Jayson Simons-Jones, Recipient of the Jim Ratz Memorial Scholarship
This past September [2014], I was the lucky recipient of the Jim Ratz Memorial Scholarship for my AMGA Alpine Exam, the final exam in the process of achieving my IFMGA/UIAGM Mountain Guide credential. This has been a long and sometimes slow road, a process that began with my Top-Rope Site Manager Course & Exam in 2002, and that began in earnest toward IFMGA certification with my Ski Mountaineering Guides Course in 2007—five years after my previous and only other AMGA course. This final Alpine Exam was very special for a number of reasons besides being the final exam in my AMGA training and certification track, and for earning my pin by passing it.
It was the end of a long road of hard work, and of getting to put to use skills I’ve had to gain that I never had or dreamed of having back in 2002. Most unique of all was that the exam happened in the North Cascades where I had gotten my very first outdoor education/guiding job back in 1998, when I lived down the road from Mt. Baker in the hamlet of Maple Falls, Wash., with none other then one of my AMGA Alpine Exam examiners, Evan Stevens. Evan and I began our fledgling outdoor careers together here 16 years ago, and although our paths have since diverged and come back around, it was a special experience to have it all come back “full-circle.”
This being the third and final exam in the process, it was also the one exam where I was actually able to inhabit and fully embrace the adage all my examiners had been telling me through the years: ”Just guide as you would normally guide.” As those of us who have been through the exam process know, this is easier said than done. However, for me, I was finally able to do just that, and because of all the training and prep prior, it allowed me to feel ready to just do my thing, and to actually have fun and not be stressed out. We had some incredible and challenging guiding objectives chosen by Vince Anderson (exam director), unbelievably perfect weather, and a truly enjoyable and solid group of candidates and examiners to share in the experience with. Ultimately, it made for a fun and enjoyable exam, one in which we all enjoyed being in the mountains and doing what we love with peers and friends, while also ‘getting’ er done’ !
In the end, I will look back at my last day of my final exam as one of the most memorable moments in my entire AMGA career. I, along with Kris Erickson and examiner Evan Stevens, was finishing the Liberty Bells Traverse via guiding a route each on both South and North Early Winter Spires. The morning start was cold, 35 F degrees, and our water was frozen, but after a cold morning on the sharp end guiding up the SEWS, the afternoon temps had finally warmed and Kris was on the sharp end for the super-classic West Face of NEWS, the final objective. Evan and Kris turned to me, and since I had guided Evan up this exact route earlier in the exam already, they told me to give him my pack and such, and just sit back and enjoy a toprope on one of the best alpine rock routes in the Washington Pass area—and climb splitter cracks into the sunset on what could potentially be the last route ever in my AMGA training path. It was a super-sweet way to end a long and challenging process alongside a new friend and peer (Kris) and an old one (Evan).
Along the path, I’ve had unforgettable experiences amongst all the disciplines of ski, rock, and alpine climbing with clients, peers, fellow guides, mentors, and friends who I will forever cherish. They have seen me grow, struggle, improve, become frustrated, question my path, and recommit my love to guiding and the mountains again and again. And for this I thank all of them, and would like to share in this experience and achievement with them all as well. And also, a big thank you to the Jim Ratz Memorial Scholarship Fund for helping support guide training and certification, and for making the last exam in a guide’s IFMGA certification track more financially viable.
