About

We are extremely proud of the amazing experiences we give our guests in the mountains and this is mainly due to the superb skill and professionalism of our great guiding team.  Once you have reviewed our Why Choose Us page, you will be familiar with our aims and ethos as a guiding company and we specifically use Guides who reflect this approach.  This includes placing safety as number 1 priority, yet with the aim to enjoy challenging & adventurous experiences in the mountains whilst learning and having a fun & sociable time along the way.  We aim to pick the right guide for our wide variety of guests so please let us know if you have any thoughts or preferences when arranging your mountain programme.  Here are just a few of the friendly faces that make up our diverse team of High Mountain Guides…

Rob Jarvis

Rob Jarvis

HMG Director, IFMGA Mountain Guide & WMCI

Rob is the founder & director of High Mountain Guides and an International Mountain Guide (IFMGA) and British Mountaineering Instructor (MIC). He has had a great enthusiasm for adventures in the mountains from the late 1970’s and has worked full time in mountain guiding, training & outdoor education since 1999.
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Lou Reynolds

Lou Reynolds

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Lou is a full time IFMGA Mountain guide based in the Chamonix Valley where she lives with her Husband. She realised her passion for the mountains as a child on a trip to St Gervais France when she was 12 years old.
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Kevin Avery

Kevin Avery

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Kev is a full time IFMGA guide, based in the Chamonix valley where he lives with his wife.  He particularly enjoys technical rock and mixed climbing, as well as ski touring and off piste skiing and as a former teacher, he loves how guiding enables him to pass his skills and love of the mountains on to his clients.
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Jonny Baird

Jonny Baird

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Jonny’s passion for the mountains started where (and when) he grew up on the West Coast of Scotland. As many have found before and since the Scottish Highlands are an exacting yet superb place to serve a mountaineering apprenticeship resulting in many tough, talented and ‘wily’ mountaineers, like Jonny! After many years of rock climbing in Glencoe and ice climbing on Ben Nevis Jonny now lives in the Arve Valley, French Alps.

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Neil Hitchings

Neil Hitchings

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Neil is a familiar and friendly face on the Chamonix climbing, skiing & guiding scene and has been since the the late 1970’s. Having discovered rock climbing at the age of 16 this quickly became the passion Neil’s life. From rock climbing he graduated to Alpine summits and frozen waterfalls.

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Tim Blakemore

Tim Blakemore

IFMGA Mountain Guide & MIC

Tim is an International (IFMGA) Mountain Guide and experienced British Mountaineering Instructor (MIC). He has many years experience of climbing, guiding and training and is a well known and popular figure within the UK & Chamonix mountaineering scene. As well as all this he is known for his engaging manner and good humoured company both on the mountains and in the huts.

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Tomaz Jakofcic

Tomaz Jakofcic

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Tomaz is not only a massively experienced & talented climber, alpinist and guide, he’s also just a great person to be in the mountains with.  We are very proud to have him running some of our Mattherhorn and Chamonix Alpinist & Intro Alpine programmes.

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Gavin Pike

Gavin Pike

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Gavin is an IFMGA Mountain Guide who has lived in the Chamonix valley for the past eight years. From a background in trad rock climbing and Scottish winter climbing in the UK, he has gravitated to the wonderful mountain playground that is the Mont Blanc massif…

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Neil Brodie

Neil Brodie

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Neil is a talented climber, alpinist and experienced International Mountain Guide who is one of a very small group of (2?) British climbers to have become a qualified French UIAGM Guide. Neil is a member of the training staff at the prestigious French National Mountain Training School in Chamonix (ENSA). He is also just a great bloke to be in the mountains with!

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Thor Husted

Thor Husted

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Thor is a UIAGM certified mountain guide living in Chamonix France. He grew up skiing and climbing in Taos, New Mexico. Following his passion for skiing brought him to Chamonix  where he has spent the last 18 winters and is now based year round  in the valley.
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Stefano Dalla Gasperina

Stefano Dalla Gasperina

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Stefano is a familiar, friendly and popular face in the Mont Blanc Massif & Val d’Aosta Alpine guiding scene.  He is an experienced Italian IFMGA guide, also speaking fluent English & French and with a great passion for giving people rich experiences in the high mountains.

