Gearys Guiding

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Revelstoke, BC
Gearys Guiding

ACMG/IFMGA Mountain & Ski Guide service. We offer ski touring and climbing guiding in Canada and worldwide.

Gearys Guiding only has two guides; ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide Alex Geary, and ACMG Ski Guide Madeleine Martin-Preney. We like to keep it small so we can offer the highest quality service possible. We've been living in Revelstoke since 2010, which we chose because of the amazing ski touring and climbing in the surrounding mountains. We have been guiding ski touring cumulatively for over 25 years, including 10 years guiding together. We enjoy long aesthetic runs and loops with guests, while keeping the risks at a level that is comfortable for our entire group. We both have a background in teaching and instructing, so whether you take a course or join us for a guided adventure, we like to share our thought processes and work as a team with everyone in our group to maximize our safety and enjoyment. Whether you like to climb 1000m/day and ski mellow powder runs, or climb over 2000m/day, summit mountains, ski steep and technical lines or big traverses, we like to do it all. When we're not guiding for Gearys Guiding, you can usually find us working at one of the huts for Icefall Lodge or adventuring somewhere for fun. Alex Geary is an ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide based in Revelstoke, BC since 2010. I started my guiding career in 2006, cat-skiing in the Chilean Andes. I've been guiding climbing and ski touring pretty much full-time since 2010, including about 100-120 days of ski touring every "winter" made up of teaching and guiding. Before guiding, I worked as a ski instructor and became certified by the ISIA (CSIA 3 equivalent), trained other instructors, coached racing (CSCF 2) and freeriding. I've also guided heli-skiing, worked as a Public Avalanche Forecaster, Ski Patrol Manager (including running an avalanche control program with explosives), and a Mountain Safety Specialist for the mining industry. Before guiding I was a Mechanical Engineer, although I find guiding much more rewarding. I guide mostly in Canada, but I love to visit new places and have also guided in Chile, New Zealand, Europe, Australia and Nepal. When I'm not guiding I'm usually spending time with my son or skiing/climbing for fun. Madeleine Martin-Preney is an ACMG Ski Guide and Hiking Guide. Madeleine grew up in the Selkirk Mountains in Nelson, BC, before moving to Revelstoke in 2009. She spends as much time as she can moving around in the mountains skiing, climbing, hiking and running. She has been part of many big adventures such as a kayak/ski trip from the Gulf Islands to the Whitemantle Range, and she was part of the first team ever to complete the full ski traverse of the Selkirk Mountains (520+km and 43,000+m elevation gain). She also has experience travelling in the mountains in India, The Yukon, The European Alps, The Andes, and many remote parts of Canada. Madeleine’s strengths shine through when she's instructing, which she has developed from many years teaching avalanche and ski touring courses, trips for Outward Bound, youth education for Avalanche Canada, becoming certified as a Yoga Teacher, a Life Coach, and examining for the ACMG Training and Assessment Program (TAP). Check out the film Mind Over Mountain to see Madeleine in action on the Bugaboos to Rogers Pass Traverse in 2021. We worked together on this film in conjunction with Sweetgrass Productions and Patagonia Films. If you need a guide to show you around Revelstoke or further afield, or you have something you want to learn about the mountains, please let us know and we will look forward to meeting you and another great adventure!

03/24/2026

“No, I’m not trying to grow my business” is usually my answer.

The focus is on adventures in the mountains with people who share similar values, not building something that turns into managing staff and spreadsheets with increasing risk. A lot of the year is still spent working with other companies running trips that feel worthwhile.

For me, success is having a solid network of people who want to keep coming back for more adventures. Smaller groups, mutual trust, and trips that feel personal guiding with or a few trusted friends.

This approach leaves space for balance; time with family and friends, and time away from the mountains altogether. That way, when I’m guiding I’m stoked to be there.

📷 2021 after day 1 on the Icefall Traverse skiing Mons and Division Peaks.

03/20/2026

Most people call this a “whiteout”, but it’s not.

A whiteout is when you can’t see:
❌ horizon lines
❌ shadows
❌ contrast
❌ rocks or surface features
❌ You can’t tell up from down (vertigo and vomiting)

Whiteouts are actually pretty rare.

If you need to look at your skis to move, you stop scanning the terrain around you. That’s when flat light starts to feel like a whiteout.

Flat light means:
* shadows are weak or gone so you can’t see what’s immediately in front of you
* horizon lines are still visible
* rocks and other high contrast features are often still visible

The good news: feeling the terrain through your skis is a skill you can develop. You don’t need perfect visibility to move with confidence.

If you can ski up and down by feel, you can look outward instead, picking up subtle contrast differences between aspects and slope steepness, reading horizon lines, and identifying terrain ahead: crevasses, wind lips, what’s coming.

In glaciated terrain this matters. If you get your prussik cord out and start whipping it, your eyes lock onto the cord and you lose the bigger picture. You’ll miss the faintly sagging crevasse bridge right in front of you and you’ll have to navigate by GPS rather than following the cliffs you can see in your peripheral vision. Navigating by contrast and feel is a skill, it’s learnable, and it’s really important for navigating on glaciers.

