A guide is a professional who leads an individual or group, carries out teaching and sports training tasks and manages the risk of the activities carried out in the natural environment, providing safety to all the members of the group that performs them.
The guiding profession is as old as the history of sports in the natural environment.
The appearance of the first guides is to be found in the first steps of mountain sports, which began with the ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 by Doctor Balmat with the help of the local guide Paccard, or the ascent in our state of the emblematic Naranjo de Bulnes (Picu Urriellu) by Pedro Pidal and his guide Gregorio Pérez “El Cainejo” in 1904.
The qualification of all guides is guaranteed by the AEGM, UIAGM (International Union of Mountain Guide Associations) and UIMLA (International Union of Mountain Guides), associations to which the AEGM belongs and which ensure the quality of the training and professionalism of all the guides who form part of it.
All the guides who are part of the AEGM have official qualifications that accredit them to carry out guiding tasks in the natural environment.
In Spain, the professionalization of guides has taken place in the last decades, following the path started by the Alpine Arc countries and is regulated by two State Norms: RD 318/2000 and Order ECI/858/2005.
Professional Specialty
Within the AEGM we can find five professional specialties:
Within the AEGM there are five professional specialties that are adapted to the official qualifications established in our State (Royal Decree 318/2000 of March 3) and in the international platforms. Each category has its own competencies in the natural environment.
All our associates have a professional card that identifies them as members of the AEGM, where the professional specialty they have accredited is indicated.
