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This post answers two questions: what does an IFMGA guide actually practice in training, and how is exam day run and scored? If you are considering the path yourself, you will come away knowing how well you need to climb before you apply, and what you will be asked to do in the exams.
For what IFMGA is, see Part 0: the overview. Country-by-country processes, costs and languages are linked at the end.
Grades in this post follow the system used in each source: French (6a, 6c+), US YDS (5.10a), British (E1 5b) and WI for ice.
The standard every member country shares
IFMGA's training and assessment page sets the minimum that every member association must meet. Each country's program is built on top of that floor.
Four steps
- Entry requirements and exam: submit a route list and pass a technical test.
- Aspirant Guide Course: pass it and you become an aspirant guide.
- Supervised practice: guide clients under the supervision of a senior IFMGA guide for at least 14 days.
- Mountain Guide Course: final training and assessment; pass and you are qualified.
How the 94 days are split
At least 94 days of training, at least 84 of them in the field:
| Area | Days | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed terrain | 32 | Alpine routes on snow, ice and rock |
| Skiing and winter | 32 | Ski mountaineering, avalanche safety |
| Rock climbing | 20 | Technical climbing and rescue |
| Theory | 7 | Weather, first aid, environment |
| Country-specific training | 3 | Set by each country |
The table adds up to exactly 94 days. The 14 supervised days come on top.
IFMGA's detailed rules, the IFMGA Platform (2018 edition, republished by member association EEMGA), add two more points:
- Exam days may be at most 20% of total training, and there must be time between courses and exams for trainees to practice on their own.
- Technical skills and soft skills count equally. Soft skills here mean coaching, communication, feedback, leadership, motivation and risk management.
IFMGA also has a Reference Handbook that lists the competences trainees must reach. It is not public.
Entry: 55 routes
Before applying, you must submit a record of at least 55 routes spread over at least three years. The Platform sets the mix:
| Category | Minimum routes | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| General mountaineering, snow and ice | 15 | 5 of them D+ or harder, with 800 m+ of ascent |
| Rock | 15 | 300 m+, 5c or harder, self-protected; bolted routes do not count |
| Ski mountaineering | 25 | 1,000 m+ of ascent per tour; 10 of them on glaciers with 1,400 m+ each |
You also need multi-pitch rock at 6a or harder and ice at WI4 or harder. For most of the rock and mountaineering routes above, you must descend by a different line, not just rappel the way you came.
France spells this out most concretely. The ENSM 2026 route list (in French) requires at least 24 of the routes to be done in the three years before the exam, all led or with swinging leads. In other words, the build-up before entry alone takes years.
After qualifying: annual CPD
Qualified guides need at least 1 day of CPD (continuing professional development) every year. In the US, certification stays valid only while membership and CPD are kept up (AMGA old-site FAQ).
Entry exams: prove you can climb first
Entry exams do not test guiding. They test your own ability. The logic is simple: the courses teach you how to take others up, and you cannot learn that if you are not solid yourself.
The IFMGA minimum
The Platform says every member country's entry exam must test at least the following:
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Rock in mountain boots | 5a or harder |
| Rock in climbing shoes | 6b or harder |
| Ice slope | 50–60° ice with a pack and one ice axe |
| Walking on ice | Up, down and across in crampons, flat-footed (not front-pointing) |
| Steep ice | Two tools, WI4 |
| Skiing | Basic piste technique, plus skiing down varied snow and terrain with a pack |
| Other | A ski uphill test and general mountain skills |
Each country adds its own requirements on top of this floor.
France: three parts, all eliminatory
France's entry exam is called the probatoire. It has three parts across winter and summer, and failing any item ends your attempt. The details are in the ENSM assessment criteria and the December 2023 decree (both in French):
| Part | Item | How it is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Winter (3 days) | Oral exam | Up to 1 hour. In the first half you walk through every route on your application, so examiners can judge whether you really climbed them |
| Avalanche transceiver (DVA) search | 2 transceivers buried 50–100 cm deep in a 100 × 80 m area. You carry a pack with the probe stowed inside; the clock stops when your probe hits the second one | |
| Skiing | Varied snow and terrain. Falls, stops and slowness all cost points | |
| Early summer (4 days) | Sport climbing | Examiners pick a 6c+ to 7a route; you lead it onsight within a time limit. If you fail, you can try a second route |
| Crampon technique | You lose points whenever a crampon, axe or hold placement steps outside the taped area | |
| Mixed terrain | Scrambling on loose rock, climbing in boots and downclimbing, each judged separately | |
| Orienteering | Find a set number of checkpoints within a time limit | |
| Late summer (up to 5 days) | Alpine field assessment | Moving independently in high mountain terrain; no one is exempt |
Holders of a ski or climbing instructor diploma can skip the matching ski or climbing items.
