put it all together." Use what you've learned over the past 3 weeks.
  • Day 21: Final debriefing on your guided days with evaluations from your mentor guide. Learn what you did right and why as well as what you did that could use improvement and why. This day ends with a farewell lunch.

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