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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

Jörg Wilz
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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
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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
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Martino Peterlongo
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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
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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
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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.
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| 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 Beck
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Markus Beck
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.
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Todd Guyn
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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
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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.
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