Andy Perkins Mountain Guide

What was your early background as a mountaineer? How did you serve a mountaineering apprenticeship?

I first visited the Alps with my parents when I was 8 years old, and I still vividly remember trips to the Val d’Anniviers, the Aravis and somewhere in Austria where it rained the entire time! Scrambling along some quite adventurous paths and having seen climbers going up to huts, I knew from then that I wanted to be a climber. It was when I got to Nottingham Uni 10 years later that I got into climbing full time, with a part time job as an engineering student.

Starting with outcrops in the Peak, I progressed to the bigger mountain crags, Scottish winter, and a couple of summer alpine seasons where we were your typically slow British climbers, doing routes that were way too hard for us in way over guidebook time, pitching everything and setting up perfect double belays. My first contact with British guides was on Snell’s field, where Will Hurford and Mick Hardwick took me under their wing. Mick took me up the Menegaux route on the M, showed me how to move together on alpine ridge terrain, and a light bulb came on.

I don’t mean that I suddenly wanted to be a guide – far from it. To be honest I would have made a rubbish guide at that point. I was much more interested in pushing my own abilities at that time. I went to Leeds Uni to do a Ph.D. in harnesses for Troll and then ended up working for them from 1988 through to 2001. In that time, I went on expeditions to the Himalaya, South America and the Arctic, and developed a strong interest in big wall techiniques. All of those came together in 1991 with Brendan Murphy on Cerro Kishtwar, and as far as mountaineering goes, that was the peak of my career.

What influenced you to think about becoming a Guide?

After the Ph.D. Troll took me on full time and I was really lucky to work with a great team of people from the sewing machinists on the shop floor through to the owners. Paul Seddon, Alan Waterhouse and above all Tony Howard, who gave me a whole variety of jobs: rope access and rescue training, product design and engineering, sales and marketing. The range of jobs and people I worked with there gave me a great background in the soft skills of guiding.

Troll was bought by a large multinational in the early 90’s, and I started to see the writing on the wall as funding was squeezed and development was limited year on year. I realised I needed to get another job before I had no job at all. I’d seen Andy Cave go through the guides training and Julie Ann Clyma lived just up the road from me in Mossley and was just starting the scheme. I’d done a couple of amateur “guiding” jobs for Mal Duff in Scotland and it seemed like a great life – battering round the hills at high speed, climbing good stuff and getting paid fifty quid a day.

With a background like that, I had an eventful trip through the training scheme. My technical skills were ok but I had no idea how to look after folk less competent than myself and my judgment was questionable at best. After all, I could always climb my way out of trouble with the attitude that when you refuse to back off something that’s way too hard, that’s when the fun really starts. Predictably, I got knocked back on the Scottish winter test and had to take a long hard look in the mirror. I was helped by many qualified guides, especially Twid, Mark Charlton, Roger Payne and others to numerous to mention. The guiding community is really supportive of folk going through the scheme, and now I try to put the same support back in.

My skiing was pretty dire when I started the training. It’s safe to say I wouldn’t have even got on the scheme now with the level I had then. I had to put a massive amount of time and money into getting it up to the required level. It’s funny that I now spend more time guiding on skis than climbing!

Describe what your current work as a Guide involves, what you enjoy, find difficult, are there any other areas you would like to expand into?

January I ski off piste close to home, and also do a bit of ice climbing. I used to get a week of Scottish mixed every February but my client has changed jobs and we now do a week of Euro ice instead. For the rest of Feb I ski off piste, often away from Chamonix where it can be a bit of a zoo. From March to May I’m on ski safaris and tours all over the Alps, from the Vanoise to the Tirol. I get a short break and then in mid June the alpine summer starts. I try to get as much variety as possible, from intro courses through to bespoke guiding up to AD or D in standard, and in Italy, France and Suisse, though I tend to focus on the Swiss Valais quite strongly. The alpine summer winds up in late September and I get a holiday – a proper one.

I enjoy the guiding work, nailing up and down mountains with fit and enthusiastic clients, as well as the instructional side, seeing folk developing their own abilities and opening doors for them to pursue their own ambitions, whether that’s with me, another guide, or independently for themselves.

One of the hardest aspects of the job is getting out of a comfortable routine of guiding the same routes all the time. Trying to balance the client’s enjoyment with the need to explore new areas, both for personal stimulation, keeping assessment skills sharp and doing research and development can be very challenging, especially on-sighting new ski descents with clients. I have to be very honest with my clients and above all with myself.

In the future I’ll be doing more ski work and less climbing as my knees and back start to pack in. I’m 50 now and realistically will have to start winding down in 10 or 15 years. In that time I’d like to ski more widely. Places like Lyngen really appeal with the mix of mountains and sea. I just need to find the right group of folk to go with!

Describe your guiding year and do you work outside Guiding in the 'off-seasons'?

October through to Christmas is quiet on the guiding front for me but I have a significant role in the Kendal Mountain Festival in November. I also need time to plan new trips and do my tax return. I’m fully French now – home, car, tax and even guides insurance are all French, though I retain very strong links with the BMG (hence this article!).

How does guiding affect your motivation for personal mountaineering / ski trips?

I don’t do that much guiding work on pure rock so on my holidays I return to my rock climbing roots, often to the UK. I’m still pushing my sport grade out here in France. I managed my first 8a a couple of years ago and would like to push that a bit more. I‘ve done very little mountaineering for myself in the last few years, though there are still quite a few things in the Chamonix area I’d like to get involved in. It’s a matter of finding the time and the energy after a long summer season when the mixed conditions come back in late autumn. My skiing gets better every year and there are quite a few spicy numbers I’d like to jump on when conditions are right. Judgment of the right time is something I’m still developing, and that can be very exciting.

How do you manage your personal / family life around Guiding?

I’m a very lucky man – my wife Lise has been incredibly understanding of my obsession with climbing, the trauma of the training scheme and now long evenings of guides sitting around the dinner table talking guiding bollocks over far too much red wine and single malt. She works in the humanitarian aid business, which demands similar commitment, time away and physical fatigue. The mental, emotional and spiritual demands of her job are several orders of magnitude greater. We’re both very independent but support each other mutually from a firm base. We don’t have any kids – that would mean too much a lifestyle change for both of us. It’s enough of a challenge to find time between our two schedules to take holiday together. We try to ski together during the winter, and it’s a real joy to ski off piste and tour with her.

What advice you would give those contemplating starting the long route that is becoming a mountain Guide?

It’s expensive, it takes years, it can destroy relationships and it can kill you. So you had better be really sure you want to do it, and why. I do it because I love the environment, the activity and above all the great variety of people and personalities that I get to meet along the way as well as the “esprit de corps” in the guiding community. I really value the wide experience I had in my pre-guide life, and I’ve never regretted going down the road of becoming a guide. It can be scary and stressful, but 95% of the time it’s the best job in the world.

Read more about Andy's work and life as a Mountain Guide in his own blog.