PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT:

When an activity becomes predictable and absolutely safe, it ceases to be exciting or by definition to be an adventure. For an activity to be adventurous it must have an uncertain outcome and it will carry risks. Going into mountainous regions is implicitly hazardous, and if we add to that an adventurous activity, then by necessity the hazards are increased. This implies an inherent and intractable risk of injury or, in the extreme, loss of life. Anyone considering taking part in a trip needs to consider this very seriously and to take responsibility for their own participation and acknowledge and accept these risks.

Overseas Expeditions: Our expeditions and courses are educational and they are exciting, they will take you to parts of the world that will make a big impression on you and equally will benefit from the impression that we can offer them. You will experience moments that will remain with you for the rest of your life. Sadly, some of these areas are impoverished. This alone is an important incentive to go but it means we operate invariably in regions with limited infrastructure. If you are injured, problems with infrastructure alone can mean a delayed evacuation and so a worse medical outcome than for a similar accident nearer to home.

For us the benefits of mountaineering expeditions overseas far outweigh the negatives, that is why we do what we do and we hope the same will be true for you. In order to take part in a truly exciting, adventurous activity with all the rewards of experiencing diverse cultures and sharing unforgettable memories with newly found friends, you have to accept the risks involved.

Snow and Ice: The mountains offer an extra dimension when cloaked in snow and ice, that can also bring the additional risk of avalanche and other natural objective hazards. We will teach you the skills we use to manage the risk but cannot completely remove it. We encourage a culture where if conditions on the mountain are not suitable for delivering training we will find alternative venues.

The BMC acts on behalf of walkers, climbers and mountaineers in the UK and offers the following participation statement that we ask you to agree to:

“The BMC recognises that climbing, hill 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 and involvement.”

Read the Expeditionguide Safety Policy 

Why do we have a cancellation policy? 

I have been running Expeditionguide.com since 2002 and in all that time the only emails I don’t enjoy are the ones that involve cancellations. I hope that this booking page sets out very clearly what will happen in the event of a cancellation but nonetheless I still get people emailing to ask if they can have a refund or swap to alternative dates and hence this short section to explain why we have the policy that we do. 

For me to continue to offer courses and trips all year round, I need to be able to make my full time living from this business. I learnt early on that cancellations can make the difference between making a living and not.

Each course that we run needs to be full to cover our costs and make enough profit to live off. With enough investment in marketing and a client base built up over 20 years we can achieve that. Each course has a finite number of spaces dictated by the ratios that we work at, generally from 1:2 to 1:6 and the price of the course reflects that. 

When you book a space on a course we take that space off the market and typically courses are fully booked a couple of months ahead of time. We don’t over book courses and cancel people, when a course is fully booked we then turn people down. 

The closer we get to a course the less likely we are to fill a last minute space – people need a bit of time to book accommodation and time off work. 

If we reserve a space for you and then you choose not to take it, that is outside of our control. We recommend taking out cancelation insurance so that you can insure against that because we can’t. Our terms and conditions allow for a sliding scale in terms of what level of refund is applicable based on how close the cancellation is to the course date. We don’t offer alternative dates because that leaves us in the same position – we are effectively giving you two courses for the price of one if your cancelled spaces don’t re-sell. 

Of course this works both ways and if we cancel the course then we will give you a full refund – during Covid-19 we refunded everyone who could not attend courses and lost 85% of our income for the year. Not all providers did the same but we stood by our terms and conditions because it was the right thing to do. 

So there we go, an insight into the joys of being self employed and running a small business. If you ever find yourself having to cancel, please don’t take it personally that we follow the terms and conditions on this page. Experience has taught us that the only fair way is to agree in advance what will happen if either of us cancels and then stick to it. 

PRIVACY & DATA PROTECTION

The information that we hold is the information that you complete on our booking form. This includes some personal information to allow us to look after you safely in a mountain or wilderness environment. We keep a paper copy of your booking form for 6 years after your course for our income records. By completing the form you consent to us keeping this record. At your request we can anonymise our records after your course.
Read more on our privacy policy.