Your Guides

Guiding in the Cuillin is the ultimate test of skills for a guide in the British Isles. It requires great climbing skills and confidence, an intricate knowledge of the terrain and a very good ability to manage individuals or groups of clients.

Clients booking with us must read specific details about the guides on the ABOUT YOUR GUIDES and ABOUT SKYE GUIDES LTD pages before signing the booking form (click links).

Although we carry out the same job each of us have individual styles. We consider our clients as climbing partners for the day and look forward to sharing some wonderful mountain time with you.

 

Work For Skye Guides

Why work with Skye Guides? The Skye Cuillin are the only Alpine mountains in Britain. The work gives intense opportunities to learn, practice and fine tune techniques that will fast-track your guiding and instructing to the very highest levels. We’d like to hear from anyone with a high level of enthusiasm for Skye whether you […]

ABOUT SKYE GUIDES LTD

Skye Guides is a small company providing a range of services similar to that on offer through many mountain guiding bureaux in the Alps. We still have our original base in Luib but now run the business from Skye Basecamp in Broadford. Established in 1995 the company has built a reputation for providing outings, instruction and […]

ABOUT YOUR GUIDES

Skye Guides operates as a close-knit team of instructors and guides to run the various courses on offer. They have been selected because of their professionalism and passion for the Black Cuillin as well as their experience, qualifications and an intimate knowledge of the terrain. In-house training is given through shadowing experienced Skye Guides. Low ratio […]

Mike Lates

Mike Lates is the owner and director of Skye Guides. He started guiding on Skye in the 1995 and developed a reputation for providing Cuillin outings of the highest quality by sticking to private guiding and treating clients as his climbing partner for the day. This is the Skye Guides philosophy! He is as enthusiastic […]

Andy Moles WMCI

Andy is back on Skye for his eleventh season with Skye Guides, an experienced and highly respected part of the team. He holds both MCI and WMCI awards and is a prolific climbing activist. Originally from Northern Ireland, Andy studied English Literature at Edinburgh University. Since then he has been darting around the country trying […]

Malcolm Airey WMCI

Malcolm is a massive Cuillin enthusiast having been brought up on a diet of climbing winter routes here since he was a school kid. He has worked with us since 2010 and those of you who have been out with him will know that he is as enthusiastic as ever for Cuillin adventures. He has […]

Graham Frost IFMGA

Graham runs Frost Guiding , one of the major companies providing guiding in both summer and winter. If you want to tackle Alpine classics like the Matterhorn, try ice-fall climbing or top-end ski mountaineering, you can contact him directly or talk with us first. Graham started his guiding work with Skye Guides in 2005 and […]

Tom Wild MCI

Tom’s back again for more Cuillin fun this Spring. For half the year he is a senior instructor at White Hall Outdoor Centre near Sheffield, working with school groups. His summers are spent in the Alps and Greater ranges. Tom started rock climbing in the Lake District whilst at University. He first came to the […]

Ollie Mentz WMCI

Ollie joined the team in 2015 and has now moved up to Gairloch so is virtually a local!  “My first experience of the Cuillin on Skye was with friends from university attempting a Traverse in a day. I was over-confident, young and excited. Skye left its mark many hours later when we headed down having […]

Gillian Parker WMCI

Gillian has worked with Skye Guides for 14 years. Her knowledge of the Ridge, climbing and rope skills and enthusiasm for the Cuillin guarantees a high quality outing every day. Introduced to the outdoors through skiing as a 3 year-old Gillian has been climbing since the mid-nineties. Starting with a stint at Outward Bound in […]

Lucy Spark MCI

Lucy has been a big part of SG and Basecamp for many years and we are delighted to have her in the Skye Guides team. She made the break from teaching after more than a decade of inspiring primary kids with the great outdoors and now uses the same enthusiasm and skill with clients.  Her […]

Mike Mason MCI

Mike is a new member of the Skye Guides team for 2021 but has been guiding in the Cuillin for the previous 3 years. His calm steady demeanour will steady even the most nervous of guests. His geological knowledge is far better than most and a wealth of expedition experiences are always told with passion […]

Tom Lawfield MCI

We are glad to welcome Tom back again this season with his huge smile and all the enthusiasm and passion that brings to our guests. He’s been coming to the Cuillin regularly since 2005 including 4 seasons working on Skye in more recent years. He’s been working in the industry for most of his adult […]

Alex Rhodes MCI

Alex did his Skye Guides assessment and in-house training in September ’21 and joined the team in 2022 for many hard-fought weeks of work. The summer 0f ’22 had the worst weather anybody on Skye could remember. Happy and patient whatever the weather Alex is a very welcome addition to our squad. He grew up […]

Dan Moss MCI

Dan moved to Skye in 2020 and mixes his guiding with being the local postie! He qualified with his MIA whilst living and working in North Wales back in 2003. He has climbed extensively across Europe, particularly in Bavaria but also in France, Switzerland and Spain with other trips including a memorable trip to Jordon. […]

Tom Horrocks MCI

Tom joined the Skye Guides team in 2021 as he looked to spend more time working in the best mountains in Britain! With plenty of previous Cuillin experience and 2 guided Traverses under his belt already he was a very welcome addition to the squad. Tom has lead expeditions to Nepal and Tibet. Mountains include […]

Neil Phillips WMCI

We are delighted to have Neil join the Skye Guides team again this year. After suspected trench foot during the 2022 season (it was very wet), he’s looking forward to the payback of wall-to-wall sunshine that must be due. Holding the UK’s highest award, being a Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor (WMCI), Neil instructs and […]