Terms & conditions

Philosophy & Responsibility:

VS Outdoor Co. Adventure Guides is concerned with the beauty of the mountains, the strength of interpersonal relationships, the wilderness experience, and the challenges these provide. VS Outdoor Co. intends to make people more aware of the environment, while providing an opportunity to meet others with similar interests. The people who make up each trip are as important as the areas and the places we explore. The primary concern for all trips is that they are run safely and provide a positive outdoor experience.The quality of your guide is what makes a good trip great, and in many ways distinguishes one company from another. We will be there to facilitate a seamless and memorable trip for you. Providing a safe and rewarding experience is always our first priority. Experience, use of good judgment, leadership skills, and effective decision-making are all factored in to executing a safe trip.

Final Payments & Cancellation Policy

Final payments are due 15 days prior to departure. Cancellations made 15 days or more prior to trip departure receive a full refund, excluding the non-refundable deposit. Cancellations made 10-14 days prior to trip departure will receive 50% refund, excluding the non-refundable deposit. There are no refunds for cancellations made within a week prior to trip departure (0-7 days) or after the trip has begun. No refunds will be made for any unused portions of a trip.

Private/Custom Trips: Final payments are due 30 days prior to departure. Cancellations made 15-29 days to trip departure receive a 50% refund, excluding the non-refundable deposit. There are no refunds for cancellations made 0-14 days prior to trip departure or after the trip has begun. No refunds will be made for any unused portions of a trip.

Weather, Trail Conditions, And Natural Disasters

There are no refunds due to bad weather, inaccessible trails or routes, natural disasters (including forest fires), disease outbreaks, or for any other occurrences that the VS Outdoor Co. Manager deems your trip unsafe or unfit for travel. We plan our trips and departure dates for times when conditions are most stable. We use long-range historical averages as well as over 4 years of personal experience running trips in the areas we operate. With that said, unsuitable and/or unsafe weather and trail conditions can affect any trip, even at the most stable times of the year. Although not very common, we have had to re-route trips to different locations due to weather-related access (re: snow), blocked trails, damaged trails that affect packstock access, snowed-in passes, impassable access roads, and forest fires to name a few.We realize that many travelers have flights, lodging, and other details associated with their VS Outdoor Co. trip and so, in cases where trips cannot be executed as planned, we will design an alternative itinerary for you. In these cases every reasonable effort will be made to keep intact the vital aspects of the trip itinerary you originally signed up for. Please keep in mind that your safety is our most important priority and we reserve the right to entirely re-route your trip itinerary to keep you safe.

Evacuation / Departure From A Trip

An evacuation is defined as anytime you need to come off the trip before the scheduled exit. In these cases, your guide(s) and our office experts will devise the best plan for a safe and efficient extraction from the backcountry, all dependent on your location, specific situation, and available resources. You can also count on VS Outdoors Co. to arrange any logistics that you may need in the front country once you exit, including shuttling, lodging, medical care, etc. There may be costs associated with your evacuation and these costs will be your responsibility. We will of course do our very best to minimize these costs while still ensuring a safe and efficient process for you as well as for the rest of the group remaining on the trail. Shuttling, lodging, heli/medi-vac transports, staffing resources, stock-support, meals, shipping, and other needs may all be factors depending on what needs to be done to get you out efficiently and safely. Fortunately, Travel Guard trip insurance covers many of these costs, which we highly recommend.

Trip Insurance

We highly advise purchasing trip insurance and recommend TravelGuard Insurance. The most common reason guests need to make a claim is for missing the trip entirely due to injury/sickness prior to the trip (either to yourself or loved-one). Insurance can also cover cancelled trips and expenses due to unforeseen delays, reroutes, natural disasters, etc.

Participation

VS Outdoor Co. works hard to ensure that all of our travelers join the trip that best meets their own interests and abilities. Certain circumstances or specific trips may require that the participant obtain medical consent prior to departure as a condition of participation, at the discretion of the VS Outdoors Co. Managers.

Should you have any questions regarding our Terms and Conditions please call our office at 559-567-7242 or email us at valerie@vsoutdoors.com