Split Standard: Splitboarders Take on the Ski-Centric AMGA

TransWorld SNOWboarding | September 2015

As splitboarders earn their stripes in the world of professional guiding, a few pioneers are rewriting the ski-centric certification model of the American Mountain Guide Association

In the spring of 2009, snowboard guide Jamie Weeks was facing a tough climb. He was in Valdez, Alaska, the lone splitboarder, touring with some of the strongest ski mountaineers in the country. Weeks himself had been guiding big-mountain snowboarding in Valdez for 15 years and back in his hometown, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for 20. He’s a legend in the guiding game and had no trouble keeping up. It wasn’t the steep ridge of ice and snow ahead that worried him—it was convincing the American Mountain Guide Association to certify him as the first-ever snowboarding “ski” guide… (read more)