OnTop Mountain Guides

Your guide is probably the most crucial factor to the success of your trip. Some good advice when shopping for a guide can be found under "Why book with us" on our web site or in greater detail on the web site of Cosley/Houston Mountain Guides. From a more objective point of view, you might want to look up "How to choose a guide" on the web site of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA).

Our trips are organized and led by Jörg Wilz, owner of OnTop, or fellow guides, who are all members of their national mountain guide associations. Every fully certified mountain guide is also a members of the UIAGM / IFMGA (International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations). The UIAGM / IFMGA certification is the highest certification level available worldwide for mountain and ski guides and requires many years of experience in all mountaineering disciplines followed by a lengthy training and a series of rigorous exams. While this certification level is more commonplace in Europe, where mountain guiding has been a regulated and highly regarded trade profession for more than a century, it is much harder to find in North America. There are currently only about 40 UIAGM / IFMGA certified guides in the US and about 140 in Canada.

Aside from being experienced and highly qualified professionals our guides are personable and fun loving individuals!

Jörg Wilz

Jorg grew up in Heidelberg, Germany and has

been mountaineering and skiing in the Alps since early childhood. He has climbed and guided many "classics" in the Alps (Complete Peuterey Traverse and Freney Pillar on Mont Blanc, Tempi Moderni at the Marmolada, Dolomites), extensive ski traverses as well as fast Big Wall ascents in Yosemite (Salathe on El Capitan at age 18) and in the Himalayas (Nameless Tower, Yugoslavian Route, 2nd ascent).

Internationally certified as a mountain and ski guide (UIAGM / IFMGA) by the Technical University of Munich in 1986, he was granted reciprocity by the American Mountain Guides Association(AMGA) in 1997 and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) in 2000. The UIAA Expedition Commission appointed him twice to lead their International Mountaineering Camps, 1993 in Pakistan and 1997 in China. In a former life, he took advantage of his graduate business degree and a CPA diploma by working for an international business consulting firm in Frankfurt and Chicago.

Jörg bases himself for most of the year in Canmore in the Canadian Rockies. He can also be found quite often in the Alps, in Colorado or in Revelstoke BC, where he is putting in first tracks as a helicopter-ski guide for Canadian Mountain Holidays. He speaks German, English, French and some Italian.

Rinaldo Borra

Rinaldo Borra

Like most of us, Rinaldo is on the move a lot. A native Swiss from Stalden, (just down the road from Zermatt) he has made the Canadian West his second home, where he spends a large part of the winter in Revelstoke, B.C. as a helicopter-ski guide for Selkirk Tangiers. However, a busy guiding schedule makes for several transatlantic trips a year from his home in Grindelwald right below the Eiger North Face, where he lives with his wife and three young kids.

Rinaldo has an impressive list of guiding and skiing related certifications to his credit: Internationally certified (UIAGM / IFMGA) as a mountain & ski guide in Switzerland in 1992, certified ski instructor in 1993 and snowboard instructor in 1996. He is also an active instructor and examiner in the Swiss mountain guide certification process.

Rinaldo's climbing resume stands for diversity: Aside from countless peak ascents and ski traverses in the Western Alps, he summitted Gasherbrum, Mount Logan, did remote ski traverses in the Cascades and enjoys hard rock climbs anywhere in the world. Being Swiss, he speaks (Swiss-)German, French, Italian and of course English. His friendly, ever cheerful personality gets him through even in places where he doesn't happen to speak the language!

 

Martino Peterlongo

Martino Peterlongo

Martino is a true climbing afficionado from his early youth on. Born and still at home in Trento, northern Italy, he calls the Dolomites and the mountains around the Garda Lake his home turf. Nevertheless, Martino is also well familiar with the western Alps and particularly the Mont Blanc range, where he climbed many of the hard classics, such as the Hyper and the Supercouloir at the Mont Blanc. At home in the Dolomites he managed a free ascent of the "Weg durch den Fisch" at the Marmolada South Face in the Dolomites - still one of the hardest alpine rock routes in the Dolomites.

Martino has also a Masters in Sociology, however since he gained full IFMGA certification in 2000, he works full time as a mountain guide, either in the Alps or in Canada, where he has spent two summers in the services of Yamnuska Inc. Most recently, Martino also joined the guides instructor's team of his home province, the Trentino. Aside from his native Italian, Martino speaks English and German fluently.

Thomas Exner

Thomas Exner

Thomas grew up in Mittenwald in the Bavarian Alps of Germany, skiing and climbing from the day he could stand straight. With the Austrian border being only a stone's-throw away, he ended up going to the University in Innsbruck, where he graduated with a master degree in Meteorology as well as his UIAGM / IFMGA mountain guiding certification.

After meeting his Canadian wife during a climbing trip in Italy, Thomas moved to Canada in 2005, where he spend his first years doing avalanche control work for the ski resort in Jasper AB and guiding for Yamnuska Inc. His interest in avalanches lead him to pursue a Ph.D. in applied avalanche science at the University of Calgary. Whenever he is not digging snow pits at Rogers Pass, BC he is guiding for OnTop, both in Canada and during the summer also in his old hunting grounds, the Alps. Thomas recently moved from Canmore AB to Golden BC, where he still holds out to be the only vegetarian Bavarian in Western Canada.

 

Sarah Hueniken

Sarah Hueniken

Sarah has been involved in outdoor education for just about all of her adult live. Originally from Ontario she graduated with a double bachelor degree in outdoor recreation, parks tourism and natural science from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. She also has a good decade of experience instructing and guiding for variuos agencies such a NOLS, Outward Bound and Yamnuska Inc, to name only the better known.

