One of a kind Education as Bike Guide

How to make Education more Fun to follow your Passion
Studying can sometimes be boring, but how about learning to become a bike guide whilst living in the Coastal Mountains with the ultimate mountain bike playground as your backyard, that sounds a bit more interesting right?

What about a specific bike mechanic’s qualification, PMBI Level 1 Instructor and Wilderness First Responder certification plus some of the best Cooperative work experiences you can find?

Remarkable Bike Guide Training Program
Whistler Adventure School’s Bike Guide program is proof that education doesn’t have to be hours stuck in a classroom with no practical application. The almost entirely practically based course in British Columbia’s Mountain Bike Heaven Whistler is making a name for itself with its focus on the backcountry environment not only locally but on a worldwide stage with this years students hailing from Iceland to the USA.

The Bike Guide Program with Backcountry focus
With 5 courses over a 6 month period, WAS’s Bike Guide Program starts with a fully comprehensive Wilderness First Responder course ensuring all students are equipped for their upcoming backcountry adventures.

The program then moves into the practical element with the next 3 courses (PMBI Level 1 Instructor, Trail Mechanics and Guiding Clients). Dani Huff, 2018 Bike Guide student explains how the setup of the courses compliments the Whistler lifestyle, “Courses are either spread out over a month, allowing time for work and play in the meantime, or it was condensed and knocked out over the course of a week. Either way allowing the students to create a balance of work, education and sport”.

Walk away with well known Certifications
Successful students come out of the course fully qualified as PMBI Level 1 instructors (essential to any bike instruction in Canada and the USA but also known in other countries) and Wilderness First Responder’s as well as gaining valuable experience with guiding instructors and peers and learning mechanical knowledge in a real world situation on the trails with only the equipment they carry as tools, demonstrating a different side of Bicycle Mechanics.

Bring your Skills into Practice
The jewel in the crown of WAS’s Bike Guide Program is the Cooperative work experience; with assistance throughout the program from the WAS Operations team students are provided with the highest quality contacts in the industry to practice their skills in the guiding world. Charlie Ofield, a peer of Dani Huff from this year’s course explains the highlights of his coop with world famous Tyax Lodge in the Chilcotin mountain range, “Seeing two grizzly bears, alpine riding, the scenery, food and being truly in the backcountry were some of the true highlights of my coop experience”!