Germany: speed and the clock decide the score
Germany writes its entry exam as a series of scoring tables (VDBS scoring notes, Bavarian education ministry notice, both in German). The best example is the mountain run: you run uphill carrying your own climbing gear, and the standard is 750 m of ascent per hour.
| Compared with the standard time | Score (1 best, 6 worst) |
|---|---|
| 15% or more faster | 1.5 |
| Up to 5% faster | 3.5 |
| Exactly within the standard | 4.5 |
| Up to 5% slower | 5.5 |
| More than 8% slower | Fail the whole item |
The other items are just as specific:
- Rock: lead two routes, one on granite and one on limestone, up to 6c+.
- Technical sections: climb in stiff crampon-compatible boots, with some sections on rock in crampons. A fall or going over time gives that section a 6.
- Ice: one ice route and one mixed route. One extra section allows only a single classic ice axe.
During the exam, examiners can interview you to check that your route record is real.
Switzerland: no cut, but you get feedback
The Swiss entry evaluation (Eintrittsevaluation, in German) runs 3 days and tests rock, ice, skiing and map reading, plus an oral exam in a foreign language. The items are similar to Germany and France, for example leading a UIAA 7 onsight in climbing shoes, and side-slipping and kick-turning both left and right in a steep snow couloir.
The difference is the outcome. Switzerland does not cut anyone. It rates each item as "insufficient", "borderline" or "sufficient" and gives advice on how to prepare. The real gate is the route list, which three technical directors must approve before you can start the courses.
UK: one weak area and you stop
The BMG entry exam has three parts: rock climbing in North Wales (E1 5b in rock shoes), Scottish winter climbing (Grade V) and skiing in the Alps. The result is only pass or fail. The handbook says anyone clearly below standard in any area may not continue.
How many people this stage cuts
Only France publishes figures. ENSM's statistics show the summer pass rate falling year after year:
| Year | Took the summer part | Passed | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 96 | 51 | 53% |
| 2023 | 104 | 48 | 46% |
| 2024 | 128 | 47 | 37% |
| 2025 | 148 | 39 | 26% |
Once trainees are in the program, the pass rate at each stage is mostly around 90%. In other words, France does most of its filtering at the entry exam.
What the courses teach
Course names and order differ by country, but the techniques are much the same. The table below draws on the Swiss SBV training regulations (in German) and module descriptions, the AMGA discipline pages and the BMG handbook:
| Area | What gets practiced |
|---|---|
| Rope work with clients | Short-roping, short-pitching, moving together with clients; with two clients, tying both into one rope or giving each their own; switching fast between glacier rope, short-roping and short-pitching; lowering clients and rappelling with them on multi-pitch terrain |
| Rescue | Escaping the belay, rappelling to an injured climber, rigging 3:1 or 5:1 hauling systems, rappelling with the casualty, passing knots; self-rescue and pulley rescue from crevasses; improvised stretchers from skis, ropes and bivy sacks |
| Avalanches | Snow pits and stability tests, reading avalanche forecasts, planning routes by danger level; transceiver searches for multiple burials; leading a rescue on site |
| Skiing | Ungroomed powder, breakable crust, hard snow; side-slipping and jump turns on steep slopes; setting skin tracks clients can manage; skiing roped up |
| Snow and ice | Cutting steps with a guide's axe and kicking steps in hard snow; traditional flat-footed crampon technique and front-pointing; steep ice up to WI4+ |
| Navigation | Navigating at night and in whiteout; combining map, compass, altimeter and GPS |
| Medicine and environment | Altitude sickness, hypothermia, frostbite, remote medicine; weather; alpine plants, animals and geology |
| Teaching | Analyzing and correcting clients' movement, teaching with video, designing a lesson |
| Leading people and running a business | Group dynamics, handling fear and panic, crisis management after an accident; self-employment, bookkeeping, tax, insurance and relevant law |
Switzerland as an example: the courses one trainee takes in order
Switzerland splits training into modules, each with its own assessment. The table lists the main modules in the required order:
| Module | Days | What it teaches | How it is assessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicine and rescue | 3 | First aid, altitude sickness, hypothermia, weather | Multiple-choice written test |
| Avalanches and skiing | 10 | Tour planning, avalanche assessment, transceivers, powder technique | Written test, companion rescue, ski technique test |
| Steep ice | 3 | Ice types, teaching ice climbing, video analysis | Course performance only; personal technique counts for two thirds |
| Winter I | 16 | Winter guiding, short-roping, crevasse rescue, sled evacuation | Two instructors each rate 5 categories of ability |
| Sport climbing | 5 | Teaching belaying, fall practice, movement correction; you must reach 6c onsight yourself | Belay technique and climbing technique scored separately |
| Sommer I | About 21 | Summer guiding, improvised rescue on rock, via ferrata | Plus one rock exam day and one ice exam day; pass and you become an aspirant guide |
| Leadership | 2 | Group leadership, difficult conversations, crisis management | Full attendance is enough |
| Winter II | 11 | No new teaching, only assessment of real performance | Real clients on 5 of the days; three instructors score independently |
| Sommer II | 13 | Leading several rope teams, mentoring an aspirant guide | Must pass to sit the final exam |
The Winter I scoring sheet has 5 categories: leadership qualities, tour preparation and leading, rope handling and belaying, avalanche knowledge, and personal technique. The first, leadership qualities, looks at decisiveness, communication, reliability and fitness, not technique.
