Too Many Dead AMGA Guides
& this is just the Tip of Ice Berg! More documented AMGA Guide Deaths to come.
October 27th; 2017 Another AMGA Trained Guide Dies in Accident. The AMGA's Training Programs are failing dramatically!
Nearly 10 Dead Professional(?) AMGA/IMFGA Guides in the Last 10 Years!!!????? Thus Ten reasons to get your training at the CMGF.Expert Guide Taining? The CMGF Begs to Differ.
Do the math yourself, and you will discover the odds are not in you favor.25 Year Old AMGA Trained Guide Dies After Skiing into Deep Crevasse in Chile on Sunday
April 14th; 2017 Update on the AMGA and their failing training programs. Nearly 10 Dead Professional(?) AMGA/IMFGA Guides in the Last 10 Years!!!????? Thus Ten reasons to get your training at the CMGF.
Expert Guide Taining? The CMGF Begs to Differ.
Do the math yourself, and you will discover the odds are not in you favor.
5/12/2011
The CMGF is dedicated to the Professional Training & Certification of Safe Guides having Solid Skills, but most importantly Sound Judgment, & the Accreditation of Guide Services employing Guides working alone with these standards and that provide the supervised CMGF Certified Guide training of guides aspiring to attain CMGF Certification. Simply put, the CMGF is committed to providing an accountable Guide Certification and Guide Service Accreditation Program for Mountaineering Environments from a families' first outdoor climbing experience to someone summitting a 8,000 Meter Peak or climbing a Big Wall.
The CMGF was formed in the fall of 2007 after an AMGA Guide at Devils Tower Lodge Guides needlessly nearly killed one of their clients at Devils Tower, Wyoming which resulted in the only Helicopter Life-Flight Evacuation of any climbing accident at Devils Tower. Frank Sanders, who is now a PCGI Guide, is still to this day (Fall 2010) repeating almost the identical actions in nearly the same location. In fact, just this last summer (2010), Frank Sanders, PCGI Certified Guide now & owner of Devils Tower Lodge Guides, under the similar circumstances, nearly took out his PCGI Guide & Certification Instructor in almost the identical location they nearly killed one of their clients just a few years ago.
...And in response to the alarming propagating number of AMGA Certified Guides/Instructors, & AMGA Accredited Guide Services that have had very serious accidents and fatalities of Clients & even Guides (Leaving Clients without their Guide) of AMGA Accredited Guide Services.
First example of many here...
, is a AMGA - UIAGM/IFMGA Guide teaching a Basic Avalanche Course during which one of his students was buried and killed in a massive Avalanche!!! ?
One more for now, of many, in another area just a bit further SW in Colorado & only a few years later is...
, a AMGA Certified Guide that was buried and killed in an avalanche not wearing a transceiver just North of Ouray, CO in the spring of 2010!!!
...And in regard to the blatant, if not Criminal, Public Fraud that AMGA Accredited Guide Services employ trained and examined guides! In fact, in most instances, AMGA Accredited Guides Services mostly employ non-certified & unsupervised guides to preform guiding tasks alone well below the skill level required of Independent Guides by Land Management Agencies.
One example here of many...
, is Sylvan Rocks Guide Service & Climbing School located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Darryl Stisser, the owner, is not a Certified AMGA Rock Instructor or equivalent, as required by Federal Law at Devils Tower of Independent Guides, but is allowed to guide at Devils Tower as is most of his staff that are also not AMGA Certified Rock Instructor Guides or equivalent, including Chris Spellmeyer, who does most of Darryl's guiding at Devils Tower, yet Independent Guides are required to be Certified at the Rock Instructor Level to Guide at Devils Tower. The CMGF is currently considering Civil Resolution with the NPS regarding their 2006 revision of the Climbing Management Plan as an arbitrary and capricious decison violating Equal Protections provided an individual under the 5th & 14th Amendments.
