AMGA Rock Guide Exam

The AMGA rock exam will weed you out. For twelve hours a day, five days in a row, we guided the best rock guides in the US up convoluted multi-pitch routes at Red Rocks, the dramatic desert rock Mecca on the edge of Las Vegas.

The rock exam is one component--alpine, ski and rock--to become licensed by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA). The American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) is a member of the IFMGA. New rules by the AMGA state candidates must take the rock exam before alpine or ski exams--rock guiding skills form the basis of the other disciplines. I evaded this rule by I taking my alpine exam in 2003 and ski exam in 2008, before the rule was established. Lucky for me because rock climbing is my least used skill--maybe something to do with living in Anchorage. 

I spent two summers working for the Colorado Mountain School to hone my climbing and rock guiding skills. Thanks CMS! When I met the other exam candidates in Vegas, I realized many were in the same boat--alpine climbers and skiers with biceps as skinny as Hermann Buhl's. But the amazing thing about my fellow candidates is they are solid. Not 5.12 solid, but they are smooth on 5.10d+ while pulling two fatty ropes, carrying a pack and placing trucker gear. They are equally versed in the alpine and ski mountaineering arenas. Perhaps most amazing is their unique combination of hyper-obsessivness and laid-back, chatty character. Guiding is about taking care of people in the mountains by showing them a safe and fun time.

The exam consisted of twelve candidates and six examiners:

• Tom Hargis (examiner) - owner of Exum Mountain Guides
• John Kear (examiner) - owner of Suntoucher Mountain Guides
• Mark Chauvin (examiner) -
• SP Parker (examiner) -
• Dale Remsberg (examiner) - head guide of Colorado Mountain School
• Art Mooney (examiner) -
• Liz Oakes - Smart Mountain Guides
• Mark Allen - North Cascades Alpine Guides, International Mountain Guides
• Chris Werner -
• Chris Wright - Timberline Mountain Guides
• Caroline George -
• Jonathan Spitzer - Alpine Ascents International, Ruby Mountain Heli Ski
• Seth Hobby - Northern Alpine Guides
• Mark Smiley - Salt Mountaineering 
• Josh Beckner - Exum Mountain Guides, National Outdoor Leadership School
• Dustin - US Army

I was teamed up with Liz Oakes from Seattle/Chamonix and Mark Allen from Mazama, Washington. Our examiners were Tom Hargis and John Kear.

Here's what I did 

Sept 30: 6pm exam briefing at the Red Rocks Campground.

Oct 1: Movement test (to see if our climbing is up to exam standards). We went to the first pullout to sport climb.

• 757 4x4 5.7
• Thermal Breakdown 5.9+
• Need to Rest 5.10b/c
• Nightmare on Crude Street 5.10d
• Heavy Hitter 5.10d
• Burros Don't Gamble 5.10c
• Sister of Pain (tr) 5.11b
• Glitter Gulch 5.11a

Oct 2: Ginger Cracks (5.9, 7 pitches) and Power Failure (5.10b, 3 pitches) with John Kear and Liz Oakes.

Oct 3: Triassic Sands (5.10c, 6 pitches) to the summit with walk-off, then Wholesome Fullback (hard 5.10a, 2 pitches) with Tom Hargis and Mark Allen.

Oct 4: Weather day. 80+mph winds at the campground demoed the examiners tents.

Oct 5: Eagle Wall linkup of Ringtail (5.10d, 4 pitches) to Rainbow Buttress (5.9, 5 pitches) then rappelled the Original Route (1,400') on the Rainbow Wall. With John Kear and Mark Allen.

Oct 6:Linkup of Dark Shadows (5.8) to Chasing Shadows (5.8) to Edge Dressing (5.10b) then over to the first pitch of Y2K (5.10b easy). 1:1 with Tom Hargis.

Oct 6PM: Debriefs. The new rule is the AMGA doesn't give pass/fail results for two weeks. The idea is you have more time to soak in the debrief. At 10pm John Kear and Mark Chauvin came over to the Casa de Guia and gave Jonathan Spitzer and I our pins. Then we all went to Freemont Street.

We didn't take many photos on the exam. Here are a few from Mark and Caroline.

Joe sorting ropes while Tom Hargis snoozes near the summit of Triassic Sands. Mark Allen photo.

Mark Allen lowering Tom down the top pitch of Our Father for a top rope run. Mark is lowering through an ATC guide that is redirected through a locker on the shelf. The backup is a prussik from his belay loop to the break strand. Mark has two ATCs pre-rigged on the rappel lines so we can rap as soon as Tom returns to the belay station.

 

Tom Hargis on the 5.10d layback crux of Our Father. Saltiest of the salty old dogs, Tom is part owner of Exum Mountain Guides and made the first ascent of the NW ridge on Gasherbrum IV with Greg Child and Tim Macartney Snape in 1986.

Jonathan Spitzer and Joe lugging pins and 4-foot Vegas daiquiris. Note the shoulder sling pump prevention. Caroline George photo. 

Rock Exam Training

South Las Vegas. One rented house. Twelve guides. Cams and packs fill in the garage. Guidebooks and xerox copies cover the kitchen table. The air is thick with beta. “Don’t do anything on the Black Velvet wall. Too straightforward and too many bolts to be on the exam.”

“How’d you avoid that jammed block rap on the Frigid Air?”

We’ve been training for two weeks and have another week to go. Each day we venture out to climb exam routes—those with complicated guiding problems—where safely protecting two clients involves an extra four steps compared to climbing with your buddies. Take the notorious Community Pillar descent, where just getting to the main raps involves short roping, short-pitching, intermediate anchors, a pre-rig rappel and avoiding a tempting ponderosa known as No Pass Tree. No Pass Tree has is a big tree, wrapped with trucker slings, but surrounded by loose blocks. If you rap off No Pass Tree then you No Pass Exam.

The focus of guiding and our training for the American Mountain Guide Association exam is safety. Climbing the 5.10+ standard while wearing a pack and pulling two ropes seems insignificant compared to learning hundreds of safety tricks. For example, yesterday we realized that if you clove-off your client to the master point between the autolocker and their knot, then they are basically off belay for a split second—the autolocker won’t catch as you are tying the client’s clove-hitch. Instead, tie off the rope’s brake strand before clove-hitching the client into the anchor master point. Anal, but if guiding is your career, then you must stack the odds in your favor. 

Caroline George cramming marginal gear into the 30-foot 5.10c runnout on Risky Business.

Mark Allen belaying Mike Bromberg on pitch 5 of 12 on Intiwantana (5.10c), Aeolian Wall. 

Caroline George negotiating a century plant while thrashing from The Walker Spur (5.10c) to the summit of Mescalito. The Mescalito descent has complex route finding with many transitions between, short roping, short pitching and the hidden rappels. Mescalito is a common exam route. 

Chris Simmons and Seth Hobby running through the 45-minute rock rescue scenario (belay escape, 3:1 raise, 5:1 raise, rap & ascend, counterbalance rap and tandem rap). They took their rock guide course in 2005, before the rock aspirant exam (includes rock rescue) initiated, so their rock guide exam included the rescue scenario.