Teaching is tested too
Guides need to be able to teach, so many countries make a teaching test a formal exam subject. Germany publishes its teaching test bank: 20 rock topics (in German) and 25 ice topics. Each topic states who the learners are and what they must learn. For example:
The learners are a beginner alpine rock class who know all the knots. Teach them to build a belay from two anchors with an angle under 60° between them, so that if one fails, the other takes no extra shock load.
France, in the first stage, has you lead a group of schoolchildren through a crag lesson of up to 1 hour, then explain your teaching and safety choices orally.
How the exams run
Examiners play clients
Guide exams in the US, UK and Canada mostly have examiners and other candidates play clients while candidates take turns as the guide. For the AMGA Rock Guide Exam, the route and the "client profile" (the client's level and expectations) are usually handed out the evening before. Candidates do their own research and prepare a backup route.
A typical day goes like this:
- Briefing: explain the plan, timing, gear and tricky sections to the "clients".
- Guiding: two candidates split the day into morning and afternoon, with examiners in the team watching.
- Debrief: examiners give feedback after the day.
Countries add other formats:
- UK: a "client day" where you interview the client about experience and expectations before planning the day; a "teaching day" with one novice; and in the summer exam, a two-day, one-night mountain journey with night navigation and a bivouac.
- Switzerland: in the final Winter II stage, real clients join on 5 days.
- Canada: candidates report that examiners often let you head down the wrong path to see whether you notice and fix it yourself (The Uptrack, one candidate's experience).
Timed drills
Besides guiding, every exam has a few timed technical drills. The most common are rescues and avalanche searches.
US rock rescue: the official page says about 45 minutes, plus a knot pass to finish within 5 minutes. According to one candidate's account, one rescue runs through these steps in order:
- Escape the belay.
- Rappel to the injured climber, then climb back to the anchor on friction hitches.
- Rig a hauling system, raise the casualty, then lower them again.
- Rappel with the casualty to the next anchor, pull the rope, and keep rappelling to the ground.
German avalanche search: three transceivers are buried at once. You must hit all three with the probe and dig out the last one. Time and search technique each make up half the score:
| Finish time | Time score |
|---|---|
| Within 5 minutes | 1 |
| 7–9 minutes | 3 |
| 9–11 minutes | 4 |
| Over 13 minutes | 6 |
Swiss final exam: one rock day and one ice day, each with 5 stations of about 30 minutes, with at least two examiners per station (SBV exam regulations, exam guidelines, both in German):
| Part | What is tested |
|---|---|
| Rock | In mountain boots, take a client up a 5b section and down a 4a section; lead 6a/6a+ in stiff mountain boots; lead two 6b+/6c routes in climbing shoes. No falls on lead, and you must finish within the time limit |
| Ice | Take a client across ice once with a classic axe and once with a modern axe; lead overhanging glacier ice; cut steps and build anchors; when a rope partner falls into a crevasse, hold the fall, then rescue them using specified methods |
Germany's state exam also has a set of rescue tasks, 15–30 minutes each, judged on time, safety, efficiency and improvisation (TUM rescue task list, in German). Tasks range from solo rescue and protecting two clients on a traverse to rappelling from retrievable anchors made with an ice axe or snow shovel.
Teaching tests
In Germany's state exam, the teaching test is 30 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to teach. The topic is announced only at the start, and the location only shortly before. Scoring covers 9 aspects. The lowest score on any one of "safety", "choice of site" or "staying on topic" fails the whole teaching test (TUM scoring criteria, in German).
