Working as a ski guide

One of my friends would like to work in Austria or Germany as a ski guide. English speaker with no ski qualifications, just a huge passion of skiing, and lots of free time (lucky him, hey? ).
Has anyone got any advice?

Thanx a lot.

Not too sure of the rules here but I think he may be hard pressed without any quali's. I think I remember some one saying that resident TTer jivedancer instructed over here. might be best to pm him for info

In my humble opinion he will be about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit in most ski resorts. All the ski areas want to maintain local employment levels. Chalet reps are usually officially not allowed to ski guide these days but of course they can "ski with you" for no payment.

As an unqualified ski guide I just cannot see an opening. Being unqualified and a non-local of course also brings up major insurance issues. The local ski schools are like a mafia in most areas. I have used "unofficial" guides in the past for a bit of cash and beers - but they are busting the rules and have to keep a very low profile.

Being negative when someone has a passion for something is not my natural style but in this case I think they had better think laterally!

maybe he could devote some of that free time and passion to getting some qualifications

A friend of mine is a guide and instructor at St. Anton, we had this discussion a while back. You first need to be a second level Austrian instructor (equivalent to level III in Canada - basic international certification). Then you need to train as a guide. Neither of these are going to be easy to accomplish and I am pretty sure neither is offered in English...

If your friend is a very good skiier, he might be able to do it all in one season, but it would be full time and pretty expensive.

Sounds right to me. Get qualified as instructor and guide, learn decent German - and he will then be made thoroughly unwelcome by just about every ski resort I can think of in Germany and Austria.

I think if you friend is that into skiing, he's better off looking for work at one of the resorts, working in a hostel or a bar. Ski by day, earn cash by night.

a british friend of mine trained and acted as an instructor at kaprun and zell am see several years ago, so it is possible. not sure that his german/austrian was sooo great either. hoping to drag him out again this wintr to keep me on the straight and narrow. if i can get hold of him, i'll ask how he managed it and got on.

Big diff between working as an instructor and working as a guide: difference in pay, difference in clients, difference in status, difference in ability, difference in safety, difference in job security...

I worked as Ski guide in France 3 years ago and you are right, there is a big difference between guiding and instructing.

I have the UK ski-guide qualification, can't quite remember what it was but it wasn't BASI. It was basically a first aid course, so I wasn't allowed to go off piste or anything that exciting.

Officially we were not allowed to charge for ski guiding in France, because then you were considered an instructor, and then you have to get a proper license to do that. So we got free lunches and "tips."

I'm not sure about how it works in Austria, but I got REALLY shouted at when I tried to help out a guy who wanted to learn how to ski backwards... if you are even close being a teacher then the police can get quite shirty with you... BEWARE: There was a guy working for the same company as me (but in Switzerland), the year before I started, that was arrested for "guiding/teaching" without permission. (or at least that is the rumor that we heard)

I don't think you are going to earn enough to live off by being a ski guide, but you can live off an instructor’s salary.

good luck and let us know how he gets on.

As usual, the French have it backwards... (at least from your description).

In Austria, first an instructor, then a guide. Basically, if you want to go off piste and teach someone to ski, you have to be certified as an instructor (step one) & a guide (step two).