We are sorry to read your feedback and that you feel let-down at all by the trip you have just completed with us. We organised it to run side-by-side with another expedition, as there was no other viable way of running the trip with just 3 of you on the climb. In reorganising it, our aim was simply to give you what you had booked – i.e. a chance to climb Island Peak, safely with a UK leader and without you having to pay more for it. Because of the pound’s sharp fall in value since June, as well, we had many unexpected costs to cope with this season, yet we avoided surcharging anyone by deft planning and the modest re-organisation of our Himalayan trips. However, we may not have explained this very well to you at the time. Nevertheless, the motive was simply to make ends meet, as much as we could, and nothing more. Although the reason might not have been fully explained, we did tell you before you went to Nepal that, after the mountain, you would walk out with a Sherpa and the UK leader would carry on with the other climbers. As your trek back to Lukla was lodge-based and you were no longer in campsites, you had no need for your own cook. Also, the walk-out was simply a reverse of the route you had followed walking to the mountain and being on the main Everest trail too, it is easily followed and straightforward. In case the need arose, we gave you our telephone numbers in the UK, that of our organiser in Kathmandu and that of the leader you left behind in base camp. He made sure all was well before you set off. Had things gone awry during the walk back down the valley, for whatever reason, you could have called any of us and we would have resolved the problem. I am sure that had you called and said that the Sherpa was not spending enough on food, for example, this would have been put right very easily. In the event, you only raised this as a complaint with our local organiser once you got back to Kathmandu and he reimbursed you straightaway. Of course, we would have preferred that that had not arisen so, additionally, he provided you with a sightseeing tour of Kathmandu, as a gesture of goodwill. When you left Nepal, he was under the impression that he had redeemed the situation, such as it was, and that all was well in the end. When you got home, however, you asked us for £500 (each person), saying we had not supplied a UK leader for the walk out, i.e. for 3 days of the published programme. But, as you knew about this before the trip, that it was a reasonable way of making the trip viable, that you did not call us to complain about the walk out at the time, when it was easy to do so, and that you were recompensed in Kathmandu anyway, I did not think a claim for £500 each was fair or proportionate. Moreover, having reviewed everything once more now, as your posting here has prompted me to do, I am still of that opinion. That is especially so as I believe the matter was appropriately and amicably resolved before you left Nepal.
