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Our Guiding Team

When booking any guided holiday, your  guide becomes your window into the world you will be exploring. Our hiking guides reflect everything we value about meaningful travel. Brochures and websites are one thing, but a knowledgeable hiking guide who re-certifies frequently, updates his/her skills and has a deep understanding of the regions and cultures where they guide,  holds the key to creating a safe and amazing journey.

All of our guides are members of either IFMGA, the International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations, or   UIMLA, the Union of International Mountain Leader Associations. As such, they have undergone some of the most rigorous training possible. They have also met all of the requirements to lead climbing, hiking, or ski trips around the world. Please visit these sites for details about certification and a list of certified guides in any countries you wish to visit.

At Alpine Interface, we’re proud to be a small team of highly skilled and knowledgeable IMLs  and Mountain Guides. Whether hiking trails in the Alps or in other areas in France and Crete, we bring many years of combined experience. Come join us for some of the most enjoyable trips around the globe.

LOUIS MARINO

Louis Marino, Head Guide and Director, Alpine Interface - private, custom hiking trips in Europe and the Alps - Haute Route, Dolomites, Tour du Mont Blanc, Essential Alps, Bernese Oberland, Tour de Monte Rosa, Crete, Normandy, Julian Alps in Slovenia, guided and self guided
Louis is the founder and director of Alpine Interface Inc. After studying at universities in California and France, Louis decided to travel the mountain ranges of the world. After completing his hiking guide certification in France, Louis also gained certification in Britain and is a member of both the French and the British Associations of Mountain Leaders. Louis’ passion for the mountains has led him to attempt some of the world’s highest mountains and he is always on the lookout for new and interesting trips in the mountainous regions of the world. He makes his home in both Canmore, Alberta, Canada and Chamonix, France where mountains abound and the trails are endless. Louis is bilingual in English and French, and thinks he can speak Italian.

BLAISE VERIEN

Blaise Verien hiking guide, Alpine Interface, private, customized hiking trips: Haute Route, Essential Alps, Tour de Monte Rosa, Tour du Mont Blanc, Bernese Oberland, Crete, Normandy, Julian Alps, Slovenia - guided and self-guided

A 30+ year resident of Chamonix, Blaise is a certified ski instructor, hiking guide, and mountain bike guide. He has raced mountain bikes on the World Cup Circuit, and has travelled extensively around the world on two wheels.He has an intimate knowledge of the Alps and the Dolomites, particularly his treasured Mont Blanc Range, where he spends most of his free time exploring the many trails and passes surrounding his home.

Blaise is in charge of creating new exciting hiking itineraries for us in the Alps and other places. Blaise speaks French, English and Italian fluently.

LINDSAY CANNON

Lindsay Cannon, Alpine Interface - private, custom hiking trips in Europe and the Alps - Haute Route, Dolomites, Tour du Mont Blanc, Essential Alps, Bernese Oberland, Tour de Monte Rosa, Crete, Normandy, Julian Alps in Slovenia, guided and self guided

Lindsay is a British certified trekking guide (BAIML). Lindsay has spent over fifteen years exploring the Alps and has great enthusiasm for and knowledge of the mountain environment. Lindsay has finally made the full-time move to Chamonix from her native Scotland where she worked as a BBC journalist and producer for a variety of shows.

Her film work, which has seen her experience everything from ice-climbing, to pot-holing, and kayaking, enjoys a worldwide audience.Lindsay speaks Scottish and French.

KARIN PIZZININI

Karin Pizzinini, guide, Alpine interface, private, custom hiking trips in Europe and the Alps - Haute Route, Dolomites, Tour du Mont Blanc, Essential Alps, Bernese Oberland, Tour de Monte Rosa, Crete, Normandy, Julian Alps in Slovenia, guided and self guided
Karin Pizzinini has been working as a hiking guide for 10 years. She has been a science and chemistry teacher at the high school in Alta Badia for 15 years. After all this time, she felt the need to work independently and to pursue her big passions: travel and photography. Now she works as an art director, making documentaries about Ladin arts and culture, as a hiking guide in her beloved Dolomites, where she grew up and lives, and is very active as a photographer.Living at the border between Italy and Austria and belonging to the Ladin cultural and linguistic minority, Karin has been speaking 3 languages from childhood on. In 1987 she spent half a year in Canada, improving her English; she has done summer courses in France to learn French, and has spent a year in Spain in 2001, perfecting her Spanish.
Karin says her mission is to transmit knowledge, be it as a teacher, a guide, a photographer or a writer.

THOMAS EXNER

Thomas Exner Mountain Guide - Alpine Interface, private custom hiking trips, tour du mont blanc, essential alps, haute route, dolomites, bernese oberland, tour de monte rosa, julian alps in slovenia, normandy, crete, guided and self-guided
Thomas grew up in Mittenwald in the Bavarian Alps of Germany. With the Austrian border being only a stone’s-throw away, he ended up going to the University in Innsbruck, where he graduated with a Master Degree in Meteorology as well as his UIAGM / IFMGA mountain guiding certification.
Thomas moved to Canada in 2005, where he spent his first years doing avalanche control work for the ski resort in Jasper AB and guiding for Yamnuska Inc.
His interest in avalanches lead him to pursue a Ph.D. in Applied Avalanche Science at the University of Calgary. Thomas recently moved from Canmore AB to Golden BC, where he still holds out to be the only vegetarian Bavarian in Western Canada.Whenever he is not digging snow pits at Rogers Pass, BC he is guiding for Alpine Interface during the summer in his old hunting grounds, the Alps, and especially in the Dolomites. Thomas speaks German and English. He too thinks he can speak Italian.

MARTIN BURROWS-SMITH

Martin Butrrows-Smith, Alpine Interface guide, Private custom hiking trips, Alpine Interface: Dolomites Hike, Haute Route Hike, Tour du Mont Blanc, Tour de Monte Rosa, Essential Alps, Private Alps Hike, Bernese Oberland Hike, Slovenia Hike, Julian Alps in Slovenia, Hike in Crete, Normandy-D-Day Beaches Walk, guided and self-guidedAlpine Interface, private, customized hiking trips: Haute Route, Tour du Mont Blanc, Dolomites Hike, Essential Alps, Julian Alps Slovenia, Tour de Monte Rosa, Bernese Oberland, Normandy, Crete - guided and self guided
Martin has been involved in outdoor activities for as long as he can remember and has been instructing and guiding since the late 60’s. He moved permanently to the Alps 30 years ago and now is based in Switzerland, the perfect place for doing what he has always wanted to do – as much rock climbing, trekking and ski touring as his body allows.
Guiding folk on the hill has always been a passion so unable to do anything else with his life this is what he does!