Terms and Conditions

You must recognise that climbing, walking and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions. 

That having been said nothing wonderful ever happened when you stay in your comfort zone. When you come on an adventure with us you must be prepared for a little unpredictability and unknown outcome. That is what makes it exciting. 

Our trips are to wonderful places. We hope to excite you, to set your pulse racing and steal your breath with beauty; to give you new experiences that you will enjoy, rave about and remember fondly, that will put a smile on your face long after you are back in your comfort zone! 

Bookings

A trip means any booking on our courses that may be a skill-based course or an adventurous journey. The company in this case is AlpsAdventures.

To book a place you must complete the booking through our, or our partners, website and pay the deposit. You must then complete the payment procedure/ schedule to keep your place on that trip. Deposits are set out in the individual trip prices and itineraries. Deposits (minimum 10%) are non-refundable. You are advised to take out insurance as soon as you book. This will allow you to recover payments (usually less an excess) if you must cancel and these circumstances of cancellation are covered by your insurance. 

You must complete the further questions required for each trip to allow the company to be well informed of any needs you have.  

Medical and Welfare

The aim of medical questionnaires is to keep you safe and to ensure that every risk is evaluated and understood. If you have any medical problem or disability, you must inform us so we can keep you safe and advise you appropriately. If you have a last-minute medical problem please contact us to inform us. 

Where you have encountered any infectious disease, you must notify the Company immediately. Where the Departure Date falls within the accepted quarantine period for transmission of the disease, the Company reserves the right to cancel the booking as set out above; this shall be deemed to be cancellation arising from an event of Force Majeure pursuant to these terms and conditions and no compensation shall be payable to you.

If you booked through Skyhook Adventure then your booking is guaranteed via Trust My Travel. Other third-party Websites have other conditions. Direct Bookings are not guaranteed.  

Itinerary

Every effort will be made to match your advertised itinerary but there may be occasions when an alternative is required. This could be due to freak or unseasonable weather, avalanche risk or other unforeseen circumstances.

Please make careful note of departure points and times and ensure that you are at the meeting points early rather than late.  Keep us informed of any changes or problems with your travel arrangements. We want to help! 

Payments

You must pay your deposit and balance using lawful means. You must pay the amount of your trip and ensure that any additional charges are carried by yourself. 

You must meet the payment schedule that is set with your departure dates. 

This is normally the complete balance 3 months before your trip departs. 

This then becomes non refundable if you are unable to attend a trip. 

Extra Charges

Any extra equipment, e.g. Hiking Poles, Sheet sleeping bag that you hire/buy from the company must be paid for in cash at the beginning of the trip. You are responsible for any borrowed/ hired equipment. Please return it in good condition or you will be asked to pay the cost price for it.  

Photo-Waiver

By agreeing to these booking conditions, you consent to the Company's staff taking photographs and/or video footage of you during the Trip and that these images may be used by the Company for publicity and training purposes including, but not limited to, in brochures, websites material and in the media. 

Reasonableness

Our trips are keenly priced for the benefit of our customers. These are not luxury trips. The food is wholesome and filling. Please come with a positive can-do attitude prepared to be a member of a team and contribute. The leadership has your best interests at heart and want you to all have an experience of a lifetime but this occasionally requires compromise. 

The Leader or Course Director (or any of our Staff, Guides or Instructors with responsibility for your wellbeing) will do his or her utmost to ensure that any problems are solved for the benefit of the majority of those taking part. Agreeing to these terms and conditions signifies your acceptance of a Leader's, or Instructor’s authority to make decisions affecting the group or individuals on the trip (s) you are booking. For instance, the Leader, or an Instructor may require you and/ or others to leave the trip if he or she believes that a person, or a person's health, is at risk if an illegal act has been or may be committed, or behaviour may become, or has been, detrimental to the safety, enjoyment or well-being of the group or of any individual within the group.

If you leave a trip once it has started, for whatever reason, you will not be entitled to a refund or to compensation.

The Company will not be liable where any failure in the performance of the contract is due to you; or a third party unconnected with the provision of the trip and where the failure is unforeseeable or unavoidable; an event or any other unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond the Company's control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or an event which the Company or its suppliers, even with all due care, could not foresee or forestall. The Company shall not be liable for any illness, injury or loss of life sustained on any trip, except where such illness, injury or loss of life is caused by the negligence of the Company or its employees, nor will the Company be liable for any uninsured loss of personal property.  

Fitness

Our guided trips are great first multi-day trek, but you do need a good base level of fitness. A typical day in the mountains can be trekking for 8+ hours with your rucksack, at a gentle pace with lots of breaks. Hiking experience will help you enjoy this more.  To make sure you're best prepared for the trip, we recommend training regularly with any sport that you enjoy (e.g. running, swimming, tennis). This should focus on endurance. You need to be able to keep going.  Training hikes will also help, ideally for a full day with an 8kg rucksack.  Mental preparation is almost as important as physical. You need to be prepared to keep moving forward and upwards for a substantial time to overcome a mountain pass.  Please make sure you read the rest of the information carefully. Once booked, watch the videos to help you prepare your equipment.  

If you are not fit enough to keep up with the group continuously, slowly, walking uphill, then you may be asked to leave. This is for your own safety and the interests of the whole group. You will then need to meet your costs.  Mental preparation is as important as physical for this trip. Having a positive attitude will help you with the challenge and get you the reward of a fantastic journey.

Complaints

If you have a problem during the trip, please inform the Leader, the Course Director, a Guide and/ or an Instructor immediately who will endeavour to put things right. If your complaint is not resolved locally, please follow this up by writing to the Managing Director at the Company's registered office giving your trip name, the departure date and all other relevant information and, where possible, evidence. Any such complaint must be received no later than 28 days of the date of your return from the trip. Please keep your letter concise and to the point. This will assist in identifying quickly your concerns and speed up the response to you.

If you fail to follow this simple procedure, the Company will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you are in-country and this may affect your rights under this Contract as you will have failed to have mitigated (minimised) your losses and will be unable to recover compensation for this element subsequently.

Only a Director of the Company may promise a refund or offer compensation. The Company’s Leaders, Instructors, Agents, Representatives or Employees are not entitled to promise a refund nor to offer compensation and the Company will not be bound by any such promise or offer. 

The terms and conditions of all agreements made with the Company shall be subject to and governed by law. When making your booking it is implied and accepted that you have read and understood all these booking conditions and agree to abide by them.

Reviews and Tips

On the other hand, in the vast majority of trips, you will have had an awesome time that will have surpassed your expectations for beauty, flow, adventure and activity. That is our goal. If you would like to recognize someone who has made your trip special with a cash gift you are welcome to. We pay above-market rates of pay but these are still low, the seasons are short and no one becomes a millionaire working in the outdoors. Another way you can help us and your guide is by reviewing us on any of the various websites, our own, the one you booked with, Facebook, Google or Tripadvisor. Or any combination of these! Please do name your guide as they will get recognition by the Company for their positive impact on you.  

Insurance 

AlpsAdventures.ch carries Professional Liability and Indemnity insurance with Axa Insurance to the sum of 5 million chf. 

This does not insure individual clients and you are advised to have your own insurance for rescue, medical and repartriation. In the even that you have a minnor slip due to the nature of our trips it may be necesary to call a helicopter rescue.