Adventure Guide Certificate

This is the ideal program for you, if you ...

• Are interested in an introduction to adventure sports.
• Are interested in improving current adventure sport skills.
• Are interested in exploring the adventure industry as a career.
• Prefer a relatively short course of study.
• Wish to transfer credit earned into further Diploma or Degree studies.

Risk Statement

At TRU Adventure, we use the land and water as tools to teach students technical skills, leadership and guiding skills. Our adventure sport courses include mountaineering, white water rafting, ski touring, sea kayaking, rock climbing, and much more. Field courses are immersive and can be intense.

Safety is a top priority at TRU Adventure, and we incorporate risk management as an essential element in all our programming. Risk and uncertainty, however, are central to adventure guide training.

Students are exposed to settings and situations which will challenge them physically and emotionally. The environments in which our courses operate have inherent risks which range from avalanches, to drowning, to falling rock or ice. Adventure sports by their nature have risks that cannot be eliminated and which we accept as part and parcel to the learning process of becoming a guide.

Since our start 31 years ago in 1992, there have been no student fatalities, but there are occasional injuries which range from sprains and strains to shoulder dislocations and concussions. While we have robust risk management processes to reduce risk, the possibility of injury and even death cannot be eliminated.

Areas of study

The Adventure Guide Certificate will give you the skills, knowledge and experiences leading to a broader understanding in the adventure industry and leadership within. Applied and practical modularized classroom courses are offered in wilderness travel, wilderness first aid, guiding leadership, wilderness environment, expedition planning and the adventure industry.

Leadership, risk management and technical skills are built within the following adventure areas:

• Hiking
• Rock Climbing
• Mountaineering
• Ski Touring and Avalanche Education
• Ski Instruction
• Canoeing
• Sea Kayaking
• White Water Rafting
• White Water Kayaking
• Swift Water Rescue
• Surfing

Program structure

The Adventure Guide Certificate allows for extensive time engaged in field activity courses and compressed and modularized classroom course instruction. There are approximately twelve weeks of classroom instruction and twelve weeks of field activity courses that make up the program.

All course credit completed in the Adventure Guide Certificate is transferable to other Adventure Studies programs. Students who complete the Adventure Guide Certificate and wish to continue their adventure studies at TRU may ladder directly into the Adventure Guide Diploma. Providing the required entrance requirements are met, students can ladder into the following degrees: the Adventure Concentrations in the Bachelor of Tourism Management (BTM) degree, or the Adventure Concentrations in the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) degree. In order to be accepted into the BIS program from the Adventure Guide Certificate students may have to take additional courses to meet the BIS program requirements.