Payment and refunds

Nothing on this page is a quotation and nothing on it overrides the contract you sign. Where a figure here and your contract differ, the contract governs.

What you pay and when

A booking is confirmed by a signed contract and a deposit of 25 per cent of the trip price. For expeditions above 6,500 m the deposit is 30 per cent, because peak royalty and permit fees are charged per climber and are payable long before departure. The balance is due 30 days before departure. The full payment schedule is written into your contract before you pay anything.

If you cancel

What you get back depends on how much of your trip we have already bought. Permits, peak royalties, domestic flights and hotel deposits are committed weeks or months ahead and are frequently not recoverable by us either. Tell us as early as you can — the difference between a call at ninety days and a call at sixty is most of your money.

Treks, safaris and journeys

• More than 90 days before departure: 100 per cent refunded. Nothing has been committed on your behalf yet.
• 90 to 61 days: 75 per cent refunded. Hotels and domestic flights are being placed.
• 60 to 31 days: 50 per cent refunded. Permits are filed and the crew is being held for your dates.
• 30 days or fewer: no refund. The balance has fallen due, the crew is contracted and the trip is bought.

Expeditions above 6,500 m

These are quoted on a longer calendar because peak royalty is charged per climber and paid to the government months before you fly. Once it is paid it does not come back to us, so it cannot come back to you.

• More than 120 days: full refund, less any peak royalty and permit fee already paid on your behalf. We will tell you the exact figure and show you what it was spent on.
• 120 to 91 days: 70 per cent of the balance refunded, after royalty and permits are deducted.
• 90 to 61 days: 50 per cent of the balance refunded, after royalty and permits are deducted.
• 60 days or fewer: no refund.

Moving instead of cancelling

More than 60 days before departure you may move once to any other departure within the following twelve months at no charge, paying only the difference if the new trip costs more. We would far rather carry your booking forward than keep your money, and the option exists because most cancellations are a change of circumstance rather than a change of mind.

Where a supplier returns money to us after your cancellation, we pass it on, whichever band you fell into and whether or not you ask.

If we cancel

If we cancel a departure for any reason other than force majeure, you choose: a full refund of everything you have paid us, or a transfer to another departure with any difference in price settled either way. We do not keep your deposit for our own cancellation.

If the weather or the mountain ends it

Trips in this part of the world are interrupted by weather, road closures and flight cancellations, and the Islamabad–Skardu sector is the single most common cause. We build buffer days into every itinerary for that reason. Where an interruption forces a change we re-route at our cost where we can, and where a night or a sector is genuinely lost we refund the unused ground services, not the whole trip.

The lead guide can end an ascent or turn a group back at any point. That decision is final and cannot be overruled by a guest, an agent or the office. A trip that turns back for safety has not failed, and roughly one group in five turns back at Gondogoro La; we plan for that and you are not charged twice to try again.

Insurance is not optional

Travel insurance covering helicopter evacuation and repatriation, valid to the maximum altitude on your itinerary, is a condition of travelling with us. We verify the policy before departure and we will not start a trip without it. Understand clearly that helicopter rescue in the Karakoram is not guaranteed at any price: weather, altitude, daylight and clearance all have to align, and your evacuation plan names the drive-out option for that reason.

What is never refundable

Peak royalty and permit fees once paid to the government on your behalf. Visa fees. Bank charges and transfer fees. The cost of any service you chose not to use on a trip that otherwise ran. Any part of your own travel insurance premium.

How to ask

In writing, to the address below. We answer within four working hours, we tell you the figure and the reason for it, and where a supplier owes us a refund we will tell you how long they usually take.