How scoring works
| Country | Scoring | Pass condition |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 1–6, 6 best, half points allowed | 4.0 or better; rock and ice must each pass on their own, and a high score cannot offset a low one |
| Germany | 1–6, 1 best, average of two examiners | Average of 4.5 or better; guiding tasks are stricter, with the whole area averaging 4.0 or better |
| France | The rules list assessment criteria for each item, with no scores | Every criterion must be met |
| US | Guiding days are scored on 6 aspects; the Rock Guide Exam uses 9 | No pass mark is published |
| UK | Every area of the syllabus must meet the standard | One weak area means "deferred", and you return the next year for a re-assessment of two days or more |
The 9 aspects of the AMGA Rock Guide Exam are risk management, client care, technical systems, technical application, terrain assessment, movement, mountain sense, professionalism and teaching skills.
German theory exams add one hard rule: avalanches, weather, first aid and orientation must each be passed separately.
Common reasons for failing
Official sources rarely say. Most of what follows comes from candidates' accounts:
- Running out of time on rescue drills. Often there is no big mistake, just too many small corrections eating the clock.
- Short-roping and transitions not fluent enough. Transitions need to be automatic, so your attention is free for "which technique fits this section".
- The guide's own safety. For example, soloing without protection.
- Guessing what examiners want. One candidate wrote afterwards that guiding the way they thought the instructors wanted was exactly what went wrong.
If you fail
| Country | Retake rules |
|---|---|
| US | Reassessment costs US$575 a day, at most 2 within 2 years; fail again and you retake the whole course (AMGA reassessment policy) |
| Switzerland | The final exam can be retaken 2 more times, only for the parts you failed |
| Germany | Each part of the state exam can be retaken 2 times, at the next exam session |
| France | Failing the same assessment a 3rd time ends your training |
| Canada | Each exam can be taken at most 3 times (ACMG student resources) |
Pass rates
Apart from the French figures above, Switzerland, Germany, the US, the UK and Canada do not publish guide exam pass rates. IFMGA requires member associations to report the number of trainees and newly qualified guides each year, but that data is not public.
The three US disciplines and what they cost
Each country slices the 94 days into its own courses and exams. The US AMGA split is the easiest to follow: three disciplines, Rock, Alpine and Ski, each running course → advanced course plus assistant exam → guide exam. Pass all three guide exams, add first aid and avalanche training, and you are IFMGA.
The three Rock stages
The Rock program page lists the climbing resume required for each stage: you must have climbed it yourself before you can learn to guide it.
| Stage | Days | What it teaches | Resume required before applying (excerpt) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rock Guide Course (RGC) | 10 days (3:1) or 8 days (2:1) | Guiding single- and multi-pitch up to 5.9+, knots, belay devices | In the last 5 years, 10 trad leads of 5.10a or harder; 50 multi-pitch trad routes; at least 5 years of climbing |
| Advanced Rock Guide Course & Assistant Exam (ARGC/AE) | 10 or 8 days | Guiding several clients on long routes, short-roping, short-pitching; rock rescue exam | Since the RGC, 10 Grade IV trad routes and 20 Grade III routes guided or mock-guided |
| Rock Guide Exam (RGE) | 6 days | Exam on Grade IV–V long routes, with a focus on short-roping | In the last 5 years, 10 leads of 5.11a; at least 20 guided routes, up to 15 of them mock-guided |
AMGA counts guided and mock-guided routes separately. From the term itself, a mock-guided route is presumably one done the way you would guide it but without a paying client. At the RGE you must lead 5.10+ consistently.
How the titles step up
Per AMGA's SOP v4.0 (2024-11-15):
| Pass | Title |
|---|---|
| RGC | Apprentice Rock Guide |
| ARGC/AE | Assistant Rock Guide |
| RGE | Certified Rock Guide (one discipline, not IFMGA) |
| Assistant Exam in all three | Aspirant American Mountain Guide |
| Guide Exam in all three | American Mountain Guide / IFMGA Guide |
Alpine and Ski follow the same structure, with the content swapped for glaciers, ice climbing, snow slopes and skiing. The Alpine guide exam runs 9 days and always includes crevasse rescue. The Ski entry course requires a skiing video and at least 20 ski tours on record, and at sign-up you must find 3 buried transceivers within 10 minutes.
Prerequisites beyond climbing
Every course requires current AMGA membership, CPR, and an approved WFR (at least 70 hours; fully online courses are not accepted). The later Alpine and Ski stages also require professional avalanche training, Pro 1 and Pro 2.
How long and how much
- Days: AMGA's old site says "86+ days of training" (old.amga.com).
- Years: for Rock alone, Golden Mountain Guides estimates most people take 2–4 years; for all three, Mountain School says about 5 years.
