RESERVATION POLICIES
TERMS + CONDITIONS
St. Elias Alpine Guides (SEAG) reserves the right to deny participation before or during a trip if we find a participant to be mentally or physically unprepared. During a trip, SEAG reserves the right to require a person to leave at his/her expense, if it is determined that he/she is unfit to continue. Furthermore, the participant reserves the right to leave a trip at any time, weather permitting, but will do so at his/her own expense – in these cases, there will be no refund of fees.
DAY TRIP POLICIES
Cancellation Policy
Your payment is fully refundable up to 48 hours prior to the start of the trip. If anything comes up prior to that time, call or email us to cancel your reservation for a full refund. Within 48 hours, there is no refund for cancellations. No-shows will be charged the full price. Our trips go out rain or shine! In the rare event that we have to cancel a trip due to dangerous conditions, you will be notified and receive a full refund.
Flight Interruptions
Weather may cause delays, reroutes, or unexpected overnight trips. Although extremely unlikely, there is a small chance unfavorable weather conditions may require you and your guide to stay overnight in the backcountry. On all of our Fly-In Trips, your guide will come prepared with an overnight bag that includes shelter, sleeping bags/pads, and food for your group. Your guide will also have a satellite phone in order to communicate with the flight service. Unexpected reroutes that result in a longer flight will incur additional fees. You will be responsible for covering the cost of these fees.
MULTI-DAY TRIP POLICIES
Booking
To secure your spot on the trip, we charge a deposit at the time of booking – $500 per person for just the trip or $1,000 per person for Trip Packages and Mountaineering/Ski expeditions. We collect the balance 30 days before the itinerary begins. Reservations made within 30 days of the trip starting are required to pay in full at the time of booking.
You can book online, give our office a call, or schedule a call with our Expedition Coordinator to talk through more details. At the time of booking you will have the option to upgrade to a Trip Package and reserve rental equipment. If you change your mind on either matter after booking, just let us know and we’ll take care of it for you.
If you upgrade to a Trip Package at the time of booking, our Reservation Specialist will email you within 48hrs to start planning your trip package. Depending on the time of year and complexity of your package, it can take 1-3 weeks to confirm all the details.
Group Trips
Some trips are offered on specific dates as Group Trips. These trips are for solo travelers, couples, or small groups to join and share costs with lower rates.
Backpacking, Basecamp Hiking, and Courses: We guarantee our Group Rates for all of our Group Backpacking, Basecamp Hiking Trips, and Courses regardless of the number of participants.
Multi-Day Rafting:
We guarantee the 3-6 Participant Rate for all of our Group Multi-Day Rafting Trips, regardless of the number of participants. If more than 6 participants join, we will lower the rates for the trip in accordance with each trip’s pricing structure. If this happens and you have already made your final payment, you will be refunded the difference.
Mountaineering and Ski Expeditions: We guarantee the Group Rates for our Group Expeditions, but need a minimum of 2 participants to guarantee the trip. If it’s 90 days before the expedition and no one else has signed up for the trip, we’ll let you know and follow up with some options.
Multi-Day Trip Cancellations
If you cancel before 60 days of the itinerary start date you are eligible to receive a 100% refund of your deposit.
If you cancel within 30-60 days of your itinerary start date you are not eligible to receive a refund of your deposit.
30 days before your itinerary start date, your balance payment will be due and this will be final. No refunds are offered for cancellations within 30 days of the itinerary start date.
Instead of getting any sort of refund, you can always choose to hold the entirety of your payments with us and apply them to a future trip. (If you choose this option, you forgo the option to receive a refund later.)
*Excludes Mountaineering and Ski Expeditions, but includes the Ski Mountaineering Course and Intro to Mountaineering Course
Mountaineering + Ski Expedition Cancellations*
If you cancel before 90 days of the itinerary start date you are eligible to receive a 100% refund of your deposit.
If you cancel within 30-90 days of your itinerary start date you are not eligible to receive a refund of your deposit.
30 days before your itinerary start date, your balance payment will be due and this will be final. No refunds are offered for cancellations within 30 days of the itinerary start date.
Instead of getting any sort of refund, you can always choose to hold the entirety of your payments with us and apply them to a future trip. (If you choose this option, you forgo the option to receive a refund later.)
*Excludes the Ski Mountaineering Course and Intro to Mountaineering Course
Trip Interruption + Itinerary Changes
The weather in Alaska is famously unpredictable, and occasionally, weather or other factors may cause delays, destination changes, or make completing a trip impossible. This is especially true for any trips that involve bush flights. St. Elias Alpine Guides (SEAG) reserves the right to change the itinerary of a trip and will always discuss this with you if it must happen. In these circumstances, there will be no refund of fees. SEAG will help rearrange any necessary logistics but is not responsible for any additional costs (e.g. airline flight changes, additional hotel nights, etc.) associated with trip delays or itinerary changes due to weather or other factors.
We highly encourage you to supplement this trip with some form of trip insurance. Ripcord and Travel Guard are popular options for backcountry adventures.
Sharing costs on a Private Trip
If you’d like to join a Group Trip but we’re not already offering the dates you want, you can start a new Private Trip that others can join. We recommend starting a new trip no later than 2-3 months before the start date. Contact us by phone or email if you’re interested.
- Check in with us to make sure our guides, our air taxi partners, and other logistics are available in the date range you’re looking at, or find out why we might not offer a particular trip at a particular time.
- Once you book the trip, you can let us know that you’d like to open it up for others to join. We will add it to our website and promote it to our customers to try to fill up your trip. As others join, we will lower the rate according to the pricing structure of any given trip.
- We will always do our best to fill your trip, but we cannot guarantee that anyone else will join your trip.
- You can try to find joiners of your own on our Trip Partner Finder Facebook Page – connect with adventures with similar interests and find partners whose travel dates align with yours!