Synnott Mountain Guides

I recently took my Avy1 (AIARE 1) with Blake- one of the SMG educators and guides! Our group was 6 people and the course was awesome. It was a hybrid course, one day with online homework and then a zoom meeting and then two days in the field on Mount Washington. We were all moving on skis/split boards and took advantage of some amazing weather to get as much in field learning as we could! Blake is knowledgeable, approachable and caring. He creates an environment of open communication which lead to better team work and honest communications within the group. These are crucial for successful days in the Avy terrain. He was able to weave lots of snow science and general education into the fun of being outside and doing the activities that we love (sliding downhill). Would absolutely recommend taking a course with Synnott. Looking forward to coming back in a couple years to take my Avy2! Thanks Blake!

It took me five months to finally write this review 😃 I purchased rock climbing for my husband as a birthday gift. Our instructor was Charlie and we were very lucky to have him. He gave us a lot of useful information. He chose a beautiful location that was amazing in October. We had a great time and it was one of the best activities we did last year. Sometimes it was a little scary but Charlie helped us a lot and gave us confidence. We will definitely come back because it was an incredible experience!

We had the pleasure of spending the day under the very skilled guidance of Ryan Driscoll yesterday and WOW, did we ever learn a lot! Ryan is an extremely skilled and practiced guide, climber, mountaineer and avalanche expert. He was a great listener and evaluator of our skill, fitness and interest levels in different applications of mountaineering. We planned a route up Tuckermans Ravine with a potential summit attemp, but conditions were not good (blowing snow, near zero visibility and increasing avalanche danger)....Ryan didn't just tell us this, he showed us how we could make careful, educated assessments at different decision points on the adventure. Of course, we all opted to turn back and not push out luck and safety. Ryan used the rest of our time wisely as we practiced simple, but effective uses of ropes w/o harnesses as well as good campon/ice axe techniques in steep terrain. Finally, we got to experience some partner rescue simulations in the beacon park (basically, an avalanche rescue simulation area) in Pinkham Notch near the AMC center. It was a fabulous day and time well spent with Synott Mountain Guides. I HIGHLY recommend!

Thank you Synnott Mountain Guides for an exceptional weekend in the backcountry! I took AIARE 1 with the unparalleled Nick and Blake who truly set the bar in terms of sharing their impressive snow knowledge, keeping the stoke high in complex avalanche conditions, and empowering us all to begin our journey as competent adventurers in the backcountry. This course left me inspired to continue learning and grateful for the experience. I'd enthusiastically recommend SMG to anyone looking to level up their skills! Thanks again!

Chris was Fantastic!! My partner and I wanted to try ice climbing and this was a perfect way to do that! The rental gear was included, and no hidden fees at the end. Chris was very meticulous about our gear and made sure it fit perfectly and that we felt very safe. He also answered every question I had and showed us every step that we were interested in. It was a great day!

I completed the AIARE 1 course with Synnott and it was worth every penny. Highly recommend.

We did a 3 day mountaineering course. Charlie was really great. He managed to take our request to change the dates after we had done the booking. He was also the guide for the first day and taught us lot of mountaineering basic skills on the first day and talked about common mistakes that he’s seen over the years. First day was very useful. Self arrest practice was delayed to second day due to terrain conditions on Willie’s slide. Our guide changed for the Washington summit on the next 2 days. We didn’t do the self arrest practice on second day as the guide decided to practice the crux of the Lions head trail with us which was useful the next day to do the crux faster. The winds were 60-80mph on summit day so the decision was made to go just up to Lions Head on summit day which is totally understandable. Self arrest wasn’t done on the final day too. The 3 stars are mostly because we weren’t taught self arrest neither did we have a chance to practice it (in our 3 day course) and this was crucial to our main learning objective of being able to do winter/shoulder season hiking across high passes safely and confidently.

I took a 3 day course with 2 friends to focus primarily on crevasse rescue and then climbing Mt Washington. Our experience with Synnott mountain guides was nothing short of exceptional. We were paired with Ryan as our guide and he truly customized the lessons to fit our experience level and taught it in a manner that was fun and easy to grasp. He was as good of a listener as he is a teacher and we got everything out of it that we wanted and then some. We all walked off the mountain with a vast amount of invaluable knowledge and had a great time doing so. I’m already looking forward to coming back to Synnott Mountain Guides perhaps next winter to expand my mountaineering skills and knowledge. 11/10, I would highly recommend Synnott Mountain guides and training with Ryan Driscoll.