First steps to climbing (13): "usually the amateur pays"

Advice for tyro mountaineers from the nineteen-twenties

After deciding on the Alpine district to be visited, the beginner's first step will be the choice of a guide. If the advice of some experienced friend is available, perhaps it may be possible to engage a good man in advance.

Downclimbing the Mönch.
Photo from G D Abraham, First Steps to Climbing.

The very best guides are often reserved a year, or at least a few months ahead, and with these the novice need not trouble. Very few, if any, of the guides are good teachers, but those of the highest class and famous specialists are perhaps worst of all in this respect. The only way to learn is to watch carefully every movement and method of the professional and note especially his methods of approach and selection of points of attack. Even on unknown mountains they seem instinctively to detect the weak places and formulate a route. The intelligent tyro will especially notice this, and questions asked regarding the why and wherefore of peculiar ways of tackling a big peak may be answered, though perhaps not always satisfactorily.

Failing a guide engaged in advance through an expert friend, the best plan is to book one after the arrival, and usually the hotel management will help in this, but some discretion is necessary. A personal interview is advisable, and a good deal can be judged from appearance. Usually a guide who speaks English, more or less, is nowadays to be obtained. Those who tout for jobs at the railway-stations are best avoided, and others who are part of the hotel staff should be chosen warily. 

The question of payment is sometimes troublesome, but this should be properly arranged and understood. In perfectly settled weather, if a really suitable man is available, an engagement for two weeks or more may be made at, for instance, 30 francs a day, whether any climbing takes place or not. This would include ascents of any of the ordinary peaks, and might, with very good fortune, involve six good expeditions in two weeks. 

A little extra payment might be required if certain special peaks or routes were included, and this question should be settled. The amateur would pay for the professional's food and drink during the excursions, and if the guide were engaged away from home, it should be understood who has to pay his hotel bill. Usually the amateur pays.

The other plan is to make no engagement, but pay for each peak by the tariff – that is, the official rate of payment fixed by the guides according to the standard of difficulty of the various peaks round each popular centre. For the average novice this latter plan is probably the best, and by using some tact, if a satisfactory guide is met with, he can be reserved for a succession of ascents. 

It may be noted that riches are not showered upon guides as in pre-war days, and there are more first-class men available. No longer does a wealthy climber hand his guide a sovereign to buy a pair of shoelaces and ask for no change.

References

From George D. Abraham, First Steps to Climbing, Mills & Boon, Limited, London, 1923.