Terms & Conditions

1. Booking and confirmation

A booking exists when we send you a written confirmation carrying a reference number beginning ADN. An enquiry, a quotation, a WhatsApp conversation or a held seat on a departure is not a booking and commits neither of us.

The confirmation states the route, the departure and return dates, the number of trekkers, the crew we are providing, what is included and what is not, and the total price in Nepali rupees. Read it carefully: it is the agreement between us, and it takes precedence over anything said informally.

You must be 18 or over to make a booking. Trekkers under 18 are welcome on most routes but must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who accepts these terms on their behalf.

We reserve the right to decline a booking — most often because a route is genuinely unsuitable for the party, because a restricted-area departure cannot reach the legal minimum of two trekkers, or because the season has closed on a high pass.

2. Payment on arrival in Kathmandu

We do not take advance payment and we do not operate an online payment gateway. You settle the full trip cost at our Kathmandu office during the pre-trek briefing, before the departure leaves the city.

Payment is accepted in Nepali rupees in cash, by card (a bank surcharge may apply and is shown before you sign), or by bank transfer arranged in advance. Foreign currency is accepted at the day's posted rate for the major currencies.

Prices quoted are per person unless the confirmation says otherwise, and include VAT at the statutory rate where it applies. Government permit fees are passed through at counter cost and itemised separately on your invoice.

Nobody from this agency will ever email or message you asking for money to be wired to Nepal before you arrive, or send you new bank details mid-booking. If you receive such a message, it is not from us — call the office line and tell us.

3. Permits and documentation

We file your TIMS card, national park or conservation area entry permits and, where the route demands it, your restricted area permit. To do that we need a clear copy of your passport, passport photographs and your Nepal visa details, supplied by the deadline stated in your confirmation.

Permits are issued by government offices in your name, for a named route and fixed dates. They cannot be transferred to another person, moved to other dates or refunded once filed.

If a permit application is refused or delayed by a government office, or if a restricted area is closed by the authorities, we will offer an alternative route of equivalent value or refund everything except the fees already paid to the government on your behalf.

You are responsible for holding a valid passport with at least six months remaining and for obtaining your Nepal visa. We cannot obtain a visa for you.

4. Fitness, altitude and honest disclosure

Every itinerary carries a grade and a maximum sleeping altitude. By booking you confirm you are fit enough for that grade and that you have told us about any medical condition, medication, allergy or previous altitude episode that could matter on the hill.

This is not paperwork. A guide who knows you have asthma, a heart condition or a history of acute mountain sickness makes different decisions at 4,500 m from one who does not. Withholding it puts you and the crew at risk and may invalidate your insurance.

Our guides have absolute authority over the itinerary on safety grounds. If a guide judges that you must descend, rest, or leave the trek, that decision is final and is made in your interest. Refusing a descent instruction ends your participation without refund.

5. Travel insurance is mandatory

You must hold travel insurance valid for Nepal that covers, as a minimum:

• medical treatment and hospitalisation in Nepal;
• helicopter search, rescue and evacuation;
• trekking or mountaineering to at least the maximum altitude on your itinerary — check the altitude clause, as many standard policies stop at 3,000 m;
• repatriation, and cancellation or curtailment cover.

Send us the policy number and the insurer's 24-hour emergency line before you fly. We hold them at the desk so that an evacuation can be called in immediately and the paperwork settled afterwards. A departure will not leave Kathmandu without them.

6. Changes to the itinerary

Mountain itineraries are plans, not promises. Weather, snow on a pass, landslides, river crossings, strikes, flight cancellations at Lukla or Jomsom, teahouse closures, illness in the group and government restrictions all change what is possible on the day.

Where that happens we will alter the route, the accommodation or the transport to keep the trek safe and as close to the original as we can, at no extra cost to you for the substitution itself. Unavoidable third-party costs — an extra night in a lodge, a rescheduled domestic flight, a jeep instead of a grounded aircraft — are yours.

We will always explain the reason at the time. Nothing in this clause allows us to downgrade your trip for our own convenience.

7. Liability

Trekking and climbing in the Nepal Himalaya carry inherent risk that no operator can remove: altitude illness, rockfall, avalanche, icy trails, river crossings, mountain flights and remote terrain days from a road. By booking you accept that risk knowingly.

We are liable for loss or injury caused by our own negligence or by the negligence of the crew we employ. We are not liable for events outside our reasonable control, for the acts of independent third parties such as airlines, lodge owners and hospitals, or for loss arising from your own failure to disclose a medical condition or to follow a guide's safety instruction.

We are not liable for personal belongings. Valuables and documents should be left in the office safe in Kathmandu rather than carried up the trail.

Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited. These terms are governed by the law of Nepal and disputes fall to the courts of Kathmandu.