A resident of Canmore AB for 5 years, Sarah is currently one of the strongest and most active female climbers in the Canadian Rockies on ice, mixed and rock. Aside from participating in climbing competitions regularly, she recently set a personal milestone by managing her first climb rated 5.13. Sarah has travelled the world extensively to satisfy her climbing habit with destinations including Mexico, South America and recently Tibet, where she did a first ascent of a technical route on a 6000 m peak.

Sarah holds certificaction as an ACMG Alpine Guide and is pursuing her full mountain guide certification - that is whenever she is not hanging out at the rock gym or in one of Canmore's many coffee shops.

Walter Andrighetto

Walter Andrighetto

Walter Andrighetto grew up in Meran in the German speaking region of South Tirol, Italy. He started skiing at as soon as he could walk and got into climbing and mountaineering at the age of 16. Although he also has a degree in environmental engineering, Walter prefers to test the mechanics of snow in the field as a full time mountain guide, which he practices since he received his full IFMGA / UIAGM certification in 2007.

Walter now splits his time between Meran and Brunegg, from where he has quick access to his beloved Dolomites as well as all the other ranges along the main divide of the Alps. Walter is very popular with our clients for his patience and high client care standards. He speaks native German and Italian as well as excellent English.

 

Diny Harrison

Diny Harrison

Originally from Ontario, Diny came to mountaineering at the age of 14. After completing the classic career steps of a climbing and ski bum in the Canadian Rockies, Diny moved on to become the FIRST woman in North America to receive full international mountain guide certification in 1992. Since then she has guided full time both in Europe and Canada, where she is currently the assistant manager for the Revelstoke operation of CMH heli-skiing. To add another superlativ to Diny's resume, she is the past president of the Canadian Mountain Guide Association (ACMG) and the Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA).

More important to her personality than formal credentials are Diny' s many talents. Celebrated artist (trained and degreed by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Alberta College of Art), animated joke teller (especially the dirty ones) and best yodler outside the lederhosen world. While Diny can communicate anywhere in the world, she speaks very well French, German and lately Italian.

Markus is a Swiss native who, like many Europeans started climbing and skiing in his early childhood. He moved to the Colorado Front Range in the mid-nineties and became one of the early "Americans" who earned his full mountain guide certification through the American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) in 2003. He also holds Swiss Ski and Snowboard Instructor certification.

Markus is a true cosmopolitan, who speaks six languages and feels equally at home in Colorado and in Europe. He has climbed, skied and guided all over the world but he is always drawn back to the Alps for at least one extended guiding stint every year. Like few guides, Markus manages to easily bridge the cultural gap between our international clients and the often very traditional European environment. Aside from being an excellent guide, he is a great communicator and fun to climb with!

 

Flory Kern

Flory Kern

A native German from the Black Forest, Flory's great passion is skiing! Since one winter a year was not enough for him, he spend quite some time ski bumming in New Zealand. For a while he made a name for himself in international free skiing competitions eventually leading to winning Germany's world cup title in mogul skiing in 1992.

Now that he has a family with two kids, he likes to stay closer to home, skiing down ice faces in the Alps that most climbers find challenging to climb up! Descents such as Eiger West Face, Matterhorn East Face or Lenzspitz Northeast Face (in 3.5 minutes!) are among the many on his resume. He often models for photo shoots and receives sponsorship from several equipment manufacturers - North Face being one of them.

Luckily Flory can also find his way UP mountains and rock and ice climbs too! As a mountain guide, he is internationally certified (UIAGM/IFMGA) by the Technical University of Munich and his excellent English comes in handy working with Jorg on our programs in Europe.

Andy Lippitsch

Andy Lippitsch

Originally from the Montafon region of Western Austria, Andreas ("Andy") is a full blood mountain guide and ski instructor, who has been certified on the UIAGM / IFMGA level for over a decade. Inspite of his relatively young age, he soon qualified for the instructor team of the Austrian Ski Instructor Certification program and for many years he managed the ski school in his home town of Gargellen.

Andy has done a lot of travelling during his mountain guiding career, including a season of heli-ski guiding in the Russian Kaukasus and the Bugaboos for Canadian Mountain Holidays.

Andy is very popular with our guests for his good energy and sociable and warm-hearted nature. Based in Fieberbrunn in Tirol, where he lives with his wife and daughter, he guides for us all over the Alps.

 

 

Todd Guyn

Todd Guyn

A true Albertan with heart and soul, Todd grew up in the southern front range of the Canadian Rockies and in Calgary. He has been mountain guiding professionally for about 20 years, during the winters he mainly in the services of Canadian Mountain Holidays where he currently is the Assitant Manager of the Revelstoke Heli-Skiing operation. Until recently, Todd was also the Technical Director of the Association of Canadian Mountan Guides (ACMG) and as such supervised the certification standards for new guides in Canada.

Most importantly, Todd is an avid rock climber and used to be leading edge of the sport in Canada in the 80s. He still travels extensively to explore new climbing areas all over the world and especially in Europe. The "Prince of Darkness" a.k.a. "Skinny Bitter Man" lives in Canmore with his wife and he is really quite a pleasant fellow, hugely appriciated by his clients and peers alike, for his competence and sense of humor.

Tom Wolfe

Tom has been climbing in the Canadian Rockies since the late 1980s and holds certification as a Ski Guide and Assistant Alpine Guide, one exam away from completing his Mountain Guide certification.

Tom lives in Canmore, Alberta with his wife and two young children. In the winters he works as a heliski guide with Last Frontier Heliskiing and and ice climbing guide with OnTop. Summers are spent rock and alpine guiding.