Raft Guide

Whitewater Raft Guide:

This is where most of our work is. After completing one of our training programs, you will be working on the New River during the Summer season. Known as the "Grand Canyon of the East." The New is rated among the country’s best whitewater runs and is the biggest whitewater in the East.

Once they complete their training, most new guides will spend much of their first season guiding on the Upper New River. This is easy "family-style" rafting and it allows the newcomer to quickly develop the leadership and entertainment skills that every guide needs. It brings you along at a pace that is not overwhelming. When you’re not earning money on these Upper New trips, you can be riding along on Lower New trips and becoming familiar with that more difficult section. As the Summer season unfolds and our customers begin arriving in greater numbers, the best of the rookie guides will find themselves guiding lots of Lower New trips as well as those on the Upper section.

An added benefit of guiding with ACE is that we’re the only company that runs the Gauley river on a daily basis all summer long. These summertime Gauley trips are great fun and they’ll build your river skills quickly. Throughout your time at ACE, we encourage you to ride along and gain experience on more difficult sections. There’s never any charge to you and it prepares you to make some serious money during the Fall Gauley Season.

Most first-year guides will spend their Fall season on the Lower New and the Lower Gauley…and training on the Upper Gauley on their off days. We encourage all our new guides to become proficient on all the rivers we run as quickly as their individual talents allow. We don’t have a lot of turnover in our guide staff and we’ll always schedule the more experienced guides on the more difficult sections whenever possible. Despite this, a large proportion of our junior guides quickly become proficient enough to move up the ladder rapidly.

Once you complete your guide training with ACE, you will be required to fulfill contractual obligations in return for the cost of training which is free to you. These obligations involve your being available for the entire rafting season and will be thoroughly explained to you prior to your being accepted into the training program. You’ll also have to agree to follow a few simple rules of behavior both on and off the river.

Climbing Guide

Climbing/Rappelling Guide

As a guide in our climbing program you will work with groups of climbers and occasionally "one-on-one" with customers. We do climbs on our own property and in the New River Gorge National River. For the most part, our climbing and rappelling program is geared to beginning levels of ability. We also do custom instructional clinics. We are looking for experienced climbers for this program, but some limited training is available in this program.

Caving Guide

Caving Guide

Guiding in a cave is a unique experience that not many get to enjoy. Our caving program is conducted in the labyrinth of limestone caverns in Southern West Virginia. The emphasis is on an introductory level highlighting the highly fragile ecosystem that exists in the subterranean world. We provide all necessary equipment and we’ll train you to guide in caves.

Kayak Instructor

Kayak Instructor

ACE provides several levels of kayak instruction from introductory sessions at the Adventure Resort to specialized multi-day clinics on the New and Gauley Rivers. You must be a highly-skilled boater to be accepted as a kayak instructor. ACA certification is required for people to work in this program. Limited ACA Certification training will be made available to our staff. If you are accepted into the ACA accreditation class provided by ACE you will be required to fulfill contractual obligations in return for tuition costs incurred by ACE.

Mountain Bike Guide

Mountain Bike Guide / Mechanic

We have a full Mountain Bike program at the ACE Adventure Resort, complete with rentals and a repair shop. As a Mountain Bike Guide, you will not only lead full and half-day bike trips on ACE property and into the New River Gorge, but you will work as a bike mechanic helping to keep the fleet of rentals in top condition. The mechanic aspect of this program can be utilized as off river work.