Paul Koubek, recipient of the 2015 Brooks-Range Mountaineering Scholarship
Brooks-Range Mountaineering Scholarship recipient Paul Koubek shortroping, from the client’s perspective, on the North Ridge of Cutthroat Peak, Washington Pass, North Cascades, Washington. Photo: Paul Koubek Collection
This year, I was the fortunate recipient of the 2015 Brooks-Range Mountaineering Scholarship. This scholarship, funded by Brooks-Range Mountaineering, allowed me to attend the AMGA’s Alpine Guide Exam, held in the North Cascades of Washington State from September 8–18. Brooks-Range is a small company of mountaineers that provides a selection of innovative, top-quality equipment for alpinists, backcountry travelers, and professional mountain and ski guides. Their dedication to mountaineering is exemplified in their support of the AMGA.
Examiner Angela Hawse (rear) communicates with her fellow examiners in the evening alpenglow at Burgundy Col, Wine Spires, Washington Pass, North Cascades, Washington. Photo: Paul Koubek
I am a 42-year-old guide who has been working in guiding and outdoor education since 1995. During this time I have had a diverse career, working for Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School, the U.S. Antarctic Program, Alpine Ascents International, Yosemite Search and Rescue, and the Yosemite Mountaineering School. I am currently based in El Portal, California, where I live with my wife, Breezy Jackson.
The AMGA Alpine Guide Exam is widely viewed as the capstone exam of the whole IFMGA process. It is a rigorous exam, testing all areas of ability: rock climbing, steep snow and glacier travel, navigation, camp craft, crevasse rescue, and of course, client care. Every single person on my exam was clearly challenged, and not every examinee passed. Most participants averaged between two and three hours a night of sleep—something had to give in order to make everything else possible. Days typically started two hours before dawn, as examinees awoke, fed themselves, and then commuted 45 minutes to an hour to meet their examiners at sunrise. After a full day of climbing, which typically ended with a debrief at or shortly after dark, examinees commuted back to Winthrop or Mazama, Washington, where they then had to prepare for the upcoming day.
Mountain goats at the South Early Winter Spire Col, Washington Pass, North Cascades, Washington. Photo: Paul Koubek
Alpine Guide Exam examinees poring over the paper map, old-school style, during their navigation exam, Eldorado Creek, North Cascades, Washington. Photo: Paul Koubek
Currently in the North American guiding industry, it is not necessary to have a guiding certification in order to work—one need only be an employee of a concessionaire. Certainly, where I work in Yosemite National Park, despite having a wealth of alpine guiding terrain around us in the Sierra Nevada, there are no other AMGA-certified alpine guides working. (To be clear, there are Alpine and IFMGA guides working outside Yosemite Park in the Sierra Nevada, but I am the only certified Alpine Guide now working legally within the park.) So why put myself out there for review and examination when I do not need the certification to work? Because I am a dedicated professional—a “lifer”—and as such I want to be challenged to operate at the highest standard possible. Because I care about the future of guiding—and I believe that in the future the industry will be led by certified guides, and I believe that by becoming certified myself, I put pressure on those around me to also attain certification.
Examinee Josh Kling leads out with examiner Angela Hawse watching on the next-to-last pitch of the North Face of Burgundy Spire, Washington Pass, North Cascades, Washington. Photo: Paul Koubek
The Brooks-Range Scholarship helped greatly to make this course possible for me—and in so doing, the Brooks-Range Scholarship helped advance North American guiding. I want to thank Brooks-Range Mountaineering for their significant financial support, which helped make this exam possible for me. Their dedication to quality is clearly exemplified in their financial support for an AMGA exam.
