The Guide Line
By Hudson Lindenberger
When AMGA/IMFGA certified guide Dale Remsberg met up with his client, a banker from Texas, on a cold day in January 2004, to take him and his two friends into Rocky Mountain National Park for an Introduction to Ice Climbing Course, little did he know the financial ripples he was setting in motion. His client was hooked and over the next 15 years he went on climbs across the globe, often with Remsberg, while also introducing the sport to his employees, friends, and family. “That one day easily led directly led to over a million dollars spent on gear, guide fees, and travel expenses spent on climbing,” says Remsberg.
His story is not an isolated one. In an industry built upon experiences, it is often a guide or an outfitter that is a consumers first exposure to outdoor adventure, the ones that plant the seeds that bloom into lifelong love affairs with brands and the outdoors. “Sponsored athletes might get all of the press but at the end of the day (the guides) are the ones that are getting dirty with clients, showing them how to use gear, and building relationships.” says Ryan Waters, co-owner of Mountain Professionals in Boulder, CO. “And right now, many of us are wondering how we will survive.”
When Covid-19 unleashed its havoc upon the outdoor industry no sector was spared, but while brands and retailers are slowly starting to regain their footing, the guiding industry is facing a bleakness unlike anything it has ever seen. The entire spring and most of the summer seasons, some of the busiest time of the year for guides, has been cancelled. While the fall and winter seasons are shrouded in uncertainty. Rafting companies are canceling trips, anglers are hoping to return to fishing soon, and biking outfits are watching the dust gather on gear.
A recent survey of guides released by 57Hours, a digital platform that connects consumers to over seven-hundred certified guides, highlighted the stresses prevalent. Less than two percent of the respondents said that they have worked since March while also reporting that seventy-eight percent of their future bookings have been cancelled outright. For a group that historically have been seasonal employees, not full time, that spells disaster. To get buy many are on unemployment, are tapping into what savings they have, and are taking the odd job where they can find it.
“Some guide services have shut their doors for the summer season instead of trying to reopen during these times,” says Angela Hawse, the President of the AMGA. “The ones that are going back to work are looking at ten to twenty five percent of capacity, there just is not going to be much work in the near future and who knows what the fall and winter will bring.”
While consumers are starting to trickle back into parks and other outdoor spaces, which is good for retailers and brands, they are still wary of committing to guided trips. How to safely take groups into the outdoors while ensuring social distancing is a challenge many outfitters and guide services are working to figure out. Smaller groups, better client to guide ratios, enhanced sanitation protocols, and lower profit margins are all part of the new reality. Along with a myriad of new federal, state, and local restrictions to deal with. To help the AMGA and North Face have partnered to create an online Coronavirus Industry Response Center.
Another ancillary fallout from all of this is the effect cancellations in guided trips has on local communities. Long known for being a renewable resource to build an economy around places like Chamonix, Ouray, Lees Ferry, and others have built their entire infrastructure around outdoor adventures. With the guides out of work, everything else (restaurants, shops, hotels) has ground to a halt.
To help this crucial cog in the industry brands can contribute financially to the numerous funds being set up to help those sidelined. Pro-deals are going to me more important than ever as these individuals struggle to pay their bills and equip themselves once the business starts to rebound. According to the survey from 57Hours most guides don’t anticipate business and salaries returning back to normal until December 2020 or later. That’s almost a year of no consistent cash flow.
One of the best ways that the industry can help is by supporting their local guide services. Brands can develop marketing strategies centered around hiring guides, around recognizing these work horses of the industry. As consumers start to venture out of their homes and back into the outdoors, they will turn to their trusted shops to give them advice about where to head too. By pointing them towards local guide services they can help pump much needed help into them.
The headwinds facing the guiding industry are stiff, ones that will take real effort to overcome. Uncertainty about flights, about when countries will reopen their borders, about another resurgence of COVID-19 are monumental. Getting the message out to them that it’s alright to book a guided trip is crucial. The health of the industry depends upon it. “If people are not travelling for adventure and booking guide companies and such, then why would they need to buy gear?” says Tracy Shayhorn, the owner of Cabarete Kite Point School in the Dominican Republic. “You buy gear to go out in an adventure, that’s the crux of the entire industry.”
There’s no better group of people than guides equipped to deal with adversity. They will survive this. Some will retire, some will move on, but on the whole they will still be there. Their love for the industry is just too strong. But right now, they need help and it behooves the entire outdoor industry to lend them a helping hand.