- Tuition: summing the 2026–27 course list gives about US$40,650 for all three disciplines, excluding first aid, avalanche courses, food, lodging and travel (this post's own sum of the course list). Mountain School puts the all-in cost at "upwards of $50,000".
- Time windows: most resume items must fall within the last 5 years, so stretching it out lets earlier routes expire.
In 2025, 191 people held the AMGA/IFMGA certification (AMGA 2025 Annual Report).
Beyond technique: guiding people
Climbing well is not the same as guiding well. Every country's curriculum includes training for being in the mountains with clients:
| Country | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | Aspirant course includes Leadership (about 2 days) and marketing and business (about 3 days); aspirants guide 30 supervised client tours | SBV training regulations (in German) |
| Germany | The state exam tests guiding, teaching and theory; the theory subject "communication" covers English, French and Spanish | VDBS 2026 training handbook (in German) |
| Austria | The curriculum includes "basic foreign language" so guides can talk to clients in other languages | Tyrol T-BSFV (in German) |
| France | The first stage requires sending a distress call in French; the final stage, UF5, includes a 20-minute oral exam in a foreign language (German, English, Spanish or Italian) | ENSM guide training page (in French) |
| Slovakia | A dedicated assessment of "the ability to guide clients under supervision" | NAHVSR exam rules 2025 (in Slovak) |
| US | Courses run in English; fluency is not required, but you must understand instructions, especially on risk management | AMGA Essential Eligibility Criteria |
IFMGA also sets a code of professional ethics (see Part 0). For Taiwanese readers considering the path, the language column is the first thing to prepare for: most countries teach and examine in their own language, and France even requires the distress call in French.
How countries differ
The same 94-day floor turns into very different program lengths. The table shows years only; details are in the country posts:
| Country | Approx. years | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| France | At least 4 | Part 3: France and Switzerland |
| Switzerland | 3–4 | Same |
| Austria | 3 | Part 4: Austria, Germany, Italy |
| Germany | 2.5–3 | Same |
| Italy | About 5 | Same |
| US | About 5 | Part 5: USA and Canada |
Other countries: Part 6: UK, New Zealand, Nordic, Part 7: Spain and Central/Eastern Europe, Part 8: Asia, Part 9: South America. For choosing a route from Taiwan, see Part 10; for where to train each entry-exam skill, see Part 11.
Changelog
- 2026-10-18: Added three sections, "Entry exams", "What the courses teach" and "How the exams run". They cover entry exam items and scoring in France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK, the techniques taught in each country's courses, how exam day runs, scoring and retake rules, and French pass rates.
References
- IFMGA: Training and Assessment
- EEMGA: The IFMGA Platform (2018 edition, republished)
- ENSM: Liste de courses 2026 (in French)
- ENSM: Formation de guide de haute montagne (in French)
- ENSM: Critères d'évaluation probatoire (in French)
- Légifrance: arrêté du 19 décembre 2023, decree on mountain guide training (in French)
- SBV: Reglement Bergführerausbildung, 2025-10-01 (in German)
- SBV: Prüfungsordnung, revised 2023-03-09 (in German)
- SBV: Wegleitung Berufsprüfung, 2025-10-01 (in German)
- SBV: Infosheet Eintrittsevaluation 2027 (in German)
- VDBS: 2026 training handbook (in German)
- VDBS: Scoring notes for the entry test and course exams, 2025-06 (in German)
- BayMBl. 2021 Nr. 217: Bavarian education ministry notice (in German)
- TUM: State exam scoring criteria (in German)
- TUM: Rope rescue tasks (in German)
- TUM: Teaching test bank, rock (in German)
- BMG: Training Scheme Handbook (2022-12-02)
- AMGA: Mountain Guide Programs
- AMGA: Rock Guide Program
- AMGA: Alpine Guide Program
- AMGA: Ski Guide Program
- AMGA: SOP v4.0 (2024-11-15)
- AMGA: Reassessment Days policy
- AMGA: WFR approval standards
- AMGA: Essential Eligibility Criteria
- AMGA old site: IFMGA Mountain Guide
- AMGA old site: FAQs
- AMGA: 2025 Annual Report
- ACMG: Student Resources
- Brooks-Range: An insider's guide to rock guide certification (candidate's account, 2016)
- The Uptrack: ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide exam (candidate's account, 2025)
- Golden Mountain Guides: So you want to become a climbing guide
- Mountain School: AMGA and IFMGA certification
- JUSLINE: T-BSFV (in German)
- NAHVSR: Skúšobný poriadok 2025 (in Slovak)