Kathmandu since 2011
We are a licensed trekking agency registered with Nepal's Department of Tourism, and members of TAAN, the NMA and NATTA. Our office is in Thamel, about ten minutes from the permit counters we visit most weeks, which is less romantic than it sounds and more useful than it looks.
Almost every guide on our roster grew up in the region they lead in. That is not a marketing line about authenticity — it is a safety argument. Someone who has walked a valley since childhood reads the weather, the snowpack and the mood of a group differently from someone working a route for the first time.
The outbound side of the business grew out of the same clients asking us to book the rest of their travel. We took it on because we were already doing the difficult parts — visas out of Kathmandu, connections through Delhi and Doha, and the awkward question of what a package actually excludes.
What we try to be consistent about is publishing the uncomfortable detail before you pay rather than after. Lukla flights get cancelled. Teahouse rooms above four thousand metres are unheated. A twelve-day, six-country coach tour will spend four of those days moving. None of that stops people booking; being surprised by it does.
The team
Six planners. Each one owns their regions rather than working from a script, and each one is reachable while you are travelling.
Head of Mountain Operations
Grew up in Khumjung and has walked the Khumbu trails since he was a teenager. Pemba writes our acclimatisation profiles, trains the guide team in altitude first aid, and has the final call on whether a group goes higher.
Senior Trek Planner
Plans the Annapurna and Langtang programmes and walks at least three of them herself each season. Sujata is the person who will tell you honestly that a five-day trek suits your dates better than the eleven-day one you asked about.
Outbound Manager — Europe & Visas
Has prepared several thousand Schengen and UK applications out of Kathmandu. Bikash tracks appointment availability weekly and is blunt about how far ahead you need to start — usually further than people expect.
Honeymoon & Leisure Specialist
Builds the honeymoon and beach programmes, and knows which resorts genuinely deliver a private villa experience and which just advertise one. She inspects properties in person before we sell them.
Pilgrimage Programme Lead
Has led more than forty Kailash Mansarovar groups and handles the Chinese group-visa process end to end. Dawa plans pilgrimage days around darshan windows and the pace older travellers can actually sustain.
Restricted Areas & Tibet
Handles restricted-area permits and the trans-Himalayan routes north of the main range. Tashi is the reason our Upper Mustang departures run in monsoon, when almost every other trail in Nepal is a bad idea.
Credentials
