Mechanized Guide School

Common Operational Standards

Common Operational standards in mechanized guiding

The course curriculum includes operational standards in mechanized guiding common to the U.S. Heli-Ski Association members and its Helicopter Standard Operating Guidelines, (HSOG). Students will leave the course with a Heli-Ski U.S. Level 1 Certification and a basic understanding of top down mechanized ski guiding. This course is one of a kind and provides the opportunity to learn from some of the very best in the industry.

Mechanized Guide School Overview

Our instructors include mechanized guides with over 100 years of combined experience. Students will learn about and achieve a thorough understanding of:

Guide responsibilities and duties (responsible client care)
Base and flight deck operations (fueling, dispatch, emergency procedures)
The helicopter (load manifesting, working around aircraft, staging, time management in the field)
Client care and relations
Field operations (top down guiding, hazard management, client management, snowpack evaluation)
High angle rescue and advanced rescue techniques

Cost: $6,800

Includes all meals, lodging and aircraft time (3 full days in helicopter) at both operations. This is a two week course and participants will have an opportunity to see two HSUS operations.

HSUS will not be offering guide school in 2023

Prerequisites

Hold a current / valid level 2 snow science certification – AAI, AIARE Current Medical Certification – EMT, WFR, OEC equivalent
Basic understanding of ropes and rescue techniques

Locations and Dates

There will not be a guide school offerred for the 2022 – 2023 season. Please check back, future courses will be listed here once they are scheduled.

North Cascade Heli
Washington

Points North Heli-Adventures, Inc.
Alaska

Student Reviews

What better way to understand what you are getting (or getting into) than reading a first-hand account of the experience from a former student:

“First off if you have an addictive personality stop reading now, because heli skiing maybe legal, but I promise it is harder to quit than hard drugs and will probably put you into as much debt. The biggest difference though is that powder skiing will always be worth it. Of course, I say that while I twitch and shake looking at brown ground outside my window here in the Northeast, dreaming of running away back to Alaska.

I have, for the last ten years, been chasing down every offering the AMGA puts out there to pursue my dream of becoming an IFMGA Mountain Guide…..”
Continue Reading on the Mammut Website

or read

A Review of HSUS 2018 Mechanized Guide School by Joey Wolf