The centralised management system that works how your guides already work.
Built with IFMGA guides.
Ascents Complete Guide Management System — the only platform that implements a SMS and QMS that satisfies your WorkSafe obligations, meets ISO standards, and builds institutional knowledge with every trip.
14-day free trial
Framework alignment
| Feature | WorkSafe | WorkSafe NZ | OSHA | ISO 21101 | ISO 45001 | ISO 31000 | ISO 9001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structured 10-step risk management workflow | |||||||
| Conditions monitoring — four timestamped timepoints | — | ||||||
| Hazard identification — structured library | — | ||||||
| Risk scoring — likelihood × consequence matrix | — | ||||||
| Control selection — hierarchy of controls | — | ||||||
| Contingency planning and abort criteria | — | ||||||
| Emergency response plan — per trip | — | ||||||
| Immutable go/no-go decision — Step 10 sign-off | |||||||
| Avalanche Safety Plan (ASP) export | — | — | |||||
| Client risk briefing record — waterfall evidence | — | — | — | ||||
| Guide ASP acknowledgment — team access | — | ||||||
| Training acknowledgment log | — | ||||||
| Documentation and policy panel | — | ||||||
| Auditor access panel | — | ||||||
| Near-miss register with institutional knowledge | |||||||
| Immutable timestamped records — RLS enforcement | |||||||
| Client post-trip QA questionnaire | — | — | — | — |
The problem
Guiding is a uniquely dynamic, increasingly volatile, and high-risk industry — and the current tools are not built for it.
- Growing regulatory requirements with no centralised way to meet them
- Risk management lives in spreadsheets, notepads, email chains, or one person's head
- Institutional knowledge leaves when your most experienced guide does
- Rising client expectations with no structured way to assess or document capability
- High staff turnover with no system to transfer what your team knows
- Audit and inspection readiness that depends on who you ask, not what the system shows
These methods are not built with guides and guide companies in mind. After all, you chose a career in the mountains, not behind a desk.
The solution
Ascents CGMS is the only platform built for an industry that cannot afford to learn slowly.
- Implements your Safety Management System at the operational level
- Implements your Quality Management System alongside it — not as a separate project
- Builds your institutional knowledge base as a by-product of every trip
- Creates a geographical risk intelligence layer across your team
- Every guide has access to what your most experienced guide knows — before they need to learn it the hard way
- Aligned with WorkSafe and ISO standards from day one
Is this for me?
Ascents is built for certified mountain guides and guide companies who are operating in regulated terrain or are looking to build institutional knowledge and scale. If you hold a WorkSafe obligation, operate under international safety and quality standards, or run guided trips where lives depend on the quality of your risk management — this is for you.
Build your institutional knowledge and risk intelligence layer with every trip.
Will this work for my operation?
Your operation already has a risk management process. Your guides assess conditions, identify hazards, make go/no-go calls, and debrief after every trip. The problem is not that the process does not exist — it is that it lives in your guides' heads. When WorkSafe asks for your Avalanche Safety Plan, when an auditor asks for your risk and hazard assessment documentation, when an investigation asks what you knew and when — there is nothing to show.
Ascents is built around the way guides already think and work — hazard by hazard, decision by decision, trip by trip. We sat with IFMGA guides and built the platform around the process they were already running in their heads. The result is a system that feels like it was always supposed to exist.
What Ascents adds is the record. Every condition assessed, every hazard identified, every control selected, every go/no-go decision — produced as a by-product of how your guides already work. No extra workflow. No compliance overhead.
How hard is it to implement?
Sign up, plan your next trip, and see for yourself.
There is no implementation project. No consultant. No configuration. Your first trip through Ascents produces a complete, timestamped management record. Your second trip is faster. By your fifth it is simply how you plan.
The platform is built around how guides already work — there is nothing to unlearn. Start your 14-day free trial today and see how it fit within your operation.
Start free trialWhat will my operation look like after?
You hire a new guide at the start of next season. Immediately they have access to every trip completed, every trip template and SOP, every near-miss ever logged. Every abort decision, every go/no-go call, every field observation — in the system ready to help them plan their first successful trip within your operation.
When WorkSafe comes to the door, you send them an Auditor invite link and get back what you were doing.
When a senior guide retires, what they know stays in the company.
When something goes wrong — a systematic record of continuous improvement of your safety and quality management. A testement to your professionalism and expertise. Because the question asked is not whether your operation was safe. It is whether you can prove it was.
With Ascents, the answer is always yes.
What you get
Tools built for how guides already work
Pro features marked — all other features are available free.
Client Technical Competency (CTC)
Run a structured CTC assessment on every client before a technical objective. Verified logbook data, automatic grade conversion, discipline breakdown, and flags — not a gut feel.
ISO Aligned Documentation
Every risk management cycle produces a timestamped, structured record that maps directly to ISO standards. When an investigation happens, your professionalism and expertise are immediately demonstrated and your legacy saved.
Trip Planning & Risk Management
Build a structured risk picture before every trip — terrain, weather, client readiness, known hazards. Then capture post-trip learnings and feed them back into the next iteration. So the next guide doesn't have to learn the hard way!
Incident & Near-Miss Logging
A confidential, structured system for recording incidents and near-misses. Your operation learns from experience rather than repeating it.
Getting started
One trip. Then it runs itself.
Most guide companies are fully set up in their first trip and are implementing critical lessons by their next.
Trip one
Set up your account and add your guides in minutes. Run your first trip through the platform — hazard identification, contingency assessment, client capability, go/no-go record. The first time through takes fifteen to twenty minutes. From trip two onwards, under eight.
Week one
Your guides are running trips through the platform as part of their normal routine. The near-miss register has its first entries. The owner dashboard is live. You can see every guide's decisions without picking up the phone.
Month one
Your institutional knowledge library has real depth. The SSoG dashboard is showing where your safety evidence is strong. The season review is populating automatically. Your operation looks different — because it is.
No implementation project. No training programme. No consultant. One trip, and the system is working.