What is a Guide?

 

A guide is a professional who carries out driving work of an individual or group, performs teaching tasks of teaching and sports training and manages the risk of activities carried out in the natural environment providing security to all members of the group that performs them.

The profession of guide is as old as the history of sports that take place in the wild.

The appearance of the first guides must be sought in the first steps of mountain sports the beginning was with the ascent to Mont Blanc in 1786 by Doctor Balmat who had the help of the local guide Paccard, or the ascent in our state of the emblematic Naranjo de Bulnes (Picu Urriellu) by Pedro Pidal and his guide Gregorio Pérez “El Cainejo” in 1904.

The qualification of all the guides is guaranteed by the AEGM, UIAGM (International Union of Associations of Mountain Guides) and the UIMLA (International Union of Accompanying Guides of Mountain), associations to which the AEGM belongs and that watch over the quality of the training and professionalism of all the guides that form it.

All the guides that form part of the AEGM have a recognized official qualification that accredits them for the realization of works of guide in the natural environment.

In our State, the professionalization of guides has taken place in recent decades, following the path begun by the countries of the Alpine arc and are regulated by two State Standards: RD 318/2000 and Order ECI / 858 / 2005.