The profession of mountain guide (călăuză de munte) has a history of over a century in the Romanian Carpathians.
The birth of mountaineering in Romania can be traced back to 1873, with the establishment of the "Siebenbuergischen Alpenvereins in Kronstadt" (SAV – The Transylvanian Alpine Club of Brașov), the first mountain lovers' association in the country.
A few years later, this association became the Brașov section of the "Siebenbuergischer Karpatenverein" (SKV – The Transylvanian Carpathian Association of Tourists), a club founded in Sibiu in 1880.
It was only after 1873 that the mountains in Romania began to be frequented more often by "city gentlemen" coming for relaxation. It was then that the first mountain shelters dedicated to tourists (huts and refuges) appeared, along with the first guides selected from among the locals.
These "guides" (the term "mountain guide" was not yet in use) were responsible for escorting groups on known mountain paths (mostly shepherd or hunting trails) and organizing the logistics of the ascents (accommodation, transport).
Naturally, building mountain shelters and later training these guides through the SKV was not a local invention, but simply a copy of the organizational model from the Eastern Alps (German-speaking areas), where such infrastructure already existed.
In Romania, the first official mountain guides were recognized in 1884 from among the locals at the foot of the mountains. This was when the first logbooks and badges of the profession were organized.
Starting in 1891, the Sibiu section of the SKV constantly handled the training and education of mountain guides, who were selected primarily from the population of the mountain regions.
This system of training mountain guides within tourist associations was widespread across all Alpine countries. For example, until the early 20th century, all guides working in the French Alps were trained within the French Alpine Club. Later, as their profession gained autonomy and importance, the guides of the Mont Blanc area began to form their own separate training school in Chamonix.
In 1906, a pension and mutual aid fund for mountain guides appeared within the SKV, including:
- Bistrița area: Constantin Sandul, Ion Ușieru, Ion Moldovan;
- Bucegi area: Ion Stănilă senior (one of the first guides in Bucegi) and his son Ion Stănilă junior;
- Făgăraș area: Ion Tarcea, Gheorghe Popp (Cârțișoara), Savu Drăguț (Savu), Ion Coțofană (Făgăraș).
In the Bucegi area, unlike the Transylvanian side, guides appeared naturally without systematic training in small villages along the Prahova Valley: Bușteni, Sinaia, Secăria, Comarnic.
Besides the Stănilă family from Râșnov, who worked as guides or hut keepers for over 100 years (1870–1982), guides Nicolae Gelepeanu (1860–1923) and Nicolae Butmăloi—both hunters by origin—became famous in Bușteni.
Butmăloi also served as the hut keeper for Omu and Peștera for many years and was the author of the first mountain "manual" in Romania, published in 1927 under the name "Călăuza Mică" (The Little Guide).
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first tourist explorations of the Prahova steep slopes of the Bucegi, the first established trails, and various toponyms such as Brâul Caraimanului, Gelepeanu's Gully, and Brâna Coștilei are linked to mountain guides, whether accompanying tourists (such as Nestor Urechia or Mihai Haret) or on their own.
By the 1930s, the profession began to lose its appeal among the locals at the foot of the Carpathians due to a lack of demand and interest in guiding and porter services. At the same time, mountain guiding became attractive to urban youth who were passionate mountaineers.
One of the best-known guides of the interwar period was Carl Lehmann (1894–1990) from Brașov, an SKV member and nephew of another guide from the Bran side of the Bucegi named... Karl Lehmann. From 1936, Carl Lehmann worked as a mountain guide employed by the ONT (National Tourism Office) Brașov.
Among many achievements (Lehmann was a passionate photographer and maintained numerous trails), he and Edwin Csallner completed the first winter traverse of the Piatra Craiului ridge in February 1927.
Just as in the Alps, during these pioneering years, mountain guides in the Carpathians were involved in establishing various trails, such as Cantonul Schiel – Peștera Hut (N. Butmăloi) or La Prepeleac – the current Mălăiești Hut (C. Lehmann).
