Mountain education
and
guiding in Colorado

Alex took great care of me. I intended to quit before starting because I was suffering from the altitude. Alex gave me encouragement and brought me to the top of Longs Peak. At 68 years old, I must have been a lot to handle, but he was very careful and understanding giving me lots of breaks along the way. Recommend his services greatly.

I had an excellent experience climbing Mount Baker with the American Mountain School. I really enjoyed Alex's expert guidance and great sense of humor. He is truly a high-caliber guide. I am definitely going to book another trip soon!

I honestly can’t put into words how grateful I am for Alex. His professionalism, patience, kindness, and support made all the difference. This was my first real mountaineering experience, and to be honest, I was far from being in the best shape of my life. Nothing humbles you quite like the mountains. I struggled, especially on summit day. The weather was brutal, the conditions were challenging, and there were many moments when I wanted to stop and turn around. But Alex’s calm professionalism, experience, and steady encouragement kept me moving forward one step at a time. Despite the odds, we made it to the summit of Mount Baker, and without Alex, I would not have been standing there. What I gained from this climb was much more than reaching a summit. It gave me confidence in myself and showed me that I am capable of more than I thought possible. That is a gift I will carry with me for a very long time. I will always be grateful to you Aleksandr for helping make this experience possible. I cannot recommend him highly enough, and I’m already looking forward to future ascents together.

We booked the 2-day advanced multipitch rock climbing course with Alex Gukov during our Colorado rock climbing trip. We already had plenty of sport climbing experience and wanted to take our climbing to bigger rock faces, multipitch routes, and learn efficient rappelling. Alex taught us plenty of anchor building techniques and rappelling techniques. We were able to apply and practice the principles immediately to climb multipitch! The course of highly worth it and made our climbing trip so much more meaningful. He is very experienced and knowledgeable, plus he shared plenty of Epic mountaineering stories. Would be glad to learn more from Alex in the future! Thanks Alex!!!!

I traveled to Denver from Japan for a business trip and hoped to climb one of Colorado’s 14ers while I was there. After searching online, I found American Mountain School and was very lucky to be guided by Alex. Because I had not climbed on snow for quite a long time, and because my equipment was not fully adequate for the conditions, I was honestly a little anxious. However, thanks to Alex’s great experience, calm judgment, and thoughtful support, I was able to reach the summit safely and return without problems. Climbing at an altitude that we do not have in Japan, with some remaining snow, became one of the best memories of my trip. Thank you very much, Alex.

Alex was a great instructor for crevasse rescue/ safety. I would recommend. Thanks Alex!

TLDR; Great experience. My friend Jim and I hired Alex to take us out for a Lead Ice Climbing class. Alex was very friendly, easy to learn from, and had tons of great tips and tricks from years of high end mountain climbing in the greater. Jim and I got a lot of practice placing screws as well as building anchors and v-threads. We left really pleased and stoked. I would recommend Alex and AMS for any skills you need for you future adventures!

Everything I wanted in an ice lead class. The automatic emails and the website need some work, but that's near irrelevant to the instruction and material covered in session.

I had an amazing experience with American Mountain School during my ice climbing class. My instructor, Alexander, was excellent — very knowledgeable, confident, and incredibly patient, which immediately made me feel more comfortable and confident myself. As someone who is just getting into mountaineering and has a mountaineering course coming up soon, this class was very eye-opening. Alexander not only made the experience fun and safe, but he also took the time to share helpful advice and equipment suggestions for my future training. I really appreciated how willing he was to help even beyond the class itself — you can truly tell he loves what he does. I’m from South Texas where everything is flat, so Colorado and ice climbing were completely new to me. I was slower on the approach, but Alexander was patient and encouraging the entire time. Thanks to his guidance, I built the confidence to climb and made it all the way to the top — something I honestly didn’t think I could do at first. I would absolutely book another class with him in the future and highly recommend both Alexander and American Mountain School to anyone looking to learn or build confidence in the mountains.