Life as a wilderness guide / Part 1
Becoming a guide/
Despite spending 10 months studying full time to become a international wilderness guide I always felt that I wasn’t ready yet. I questioned if I was good enough, If I actually had anything to offer and if people would trust me. I had visions of doing something wrong. We did so much during our training to build this confidence and yet despite passing it all I was still filled with so much doubt. I knew I was physically capable, In some ways I’ve always been overconfident in that area, I had gotten myself out of sticky situations because I knew my own strength and resilience quite well. But now, the idea that I would be responsible for others scared the shit out of me.
Self rescue training | International Wilderness Guide Course
Despite all this I decided to set up Sidetracked Adventures. anyway. My plan was to start small, just running one hut-to-hut ski trip. I did a load of recce trips, and convinced a group of my snowboarding buddies to come out and test the whole thing with me. Now it wasn’t a complete disaster, but it also wasn’t particularly smooth. We spend a whole day wading through a valley of incredibly deep snow barely making any progress, and despite my head shouting at me all day to turn around I just kept them all moving. Until finally as we hit another section of thin ice to cross in the pitch black we turned around. It’s quite hard to ‘guide’ your mates because you don't have that sort of relationship with them. But it was also one of the best trips I’ve done. We laughed so hard, and despite wanting everything to be perfect for them, they all said the ‘disaster day’ was their favourite - and I actually believe them.
Years later I still feel get incredibly nervous before meeting a group before a tour. I don’t sleep very well the night before, I repack the kit a million times so convinced I’d forgotten something. Even after meeting what is always a super lovely bunch of people, I question if they think they’re heading off into the wilderness with a complete idiot.
At some point, I stopped worrying about one thing and moved on to something else. Despite realising that by moving on from the worry I had actually solved it. And that when the next problem arose I would just do the same. At some point I have stopped seeing problems as disasters and started seeing them as a normal part of my life. I think if spend enough time outdoors, no matter how well you prepare, you’re going to encounter a crisis at some point. So I guess I now I just trust my future self to handle whatever comes. And when the shit hits the fan, it’s cool I’ve worked on a husky farm with over 250 dogs….I know how to pick up shit.