After the political regime change in Romania in the late 1940s, the liberal profession of mountain guide disappeared entirely, as mountaineering was split into two different types of activities:
- Rock climbing and alpinism, which had recently appeared in the Carpathians (1930s), were transformed into sports activities and, starting in 1953, were included in a controversial competitive system that was only abolished in 1996;
- Mountain hiking remained a form of tourism, managed by the Ministry of Tourism or similar communist state organizations.
The profession of mountain guide, whose surviving representative during the communist years was Carl Lehmann, officially reappeared after 1968 with the establishment of the Youth Tourism Bureau (BTT).
BTT guides were trained locally (at the county level) exclusively for mountain hiking. Unfortunately, with few notable exceptions, the professionalism of BTT guides was very low, highlighted by numerous mountain incidents and accidents involving guided groups.
Mountain guiding functioned under BTT rules until after 1989 when, following the collapse of the communist system, Romania’s tourism organization also collapsed.
In the chaos of the 1990s, the profession was reorganized within a private association based in Brașov. Thus, in 1997, the Mountain Guides Association of Romania (AGMR) was founded. This association organized the first mountain guide courses in 1998, 2002, and 2004. After this period and the reorganization of the legal framework for professional training, AGMR began organizing annual mountain guide courses.
The Society of Mountain Guides and Leaders (SGLM) (SGLM) was informally established in 2010 by several professionally active mountain guides to develop and perfect the profession according to current international requirements.
Since 2017, SGLM has been a full member of the Union of International Mountain Leaders Associations (UIMLA), the professional organization that regulates the"International Mountain Leader" (IML) profession worldwide.” (IML).
Concurrently, the East European Mountain Guides Association (EEMGA), initiated by a group of Romanian mountain guides, became a full member of the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA/UIAGM) in 2019. International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA/UIAGM).
Thus, 130 years after the first guides appeared in the Romanian Carpathians, Romanian guides are finally part of the global community of mountain professionals.
Professional Training Today
Despite its long tradition, the mountain guide has struggled to establish themselves as a true professional in Romanian mountain tourism, both nationally and internationally. The main causes include:
- Discontinuity and lack of coherence in professional training;
- The artificial split created in the 1950s between various forms of mountaineering (hiking as "tourism" vs. alpinism as "sport");
- A total lack of international coordination and collaboration.
Following the change of the political regime in 1989, within Romania's new socio-political context, the profession of mountain guide has been reborn and is today connected to the international professional community.
As a Romanian professional association with international affiliation, SGLM has strived since its inception to raise the standard of training to a level comparable with colleagues in other countries.
In 2022, SGLM reintroduced the Mountain Leader specialization into Romania's professional training. ghidul de drumeție montană.
Mountain guides and mountain leaders are professionals trained to navigate hiking, climbing, alpinism, or skiing routes. They must be capable of instructing clients and leading tours safely.
By definition, mountain guides operate in high-risk zones with partners who may be less experienced. Their complex expertise is not learned in a single course; it is accumulated through years of mountain experience as an amateur and then as an Aspirant Member.
The complex expertise of a mountain guide is not learned simply at a school or during a single training course! It is utopian to believe that a profession can be mastered over just a few encounters in the mountains. It is accumulated through years of mountaineering, first as an amateur and then as an aspirant mountain guide in professional training.
In Romania, SGLM is authorized to organize professional training courses at international standards. professional training courses la standarde internaționale.
Today, there are two international categories of guides:
- Mountain Leaders (International Mountain Leaders): Known as International Mountain Leader, Accompagnateur en moyenne montagne, or Bergwanderführer.
The representative international organization is UIMLA.
- Mountain Guides: Known as Mountain Guide, Guide de Montagne, or Bergführer.
The representative international organization is IFMGA/UIAGM.