As a matter of Public Safety and Equal Protection provided by Federal Law, guides operating/working alone unsupervised for any Accredited Guide Service, be it the AMGA or any other, must legally meet the minimum Guide Training and Certification Standards/Requirements lawfully required of Independent Guides by the NPS or any other Public Land Management Agency.
More staggering stats and examples sure to come pending results of a current ongoing CMGF investigation of the big AMGA Accredited Concessionaires & Guide Services like Jackson Hole, CMS, Exum, RMI, and on and on.....
...And also in light of the fact that there is an Enormous Unknown Number of Politically Grandfathered AMGA Certified Guides with no official guide training at all and/or have never even been Examined!
One Perfect Example here
, is a known AMGA Grandfathered Certified Guide with no Official Guide Training or Examination that many years ago left his climbing partner to die on Longs Peak in Colorado, and then later went on to own a guide service that dropped a client to their death on a simple top rope climb in Colorado, and then always loved to walk around bragging about how he became an AMGA Certified Guide without knowing how to tie a Munter Hitch!
More staggering stats and examples likely to come pending results of a current ongoing CMGF investigation of the continuous AMGA Grand Fathering Certification Practices of AMGA Guides with no official training and/or examination over and over and over and over again during last two decades, not just once in the early 1990's...???, when Mountain Guide Certification developed in the US. Possibly, the ongoing CMGF investigation will uncover enough evidence for a Grand Jury Inditement of the AMGA for Corporate Fraud & Malfeasance.
Many more details and case histories of AMGA Accredited Guide Services & Certified Guides Accidents & Fatalities to follow on our new website currently in development.
It is clear, given the above facts, that the AMGA is no longer, as has been the case for sometime now, a reliable creditable objective source for The Public and Land Managers to use as a guideline for determining Safe Professional Mountain Guides and Guide Services. Hence, the immediate need for the CMGF to restore integrity, reliability, honesty, responsibility, and accountability to the American Mountaineering Guiding Profession.
The CMGF mission is simple unlike the AMGA & PCGI. We are dedicated solely to the economical non-political professional training of safe mountaineering guides with sound judgment & solid skills and the accreditation of guide services employing certified guides with sound judgment & solid skills with progressive accountable dignified directly supervised apprenticeship programs for aspiring guides pursing certification under supervised work experience and training rather than trying to monopolize and control access to city, county, federal, and world government mountaineering resources in order to gain UIAGM/IFMGA acceptance or to control qualified commercial guiding access to public & non-public lands.
Most of the original founders of the AMGA had no foreign Guide Certification from the IFMGA, UIAGM, or ACMA. Eric Craig & Randall Grandstaff where the only original people involved in the AMGA with any real guide training and certification of any kind when the AMGA was founded in the 1980's. Both received their training in Canada with the ACMG.
To become Certified by the CMGF, you must complete one of our training programs at your Certification Level for Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing, Mountaineering, Ski/Board Mountaineering, Canyoneering, and Kite/Parapent/Parachute Related Activities while being evaluated by a Certified CMGF Guide or by having your company be reviewed by an CMGF Guide to become an Accredited Guide Service.
CMGF Certification and Accreditation is annually free and courses and examinations carry a nominal fee.
In order to qualify for Certification or Accreditation you must have a perfect safety record with 30 years of guiding experience making a living solely as a guide and/or have run your own guide service for 25 years with a perfect safety record and test out, or worked through our rigorous apprenticeship training programs and examination program.
CMGF Accreditation and Guide Certification for Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing, Mountaineering, Ski Mountaineering, Canyoneering, and Kite related activities is based on this Sole Criteria. All CMGF Accreditation Evaluators/Examiners have at a minimum 30 years of Mountaineering Guiding Experience and have owned and run their own guide services for a minimum of 25 years with perfect safety records.
For more information on our rates, training programs, and scheduled courses, please contact us at:
CMGF, INC.
157 HWY 24
Devils Tower, WY 82714
307.756.3516