Alpine-Club

Alpine Club Amateur Leaders generously share their passion and skills by leading Alpine Club trips. The MSA Mountain Master Program is designed to train, evaluate and certify Alpine Club Amateur Leaders. The program is divided into the four mountain disciplines: Rock climbing, Ice climbing, Ski Touring and Mountaineering.

“A leader is a person who can take responsibility for other people and lead or supervise an activity.” (UIAA 2010) As defined by the UIAA.

Goals and Objectives:

To become an Alpine Club Amateur Leader is toassume a great level of responsibility for a very noble and rewarding cause. This program has been specifically designed to achieve the following goals:

To train experienced rock climbers, ice climbers, mountaineers and ski tourers, who are Alpine Club members, to become Amateur Leaders.
To assure that candidate skills meet or surpass UIAA standards and abide by UIAA training standards.
To provide candidates with the necessary critical skills and mentorship they will need to lead Alpine Club trips with safety efficiency and confidence.
To help candidates succeed in the MSA Amateur Leader evaluation process which assures a high level of safety and expertise.
MSA, its courses and instructors abide by UIAA environmental standardsand through the UIAA Mountain Ethics Declaration.
To foster the spirit of Alpine Clubs, the UIAA, MSA mission and mountain culture as a whole.

Value

The Mountain Master training has been designed with the needs of aspiring Amateur Leaders in mind.

Prerequisites to entry insures all candidates possess the necessary personal experience required to become Amateur Leaders and that participants are on par with each other for full course potential.
A fully comprehensive curriculum that models official guide exams and teaches skills based on official IFMGA guide-training guidelines. This is also useful to those candidates who may wish to go into professional guiding.
A fast paced and concise program held within a suitable time line.
Affordable through design.
High pass rates through MSA’ proprietary Mountain Mentoring Technique.
Courses are divided into each mountain disicpline. Candidates are thus able to conveniently choose the appropriate disicpine of thier choice; rock, ice, mountain or ski.

Result:

MSA Rock, Ice, Alpine or Ski Master Certificate of Achievement; Successful candidates are now newly formed Amateur Leaders certified and recognized in their specialty by the Mountain Skills Academy.
Leaders now possess the skill sets to safely, efficiently and confidently lead Alpine Club trips.
Performance evaluation: Candidates receive a thorough performance evaluation with recommendations, which will further help them develop their skills.
MSA Letter of Recommendation: An official letter of recommendation from the course instructor. This letter is to serve as a letter of reference and to aid candidates in gaining positions as Alpine Club Amateur Leaders on Alpine Club Trips.

Program Summary:

The training portion of the program introduces candidates to advanced mountain leadership in their desired mountain disciplines (Rock, Ice, Alpine, Ski).

The program effectively forms candidates into advanced Mountain Leaders by teaching and establishing a strong foundation of mountain skills, which utilizes only the highest standards; IFMGA guiding standard skills and techniques, UIAA training and Environmental standards as well as UIAA Mountain Ethics declaration.

The evaluation portion of the program ensures candidates have the necessary aptitude, skills, ability level and experience to not only be accepted by Alpine Clubs as amateur leaders, but also carry out their leadership role with the highest levels of safety, efficiency and confidence.

The result is the highest level of amateur and pre-professional training and performance as an independent advanced Amateur Leader.