Terms and Conditions

bookingS: Prospective clients must fill out the Trekking Tours Booking form below and must send this form to EcoVitality accompanied by a check for the $500 deposit and by a signed statement indicating that the client has read, understood, and agreed to the liability waiver provisions and has also understood the medical and personal fitness requirements described in the following terms and conditions.

Prices and Covered Expenses: The price of our 16-day tours is $4,000 per person. This price includes the cost of hotels, airport transfers, meals and transportation in Pakistan, camping equipment not of a personal nature, salaries for American and Pakistani guides and other personnel, use fees for campsites and other areas controlled by government agencies or local villages, waste disposal fees, and any other expenses directly related to the operation of these tours for the entire group of clients.

Expenses Not Covered: International airfares, passport and visa expenses, medical and physical fitness examinations, insurance for potential accidents, medical evacuation, trip cancellation, and/or damage to baggage, sleeping bags, clothing and boots, telephone and fax usage, laundry services in hotels, alcoholic beverages, souvenirs, medications or other items of a personal nature, and taxi fares or Pakistani guide fees when sightseeing apart from the group as a whole.

Deposits: The Booking form must be accompanied by a deposit of $1000 per person. The balance will be due sixty days before the date on which the applicable tour is scheduled to begin. Please see the discussion below on trip cancellation fees that will be imposed in the event a client is unable to go on the tour he or she has booked.

Gratuities: Tips are not required or included in the tour price because we believe they should be entirely a matter of personal discretion on the part of our clients. The lead guide will normally collect whatever gratuities are given for the staff, if any, and will distribute them to the tour personnel according to a formula that ensures the majority of tips will go to the Pakistani personnel. Clients may instead elect to give individual tips to particular individuals, though they should keep in mind that we are paying higher-than-standard salaries and our clients are entitled to first-rate service without regard to the prospect of tips. Our staff will be instructed that any demands or requests for tips would be inappropriate behavior that should be reported to the lead guide.

Age Restrictions: Except by special arrangement, no applicant under the age of sixteen (16) will be accepted due to the variety of risks and rigors associated with these trekking tours. Any legal minor must be accompanied by an adult who accepts full responsibility for the behavior of the minor. The minor's Booking form and liability waiver acceptance must be signed by a parent or other authorized legal guardian. The signature of the accompanying adult is NOT sufficient unless that adult is a parent or authorized legal guardian.

Modification of Itineraries: Tour dates, trekking routes, and program details, provided in good faith based on information available as of June, 2000, are subject to change without penalty to EcoVitality. Factors such as changes in airlines schedules or reduced cooperation by a particular mountain village may necessitate some revision of tour dates and itineraries although we have no present reason to believe this will occur.

Please print a copy of the Booking form if you are prepared to make a booking after carefully reading the liability waiver provisions and other terms and conditions explained below.

We will be sending all clients a detailed packet of information on subjects such as personal equipment choices, physical training routines useful in preparing for rugged trekking in high mountains, how to obtain a Pakistan visa, alternative air flight arrangements, appropriate clothing, medicines and personal supplies to bring along, and other explanatory material. The terms and conditions below contain vital information that prospective clients should consider BEFORE they decide to apply for a booking.

CANCELLATION FEES: Clients may find that they have to cancel a planned tour for many reasons ranging from dire emergencies or physical injuries to whim or caprice. EcoVitality cannot be involved in judging the validity of these reasons, and we will be undertaking a variety of obligations based on the bookings we have received. For that rationale, we must implement the following cancellation fee policy:

----If a Booking is cancelled before February 1, 2001, the deposit will be returned minus a $250 cancellation fee.

----If a Booking is cancelled before April 15, 2001, we will return half of the $1000 deposit.

----No refund will be granted for any Booking cancelled after April 15, 2001, unless we are able to find another client agreeable to all private group members to replace the person canceling the booking. In that event, the deposit will be returned minus a $500 cancellation fee.

These escalating cancellation fees reflect the difficulty of finding trekking clients as the tour dates grow nearer, the greater efforts EcoVitality may have to expend to locate a new client, and the increasing chance that we will not be able to recruit a replacement client for the applicable tour.

TRIP CANCELLATION INSURANCE: We strongly recommend that clients obtain trip cancellation insurance. There is always a chance that a client may become injured or ill before the scheduled tour date or may be subject to some unanticipated emergency that precludes participation in the tour. Moreover, EcoVitality accepts no responsibility if a tour must be canceled or delayed because of weather, wars, strikes, equipment failures of airplanes or motor vehicles, or other causes outside our control. While we will do whatever we can to avoid or mitigate such problems to the extent feasible, we expect clients to insure themselves against the losses from such contingencies. EcoVitality cannot and will not insure each client against potential losses from trip cancellations.

In the packet of tour-related materials we will send each client after booking, we will include information on at least one insurance carrier that sells trip cancellation insurance. These policies often also include coverage of emergency medical evacuation costs that clients should definitely consider purchasing.

MEDICAL AND PHYSICAL FITNESS REQUIREMENTS: Trekking tours in the Himalayas provide spectacular scenic views and personal challenges, but they obviously also require strenuous exertions that must entail risks of injury for participants insufficiently fit or careful. Each client must bear the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that he or she is in good health and physical shape. Many tour operators require an explicit medical authorization by a physician before they will allow clients to book a difficult trekking trip. Because we are clearly placing the responsibility for adequate health and fitness on each individual client, we are not requiring a formal medical certification. However, we strongly recommend that all prospective clients have a complete medical examination to ensure they are not subject to a medical condition, impairment, or propensity that could prevent them from undertaking strenuous trekking efforts in a safe manner.

The same considerations apply to the physical conditioning of each client. If a trekker is not fit enough to scale steep mountain trails and to cover the expected distances each day, that person will create a serious hazard for himself or herself and will also become a burden for the tour group as a whole. Clients must be responsible for ensuring that they are in good enough shape to manage the difficulties and risks of trekking in high mountains. If our tour leader determines on the trek that any given client cannot safely meet the physical demands of the route, that client will be sent back to the starting point or to the nearest roadside exit point in the company of a Pakistani assistant, and the client will not be allowed to complete the trek. The client also will not be able to obtain a refund because maintaining adequate fitness is his or her individual obligation, and because a lack of conditioning will impose unnecessary burdens on the rest of the group.

EcoVitality reserves the right to decline to accept any applicant for a tour booking or to require any client to withdraw from an on-going tour if, in the opinion of EcoVitality management or our lead tour guide, this action will be in the best interest of the health, safety, and general welfare of the tour group members or the individual participant. If a client is required to withdraw due to inadequate physical conditioning or socially inappropriate behavior, no refund of tour costs will be due or provided.

RESPONSES TO MEDICAL EMERGENCIES: The tour routes are located in extremely remote, undeveloped, rugged mountain areas, and any medical emergency is likely to pose serious problems that cannot be readily eliminated. The best preventive method is for all participants to be in excellent health and fitness, but this cannot avoid all injury risks associated with trekking. The EcoVitality staff are implementing the best feasible measures to deal with medical problems on the trail: All of our guides will be trained and certified to provide emergency medical treatment. We will be carrying a complete first-aid kit and collapsible stretcher. In the event of a serious injury, our guides will provide whatever on-site care appears warranted and then several porters will carry the injured party on a stretcher to the nearest point where jeep transportation to Gilgit can be obtained. We will send another guide or porter down the trail at a faster pace to try to ensure that jeep transportation will be ready when the litter with the injured party arrives. And we will set up an arrangement to summon a jeep from Gilgit, Raikot Bridge, or some other relatively nearby location if an emergency arises.

We are also exploring more high-tech emergency evacuation procedures, but no really satisfactory ones have yet been identified. There are two separate clusters of problems: communications and emergency transportation. In the former context, cellular phone systems are not yet available in the Northern Areas and neither cell phones nor wireless radios are reliable under the topographical conditions of high mountains. In an emergency, the most reliable means of communication may involve a delay of one or more days while a Pakistani guide descends to a village where telephone communication is feasible. With regard to transportation alternatives, there are few private helicopters in Pakistan and even fewer in the Northern Areas. Military helicopters will normally be stationed a hundred miles or more away on the other side of nanga Parbat and there is no assurance the Pakistan military will send an available helicopter when we may need one. If we are able to summon a helicopter, there is no certainty that it will be able to land in the vicinity of the injured person because high winds are common in mountainous areas and most helicopters cannot operate reliably above 10,000 or 11,000 feet. If any helicopter evacuation is possible, the injured person will undoubtedly have to pay high emergency evacuation costs, which is another compelling reason for trekkers to purchase appropriate insurance coverage.

Our tours will be no more dangerous than most mountain trekking operations or many other challenging activities in remote areas, such as scuba diving and mountain biking. We expect our trained guides will be able to minimize many risks. Yet, the remoteness of the trekking routes, the lack of nearby medical facilities, and likely unavailability of rapid evacuation measures means the best way to avoid medical emergencies is for all clients to be properly healthy, fit, and careful in potentially risky circumstances.

LIABILITY WAIVER PROVISIONS: EcoVitality is a non-profit environmental organization operating trekking tours in developing nations to fund conservation and development programs we are undertaking in those countries. Many of our clients will be relatively affluent and the lost earnings and medical damages from a single serious injury could well exceed any liability insurance coverage we could feasibly obtain for an risky activity that has inherent dangers without a correspondingly clear actuarial history. Moreover, prospective clients are in a much better position to assess their potential economic losses and the likelihood of personal accidents under varying trekking conditions in light of distinctive physical, psychological, and economic circumstances. EcoVitality cannot afford to "gamble" its organizational future on the possible outcomes of liability claims against us, and we consequently refuse to accept any liability of any kind arising in connection with the operation of these tours. We are making absolutely clear that participants in our tours must agree to assume, and will bear, all of the risks arising from this enterprise.

Trekking tours must be conducted by tour employees in remote areas sometimes under difficult conditions, and EcoVitality cannot monitor or control employee behavior in every respect at every moment. Errors of judgment by tour employees are not only possible but occasionally inevitable, and client participants are the only people who can effectively protect themselves against risky judgments by regulating their own actions and choices on the tour. EcoVitality will not accept any liability for any client losses during any phase of the tour, even if these damages are caused by the negligent or intentional conduct of tour employees.

Applicants for bookings must sign the Booking form statement acknowledging that EcoVitality cannot offer such ecotourism programs at the current tour price, or likely any price, if we have to bear liability for risks associated with participation in a strenuous trekking tour in remote mountainous areas. By applying for an EcoVitality tour booking and signing the Booking form, the applicant agrees on behalf of himself or herself, potential heirs, and any personal representatives that no lawsuit or other legal action will be brought against EcoVitality for any claims or damages arising from participation in any aspect of the tours offered by EcoVitality.

It is the clear intent of these Liability Waiver Provisions to absolve EcoVitality of any form of liability for any kind of damages arising from the operation of EcoVitality trekking tours regardless of the cause and circumstances. If any legal action is brought against EcoVitality notwithstanding the provisions of this agreement, a court or other adjudicator shall interpret any alleged ambiguities or inconsistencies in light of this liability exclusion intent.

If you are not willing to waive your legal claim to any damages of any kind incurred as a voluntary participant in EcoVitality tours, without exception or qualification, please do not apply for a tour booking.

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