The Licence Itself · 8 min
The activity categories, and their extra hurdles
Why this matters
Two of the six activities cannot be reached by studying. Whitewater and climbing licences require a documented record you either have or do not have, and the whitewater licence is issued river by river. Knowing this early tells you which licence you are realistically going for this year.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Define hiking, camping, fishing and hunting as Part 197 defines them
- State the documentation required for whitewater and for each climbing tier
- Explain why a whitewater licence names specific rivers
The four definitions you can be tested on word for word
| Term | 197.2 definition, condensed |
|---|---|
| Hiking | Traversing lands within the State by foot or snowshoe for pleasure or exercise. Excludes travel entirely inside an incorporated city or village, and excludes travel connected to another regulated activity. |
| Camping | The overnight occupancy of lands using temporary shelter such as a tent or lean-to, or occupancy without structural shelter. |
| Fishing | Taking, killing, netting, capturing or withdrawing fish from the waters of the State by any means, including every attempt and every act of assistance to another person. |
| Hunting | Pursuing, shooting, killing or capturing wildlife, other than trapping, including lesser acts such as disturbing, harrying or worrying, whether they result in taking or not, and every act of assistance to another. |
Two consequences worth holding on to. First, the hiking definition includes snowshoes, so a winter snowshoe trip is a hiking trip. Second, hiking is defined to exclude travel "in connection with any other activity regulated by this Part", which is why a hiking certification is not required for the walking part of a guided camping, fishing or hunting trip.
Whitewater canoeing and rafting
197.2(k) does not define whitewater by difficulty. It names ten river segments, and the licence covers only the ones on your card:
- Cattaraugus Creek, Gowanda's Main Street bridge to the Springville dam
- South branch of Cattaraugus Creek, its confluence to the Forty Road bridge
- Moose River, the Route 28 bridge at McKeever to the Black River at Lyons Falls
- Black River, Deferiet to Dexter
- Raquette River, the Route 3 bridge near Piercefield to Carry Falls Reservoir
- Salmon River, the long bridge at Pulaski to the launch about two miles downstream
- Indian River, Lake Abanakee to the Hudson
- Hudson River, the Indian River confluence to Gilead Brook near North River
- Schroon River, Starbuckville Dam to the Warren County Route 11 bridge
- Boreas River, Bruce Dam to the Hudson
To be licensed on a river you must document at least five whitewater trips on that river, of which at least two were in the type of craft you want licensed. On those trips you must have been either the person in charge of the craft or a trainee in a department-approved guide training programme. Guides are prohibited from guiding any river not specified on their licence. Adding a river later costs nothing: send in the licence and the documentation and DEC amends it.
Canoe and kayak guides need one more thing: certification as a Basic River Canoeing Instructor (open canoes) or Basic River Kayaking Instructor, whichever fits the craft.
Rock and ice climbing, in two tiers
197.2(h) defines the activity as ascending or descending rock, or rock partly covered in ice, at an angle steep enough to need technical technique, using ropes, pitons, nuts, chocks, ice screws and the like. It then carves out an important exception: no climbing licence is needed when climbing gear is used only as a safety measure while negotiating foot trails or cross-country travel as part of another guided activity.
| Tier I | Tier II | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | The unrestricted sport | Single pitch, not more than 150 feet, top rope only |
| Experience | Three years, averaging 30 days a year | 60 days of top rope climbing |
| Recency | 10 days in the last 12 months | 10 days in the last 12 months |
| Leading | 10 multipitch climbs led in the last three years, described in guidebooks | A recognised climbing course, or three years providing top rope instruction |
| Proof | A notarised resume with names, dates, locations and the people you climbed with | |
Top rope climbing is defined precisely at 197.2(j): the belay stance, anchor or protection point is placed directly above the climber, reached by a route where technical climbing is not required. If you have to climb to set the anchor, it is not Tier II.
From the field
You hold a whitewater raft licence for the Indian and the Hudson. A client asks you to run the Moose in April. You have paddled it a dozen times privately. You still cannot guide it: the licence names rivers, and until you send the documentation in and DEC amends the card, the Moose is not on yours.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.