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Mike Brownlow

Mike Brownlow

IFMGA Mountain Guide & MIC

Mike is an experienced UK MIC and IFMGA mountain guide and lives in the Scottish Highlands village of Aviemore with the beautiful cairngorm mountains on his doorstep.  He splits his guiding between Scotland, the Alps and short trips to Canada and really enjoys finding the perfect itineraries for folk who join him in the mountains.

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Calum Muskett

Calum Muskett

MIC & IFMGA Trainee Guide

Hailing from North Wales, Calum is an MIC and aspirant mountain guide dividing his time between the mountains of Snowdonia and the sunny French valley of Samoens in the heart of the Alps. Calum loves to share his passion for the outdoors and has a real enthusiasm for all types of climbing.

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Alan Kimber

Alan Kimber

IFMGA Mountain Guide & MIC

Alan has lived in Fort William, at the foot of Ben Nevis for 45 years and it’s fair to say that, in that time he has ‘been round the block and back’ a few times! Alan previously ran the hugely successful & popular ‘West Coast Mountain Guides’ and nowadays works on an occasional basis for other mountain professionals.

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Owen Samuels

Owen Samuels

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Owen Samuel’s life revolves around the mountains. He loves the changing seasons and with them the new challenges the mountains offer. Whether it’s rock or ice climbing at home in Llanberis or alpinism, off piste skiing or ski mountaineering in the Alps, Owen is out there having fun.

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Dave Hollinger

Dave Hollinger

IFMGA Mountain Guide & MIC

Dave is a full-time IFMGA guide and British Mountaineering Instructor (MIC) based in Sheffield, UK. Originally from near Belfast, you’re as likely to find him in the Alps, Scotland, Snowdonia or the Peak District as his native Fairhead. Dave is well known for his pragmatic and considered approach to delivering very high quality training and guiding in the mountains.  (more…)

Robin Beadle

Robin Beadle

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Robin is an active climber and skier and well experienced IFMGA Guide.  He has climbed  in the Himalaya, Karakoram, Africa, South America and Antarctica and summited Everest & Broad Peak with clients and led ski touring trips to Arctic East Greenland and Svalbard.

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Ben Bradford

Ben Bradford

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Ben is a fully qualified British IFMGA International Mountain Guide based in Chamonix. He is an experienced all round climber having climbed on expeditions in Tibet, Nepal, the Tien Shan, Andes, New Zealand and Alaska. However rock climbing in Devon is where it all started for Ben and he has excellent training & instructing skills to pass his knowledge on.

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Chris Ensoll

Chris Ensoll

IFMGA Mountain Guide

What initially started as a hobby for Chris, climbing and camping with family, soon led to employment and the pathway to becoming a fully qualified IFMGA Guide. Now based in the beautiful English Lake District, he spends some time each summer and each winter guiding in the European Alps.

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Hannah Burrows-Smith

Hannah Burrows-Smith

IFMGA Mountain Guide & MIC

Hannah is an experienced UK mountaineering Instructor and International Mountain Guide – with a real “Passion for the Mountains”. Infact this is the title of Hannah’s recently published book which brings together articles by members of the British Mountain Guides Association recounting some memorable adventures in the mountains.

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David Hamilton

David Hamilton

Expedition Leader

David is one of the UK’s most experienced expedition leaders and a regular and popular figure on the Mount Everest guiding scene. He will be guiding on Everest again this spring in 2015, for the 10th time. David has vast experience of climbing & leading expeditions to the worlds highest mountains and has led over 100 different groups.

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Steve Hartland

Steve Hartland

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Steve is an experienced and talented British Mountain Guide based in Chamonix in the French Alps. He has been guiding and instructing for over 20 years. Starting out in Sheffield and the Peak district he moved to Snowdonia where he worked for 10 years as a senior instructor at Plas y Brenin, the UK National Mountain Centre.

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