Why Complete the Ptarmigan Traverse with Alpine Ascents?
Overall, it was an extremely positive experience. The planning and communication was excellent beforehand, and the trip itself was fantastic. Ari, Josh and Justin were all really good. There was a good structure and rhythm to the climb, and there was good communication about what and why specific decisions were made. I had a high degree of confidence in their skills and experience, and felt entirely confident in their leadership and competence.
Low-Ratio
We are guiding this traverse at a low 3:1 ratio to allow for a more personalized climbing experience.
Schedule Flexibility
Important to success and enjoyment for our climbers is the ability to adjust our climbing schedules as needed to account for ever-changing mountain conditions. Rather than throwing up our hands and ending an expedition when a route may become unclimbable, we treat these situations as challenges and, thanks to our experience and local expertise, we can change locations mid-expedition if necessary and offer alternate climbs and adventures. When such occasions have arisen, our climbers regularly praise these adjustments as highlights of their expeditions.
Experience
We have been running successful expeditions around the world since 1986. Our familiarity with the region, our expertise and our knowledge of climbing around the world lend a depth and richness to every expedition that we feel is unrivaled in the guiding community. This expertise is based upon years of accumulated experience—not just of our individual mountain guides, but through our experience on particular mountains where we fine-tune our knowledge of details over time. We maintain a process of multi-level and critical evaluations after each expedition. Innovations like daily weather reports, established season-long base camps, environmental pioneering, and operating our trips with small climber-to-guide ratios led by Alpine Ascents guides are just some of the factors that keep us in the forefront
Environmental Awareness
We believe that most of the guiding world is eco-friendly, but taking leadership in environmental matters can be costly and present obstacles. Pioneering the use of Wag Bags© in the Cascades, officially partnering with Leave No Trace for over 10 years, and removing trash from Everest, Aconcagua, and Kilimanjaro are a few of the efforts that we make that demonstrate our leadership of environmental clean-up efforts. More than simply being the right thing to do, or a marketing angle, we genuinely look to keep the mountains and wilds clean because this is our second home (first home for many guides), and we want to return each year to pristine environments. Environmental leadership is axiomatic— yesterday’s ideas are simply not good enough. We constantly challenge ourselves by asking, “What’s next? What more can we do? Is this really helping?”
Leave No Trace principles are fundamental to our program, and we encourage all who climb and trek with us to understand proper wilderness practices. We help facilitate this effort by passing on Leave No Trace training and literature to every Alpine Ascents climber.
While still in a state of euphoric triumph, I just want to let you know how fantastic my hiking/safari/balloon trip to Africa was. Alpine Ascents did themselves proud. There are not enough superlatives to express my gratitude and pleasure on how this trip turned out. Eric Murphy, is Alpine Ascents “Super” guide. Eric, along with […]