Note: Polarised lenses make it much harder to see shadows and contrast so you can’t see where you’re going. You need a non-polarised lenses like the Reactive or Spectron 4’s to identify contrast, which I’ve been wearing for the last 15+ years since the Zebra’s were replaced.

📷 example’s
1. Flat light on Tocllaraju, Peru
2. Whiteout on Blanket Glacier, BC
3. Flat light on the Mons Icefield, BC
4. Flat light on the Thorington Glacier, BC
5. Good visibility on the Telkwa Glacier, BC
6. Flat light in the Lyngen Alps, Norway
7. Whiteout on the Konkordia Glacier, Switzerland
8. LOL, It’s bluebird, just in the shade on the Illusion Glacier, BC

03/19/2026

How do you categorize decisions as “good” or “bad”?
Is it a good decision if it doesn’t result in an accident?
Is it a bad decision if it results in an accident?
It’s easy to justify something as a good call when it was just lucky. We are all taking on some level of risk whenever we travel in the mountains.
Rather than labeling decisions as “good” or “bad,” I think it is more useful to think of them on a spectrum of risk and how that aligns with your group’s risk tolerance (which by default should be that of the most conservative person in the group). An honest daily reflection is a great way to quantify this.
With the amount of time I spend in the mountains, it is inevitable there will be accidents. There have been many in the past and there will no doubt be more in the future….
Injuries in my groups the past 20 years guiding in the mountains, which I consider to be lucky:
- 2 x Dislocated shoulder without fracture
- 2 x Dislocated shoulder with fracture
- Approximately 15 knee injuries with various degrees of severity
- Countless minor tweaks, scratches and bruises
- 3-4 cuts requiring stitches
- Frostbitten toes
- Fractured foot
- 2 x Dislocated digits
- Others I can’t remember right now

📷 from the archives (not current)

03/16/2026

Making the most of the last sunny day before the big storm here at 🙌

03/12/2026

ACMG Ski Guide Training this week in Lake Louise and the Wapta Icefield.

03/06/2026

How much wind can you tolerate?
We had a couple of people blown over today (one of them twice) with winds gusting close to 100kph, but we found some good skiing!
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📍 Traditional Territories of the Wet’suwet’en Yintikh and Dënéndeh people.

03/05/2026

We started off today exploring an ice cave on the Burnie Glacier, followed by Elevenz’s and then some glacier skiing this afternoon, which definitely exceeded our expectations.
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📍 Traditional Territories of the Wet’suwet’en Yintikh and Dënéndeh people.

03/01/2026

Back into the alpine today after a few days of storm skiing 🙌
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📍 Traditional Territories of the Wet’suwet’en Yintikh and Dënéndeh people.

02/27/2026

Storm skiing today above the meant we could stop in for lunch and espresso before heading back up Tom George Mountain for our last run 🙌

02/14/2026

The first half of winter has been full of amazing adventures so far with new and old friends. I’m excited for the second half…
📷’s
1. on the approach ice to Sick Day
2. 8812 Pk (photo by )
3. on the way up 8812 Pk
4. Grizzly Mountain (photo by )
5. .weasel leading Aimless (photo by )
6. Shoveling the Sauna
7. Kemmel Glacier
8. Kemmel Glacier
9. Zen Glacier
10. The Balcony
11. The Ultimate Everything team
12. The Over 50 Project at the bottom of Forever Young (photo by Tractor)
13. Exploring in Japan
14. .yu
15. Last run in Japan (photo by )
16. Guiding with again 🙌
17. Hydro-charger
18. This goat looks like it knows where to go… (photo by )
19. Tractor near Ghost Pk
20. Belaying .caughtair up to Ross Pass

Address

PO Box 2956
Revelstoke, BC
V0E2S0

Telephone

+1-250-814-4703

Website

http://www.gearysguiding.com/

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Our Story

My name is Alex Geary and I’m an ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide based in Revelstoke, BC. I love sharing adventures in the mountains with motivated people in all seasons including ski touring, mountaineering, rock and ice climbing.

I started my guiding career in 2006, cat-skiing in the Chilean Andes. Since then I’ve been guiding all sorts of climbing and ski touring, which is what I love to do most. I used to work as an ISIA certified ski instructor, and I’ve also guided heli-skiing, worked as a Public Avalanche Forecaster, Ski Patrol Manager (including running an avalanche control program using explosives), and a Mountain Safety Specialist for the mining industry. Before guiding I was a Mechanical Engineer, which helped convince me to spend my life in the mountains.

I’ve been guiding ski-touring full-time during the winters since 2010, and mountaineering and climbing the rest of the year. I guide mostly in Canada, but I love to go to new places and have also guided in Chile, New Zealand, Europe, and Nepal.

If you need a guide to show you around Revelstoke or further afield, please let me know and I will look forward to meeting you and another great adventure! Alex Geary ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide