Millet Scholarship Recipient Szu-ting Yi
Recipient of the 2015 Millet Scholarship Szu-ting Yi shares her experience on her March 2015 Rock Guide Course in Joshua Tree National Park, California.
2015 Millet Scholarship recipient Szu-ting Yi on the AMGA Rock Guide Course in Joshua Tree, CA, 2015. Photo: Szu-ting Yi
I have wanted to take an AMGA Rock Guide Course for the past three years. I knew that the course could not only enhance my climbing knowledge but also equip me with professional guiding skills to share my passion of climbing. However, financial difficulty prevented me from taking the course. This year, thanks to the support of the AMGA/Millet Scholarship, I finally was able to attend the course held in Joshua Tree National Park in March.
I arrived at the course expecting to expose myself to abundant knowledge and excellent instructions, and the course managed to exceed my expectations in all aspects. Every subject was delivered in a comprehensive manner. Every student was able to practice technical systems under close supervision and took up the “guide role” multiple times, and was given timely and thorough feedback. The instructor team was diverse. Each of them had different personality and unique teaching style, and they complemented each other well. All of them brought in vivid energy, professionalism, and a great sense of humor.
For the more “classroom-style” classes, I enjoyed Vince Anderson’s “guide’s notebook.” He extracted a real example from his guiding career to demonstrate how we utilize a guide’s notebook before, during, and after guiding. He also showed how he incorporated modern technology to streamline the process. During his presentation, I sensed that he took guiding seriously and strived to better his profession. The energy was contagious, and I was inspired to do the same.
AMGA Rock Guide Course students and instructors in action at J-Tree. Photo: Szu-ting Yi
I synchronized with Mark Hammond’s teaching style the best. As the course director, Mark organized the course neatly and controlled the flow well. He accommodated feedback and adjusted daily curriculum accordingly to optimize the course outcome. I especially appreciated Mark’s analytical way of teaching rescue systems. I could see individual component clearly and therefore had no problem switching between different applications. When Mark was my supervisor on one of my guide’s days, I was impressed by his structured and detailed feedback. It seemed that he could replay every move of mine at the end of the day.
I was fortunately to work with Tom Hargis on how to short-rope clients on less technical terrain. The way he read and utilized terrain, handled the rope, and coached clients was art. I used to think short-roping was time-consuming and clients might hate to be “on a short leash.” However, Tom demonstrated that short-roping could make clients feel safe and casual at the same time. I also spent some of my guide days with Tom and just loved his demeanor—he genuinely loves climbing and having a good time with people around him. He is definitely my new role model.
The first day on the course, the instructor team stated, “There’s no one AMGA way.” They wanted to show us more tools and principles and demand us to use our best judgment. That won my heart instantly, because it demonstrated that AMGA understands the philosophy of climbing and keeps pace with the state-of-the-art principles and methods.
AMGA instructor Vince Anderson working with Anne Peick on the March 2015 Rock Guide Course at Joshua Tree. Photo: Szu-ting Yi
The last day before I left the course, they provided valuable suggestions to help me build my future guiding career. I strongly felt that they wanted to set me up for success, and that I was included in the AMGA big family.
Now I’m psyched to work on my prerequisites and attend an Advanced Rock Guide Course.
