AMS was amazing, I would especially recommend the Kahiltna Peaks Expedition for an excellent entry-level Alaska mountaineering experience. Of note: their balance of flexibility, setting realistic expectations, and balancing weather windows/objective difficulty with climber's ability were expertly handled. Special thanks to Tad McRae who's scratch cooking on the glacier was a welcome addition. read more

Leading up to my expedition to Denali, my plans changed abruptly and AMS was able to get me and my climbing partner in their May schedule. However, that was one of the only good things I experienced throughout my expedition. Colby, I said I wouldn't leave a negative review but you couldn't even call me personally after 3 of your guides physically stole money out of a cache on the mountain that we discussed about. So here we are. Not only did my guides steal from me, my lead guide was atrocious. He lacked professionalism, continuously ignored the clients and on top of this used "his friends" to get me off the mountain. I was helicoptered off the mountain for frost bite that never was, while Keith my guide has a BLACK nose. Yes completely frost bite nose. Yes, I know that call was from a park ranger to remove me and. Or the guide, but when your lead guide says he's going to give you 20 minutes to warm your toes up and then we'll re check, and then goes direct to the ranger tent less than 5 mins later. There's an issue. He wanted me gone he didn't enjoy my company. I have countless screen shots and recorded messages from all 5 of the climbers in my group corroborating this entire story. We butted heads the entire time because he's a man that can't take outsider criticism. He tried to pass other teams multiple times on some of the most dangerous terrain (windy corner, squirrel hill). Which every attempt to pass he failed at passing. Completely draining energy of 4/4 members of the team. I spoke loudly and always said what was on my mind and that's what Keith sidle didn't like. He wanted to be the king of the mountain. He failed at it, and time robbed me on top of that. He spoke to me like I was his child, he yelled at me an reprimanded me for saying the phrase "today raped me" Aiden, Benny, were good, Benny and absolute unit. He even vouged for my toes being fine to go up, and look puzzled when Keith came back with the rangers. All in all, if you get a lead expedition with Keith at all costs avoid it. AMS, has some good for sure, but my 1 star rating comes from a terrible guide, the guides stealing $400 in cash from my cache bag, and poor communication and zero apology from the owner, Colby. Use mountain trip. read more

I've been interested in mountaineering for a few years now, but wasn't able to an opportunity to actually go up and learn the skills until AMS gave me the opportunity to take the 6 day mountaineering course. Our Instructors, Tyler and Izzy, were very patient and knowledgeable, and the entire staff at AMS was as accommodating as they could have possibly been. I couldn't recommend AMS as an instructing or guiding service more. read more

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I had such an amazing time on my northern alpine backpacking expedition. I learned so much about the surrounding nature and how to navigate efficiently through the mountains. Our guide did such a great job making us feel safe and confident to push our limits and make the most out of our trip. Thank you AMS! read more

Being wet, cold, and tired while still having a great time. Nickel and Fallon were stellar guides and I'd go on a glacier with them anytime.

Great course and company. I did the ski mountaineering course and it was great! My instructors were super knowledgeable and conveyed information very helpfully. I'd highly recommend this course and company to anyone who wanted to do something like this. It was an amazing experience!!! read more

Alaska Mountaineering School - Specialty Schools Near Me - Talkeetna, Alaska

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I had a great time with AMS. The guides were excellent and very knowledgeable. I went on the 6 Day mountaineering course and highly recommend. read more

Alaska Mountaineering School - Heading up the Plunger! - Specialty Schools Near Me - Talkeetna, Alaska

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Excellent, would highly recommend. Friendly staff, knowledgeable and personable guides. Everything you'd expect and more. Spent a week on the Eldridge Glacier, views and experiences were amazing. read more

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I completed a 12-day mountaineering course with AMS last spring; I'd done some entry-level mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest, where I live, and this was my first expedition-style experience. The trip truly exceeded my expectations. I found that it was as much about learning to bond with your companions and learning how to live (cook, sleep, relax, appreciate the incredible nature around you) and be comfortable on a glacier for almost two weeks as it was about learning the technical skills including crevasse rescue and sled travel required for a trip like Denali. It was nice to be eased into this type of environment without being forced to alpine start in the dark at all or exert yourself for really anything more than 8 hours at a time. Our guides were some of the most hardworking, interesting people I've met and even taught us to build an igloo on our "snow day". I liked that they emphasized learning independence early on (learning to use the MSR stoves, melting snow for water, planning meals and cooking our own food) opposed to the experience some other groups offer (I've been on REI backpacking trips where I'm sitting idly watching the guides cook dinner and don't prefer that). Given some of the negative reviews below, I do want to reflect for a minute on expectation setting for a trip such as this. There are SO many factors outside of our control (weather, pandemic, availability of employees, to name a few) that I think it is a true wonder in the current age that one can sign up for an experience like this at what I found to be a fair price for what was provided (air travel onto glacier, provisions, gear, expert instruction, feeling secure on a guided trip) for nearly two weeks. I felt that AMS' COVID policies were reasonable and well communicated, and as a healthcare worker I can acknowledge the risk a company takes on flying students of varying states of fitness, health, and age into a remote environment. I purchased the insurance recommended by AMS just in case. 12 days is an extensive amount of time to choose to spend in a remote area, and I have a huge appreciation for the guides who make the sacrifices they do so that people like me can have such a tremendous experience. Given the stressors in a place like Alaska, I certainly don't expect dynamics to be perfect at any time, so I was pleasantly surprised by how mature everyone in our group was and by how we got along. We made some great memories - from the tough times pulling sleds up mountain passes roasting in the sun, to the chill times in camp cooking and "brunching" together, sharing stories. This trip was the most impactful thing I've done in the last decade, hands down. I look forward to keeping in touch with the folks I met, and to doing another trip with AMS in the future. read more

