You Better Ask! Part 1
Do you want to hire a guiding outfit to help make your adventure dreams come true? Well, there are a few critical questions you should ask before paying them your hard earned cash and more importantly putting your life in their hands. In this and subsequent posts, we are going to give you a list of those questions and our thoughts on acceptable answers.
What is your guide to client ratio?
You are hiring a guiding outfit because you are smart enough to know that you don’t know everything about the outdoors or at least the specific place you’re going. But what is a reasonable guide to client ratio?
The answer for this question ranges widely in the industry. Some outfitters that operate on well established trails and in national parks will stretch the ratio to 1 guide to 10 clients. While this ratio is going to be acceptable 99 out of 100 trips, it is the rare case when you have an emergency that it becomes a problem. A single client can become all consuming in an instant. At that point, 1 guide can’t take care of the entire group.
Alternatively, if it is 1 guide to 2 or 3 clients, you are probably going to be paying a premium price. If that fits your pocketbook, go for it. Guides are there because they like to get people outdoors and are usually interesting and kind people. You will get to know them personally and get valuable guidance and insights that you will take with you.
For Top Out Adventures trips, we maintain at least a 1 guide to every 5 clients. This allows us to manage a group of 8 to 10 clients well by having a guide at most a couple of minutes away at all times. We can also deal with a variation of paces by having a guide on each end of the group on the trail and staying in radio communication. This takes the pressure off the slower clients and allows the faster clients to push the pace and spend more time at the summits. Most importantly, if there is an emergency one guide can stay with the patient while the other guide is capable of safely guiding the rest of the group out. Just imaging standing with the rest of your group watching your guide fly away on a hi-line underneath a rescue helicopter!
Stay tuned for Part 2 when we talk about evaluating the physical fitness requirements.
Dave Smithey is the owner and a guide for Top Out Adventures. His happy place is in the mountains with friends and his dog, Penny.
Contact Dave at DaveS@TopOutAdventures.com