Skip to Main Content
International School of Mountaineering

ISM - International School of Mountaineering

Why Choose ISM?

Our pedigree speaks for itself

Founded in 1965, ISM is by far the longest established provider of Alpine courses to English speaking clients. The majority of our clients come from the UK, although we attract English speaking clients from all over the world.

Read More
UK Rock 5
Icefall Climbing 6

The ISM Team

DSCF0978 2

Adrian Nelhams

ISM Director and IFMGA British Mountain Guide

As a Director of ISM, Adrian splits his time between guiding, the ISM office, family and climbing for himself. During his 25 year commitment to the team, Adrian has played a key role in the development of ISM.

Read More
Tom Bw

Tommaso Dusi

IFMGA Italian Mountain Guide

Tommaso is a an experienced Italian mountain guide and regular year-round ISM team member. He loves the mountains and helping people to connect and find happiness in nature.

Read More
Christian Face

Christian Türk

IFMGA Swedish Mountain Guide

Christian was born in Sweden and had his first skiing experience in Austria as a youngster.

Read More
Max Cole

Max Cole

IFMGA British Mountain Guide

Max has been rock climbing, mountaineering and skiing for over forty years. He has climbed in New Zealand, Yosemite, Morocco, Norway and extensively throughout the European alps and within the U.K.

Read More
Christian Edelstam Tierra

Christian Edelstam

IFMGA Swedish Mountain Guide

Christian likes exploring the mountains in any mountain range and particularly loves the solitude and wilderness of northern Scandinavia.

Read More
Meet The Team

ISM Historical

In the early sixties an ex-fighter pilot named John Harlin lived and worked in Leysin at the American College of Switzerland. A very determined and charismatic mountaineer, he was eventually joined there by Royal Robbins. Leysin became the 'basecamp' for leading American and British alpinists of the day, such as Gary Hemming, Layton Kor, Dougal Haston and Don Whillans. They began exploring the Leysin Tours (limestone towers above Leysin up to 500ft high) and many of the classic routes bear their names.

At that time there were still 'last great problems' to be solved in the Alps. The South face of the Fou was unclimbed and there were no 'Directissimas' on the Dru West Face or the Eiger Nordwand. With Robbins, Harlin succeeded on the first two objectives; then in 1965 he made another far-reaching contribution to mountaineering by founding ISM.

Read More

Testimonials For ISM

Learned loads and acclimatised well during the course. Its obviously been very carefully planned. Guiding and Instruction was excellent. Anders was fantastic throughout and made the whole course really good fun. A very professional instructor with a great sense of humour. Highly recommended.

Leigh Ritchie
Summits & Skills 4000m (Instructional Course)

Terry was a wonderful guide and made everything fun, laid-back and an overall good experience. I would be happy to ski or climb with him again. All the logistics in Leysin and in Italy went smoothly. A really nice time.

KL (2017)

Neil, our guide for the week, was exceptional; a true professional, a huge inspiration and just great company. He shared so many useful tips with us and had great stories to share too. Looking forward to booking another course with ISM in 2022!”

William Summits and Skills 4000m 2021

Our Partners

UIAGM / IFMGA Guide Award Equipment Partner Retail Partner Retail Partner