I wrote an entire review that was lost by yelp when I went to log in. I am painstakingly rewriting this entire review now from my phone. Shame on yelp for being such a lousy service. I climbed with AMS in 2021 and 2022. Ok 2021, I decided to turn back due to improper boot fitment. No fault of the guides or AMS. In 2022, I did a custom expedition led by Colby Coombs. I have nothing but positive things to say about both Colby and AMS. He was a consumate professional and we summited in top form in just 11 days. He was polite, easy to get along with, and had an eye for safety the entire way up. Especially wrt safety. I have to hand it to AMS. The NPS rangers mentioned that AMS was a paragon for safety and professionalism, and after seeing how they operated on the mountain, I have to agree. Many times, Colby would clean up other climbers' trash left on the mountain, or advise climbers when he found them using unsafe technique, though it wasn't his responsibility to do so. I really felt like AMS were stewards of the mountain. Every decision he made on the mountain was done with safety as his top priority. From their HQ in Talkeetna to their guiding style and record, I found everything to be at the highest standard. I can't recommend them highly enough. I understand that since reviewers on here had some bad experiences, but my own experiences were stellar. Once week after we got back, Colby went back to Denali with my friend Julie and summitted with her. So that makes for three experiences with AMS I can vouch for. read more

Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS) was a terrible experience and I would not recommend it to anyone!! I am a management consultant and a serious mountaineer (doing 4 mountains/ year with multiple international/ local companies) and have never had a worst experience. We were 6 participants on an expedition to summit Denali on 23-May 2019 and 5 of us had to return one day before the summit because we did not trust our Lead Guide (Con Severis and Second Guide (Chris Welch) to take us to the top due to safety problems as well as horrible/ inhuman client service. All the trip participants are experienced mountaineers and have hired many international and local guide companies. We are all well-versed with safety, service and professionalism standards. The Denali trip did not meet these standards. Below are some high level examples of what we experienced: +Egregious Safety Concerns. There were numerous safety issues that put the participants at risk throughout the expedition. Just a couple of the examples include: While guiding a roped team under strong wind conditions, the lead guide listened to loud music on his headphones, making him unable to hear his own roped team under strong wind conditions While ordering an unnecessary and risky pass of another team, the lead guide demanded a client unhook from the fixed line and slide down a steep icy slope with only an ice axe. +Denial of Summit For No Reason. We were denied the summit for no reason -- when the weather was good, there were no health or capability concerns, and the guide ratio exceeded Denali's standard guide ratio of 1:3. +Unacceptable Client Treatment. The treatment of the participants was unprofessional and offensive throughout the expedition. The guides frequently screamed at the participants for no reason. The guides insulted us, calling us "spoiled brats". After this happened, the owner of AMS, Colby Coombs completely ignored our concerns, did not reply for two months to emails sent from everyone in the team and then sent the same email to each one of us saying that he trusts his guide, with no further explanation. Do not go with Alaska Mountaineering School, we missed the summit because of their unprofessionalism and also had the worst customer experience (Colby Coombs, Constantine Severis) read more

I would not recommend AMS. AMS--understandably--had to cancel 2020 Denali expeditions due to Covid. However, the company refused to refund my deposit even though the contract explicitly states "AMS reserves the right to cancel a Course or Expedition; in this unlikely event, paid deposit and balance will be refunded in full." AMS argues they are simply postponing to 2021. However, I'm not available to commit to a 2021 date at this time and the contract I signed listed a 2020 departure date. While I understand this is a difficult time for small businesses (and I offered to contribute some of my deposit), I don't think it's fair for the company to not honor the original contract we mutually signed. While I've heard AMS has good guides and is great at logistics on Denali, I would not want to be climbing with a company I can't fully trust. read more

I had a very bad experience with AMS the summer of 2019 and would strongly recommend you to not go with them if you want to summit Denali. Our lead guide, Con Severis, was constantly yelling, swearing at the entire group, leading while listening to loud music that made it impossible to communicate with him and not providing any instruction/help in critical moments to his rope team. His behavior was not only highly unprofessional, but he also put us in several dangerous situations. He would become angry if we had a bad weather day and storm down steep hills and even asked another person in our group to untie from the fixed line and go down an icy slope holding only on his ice axe. We felt unsafe numerous times, scared to voice our concerns and felt treated very poorly. We continued the trip nevertheless because we all wanted to summit. We were a group of 7, one of us had to go back because of frostbite, the remaining 6 of us got very close to last camp before summit at 16,000 feet. That's when Con told us that he won't take all of us to summit because there weren't enough guides. He had decided from day one according to him that only 3 people from our group will summit and now because 6 of us had made it he was going to turn back 3 of us to base camp even if we were feeling great, had no issues and the weather was good. Things went downhill from there and the group lost confidence in the guides' abilities and willingness to lead us to the summit - all of us except one chose to go down and not summit with Con as our guide because we thought it was very risky. It was honestly one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my life being so close to the summit we have been training for. The responses from the manager and AMS to our complaints have been disappointing - they decided to place the blame on all of us and didn't even apologize. We are now considering to sue them. Please feel free to reach out to me, I am happy to share more of my experience. From my experience, the guide company you choose is an important decision given how hard the mountain is and the high price investment. I am very sorry I chose AMS and I will regret this forever but I hope other climbers are aware. read more