Who takes you up there

The organisations behind it

These five are partners in the programme. That is the whole claim. Nothing here says any of them endorses, sponsors or approves it. Two of them are charities, which makes that a distinction worth keeping straight.

• 

  Guiding

  Elite Exped

  A commercial high-altitude expedition operator. Guided expeditions on 8,000-metre peaks, on the Seven Summits, and on the 6,000ers and 7,000ers underneath them.

  What they cover

  The mountain itself. Route, rope, fixed lines, weather calls, and the decision to turn you around.

  To be suppliedwhich of the twelve steps Elite Exped guides directly, and which are handed to somebody else. Ratio of guides to client per step.

  • —Years operatingNot supplied yet.
  • —Expeditions ledNot supplied yet.
  • —Summits above 8,000 mNot supplied yet.
  • —Clients turned back short of a summitNot supplied yet.

  To be suppliedElite Exped's own numbers for the four headings above, supplied in writing. Bare numbers, no adjectives. We publish none of them until they arrive.

• 

  Community & welfare

  Nimsdai Foundation

  The foundation attached to Nirmal Purja MBE.

  To be suppliedone factual sentence on what the Foundation funds, taken from the Foundation's own published wording rather than written by us.

  What they cover

  The welfare side of the programme. The people who carry loads for a living get paid whether or not you stand on top of anything.

  To be suppliedWhere the Sherpa welfare and community line in the price actually goes, and whether the Nimsdai Foundation receives it or is a partner in some other sense. The amount is itemised on the offer page and deliberately not restated here — a number typed twice is a number that drifts.

  • —FoundedNot supplied yet.
  • —Programmes fundedNot supplied yet.
  • —People reachedNot supplied yet.

  To be suppliedthe Foundation's own figures, or delete this strip for this entry. Do not estimate a charity's numbers.

• 

  Logistics

  Travelmakers

  A travel and logistics operator.

  To be suppliedone factual sentence on what Travelmakers does — where it is based, how long it has operated, what it moves.

  What they cover

  Movement between the twelve. Flights, permits, vehicles, beds, and the scheduling that sits behind six climbing seasons.

  To be suppliedTravelmakers' actual scope — which permits, transfers and bookings they hold, and which the expedition operator holds.

  • —Years operatingNot supplied yet.
  • —Expeditions servicedNot supplied yet.
  • —Permits handledNot supplied yet.

  To be suppliedTravelmakers' own numbers for the headings above, in writing.

• 

  Community & welfare

  Himalayan Trust

  The charity Sir Edmund Hillary founded in 1960, working in the Everest region with the communities the route runs through — schools, health facilities, and the people who staff them.

  What they cover

  The part of this that has nothing to do with you, and outlasts you being here.

  To be suppliedWhat the relationship with the Himalayan Trust actually is — a donation, a named fund, something else — and the exact wording the Trust is willing to have on a commercial page. It is a registered charity, and its name is not used here until it says how.

  • —FoundedNot supplied yet.
  • —RegionNot supplied yet.
  • —Schools and health posts supportedNot supplied yet.

  To be suppliedonly the Trust's own published figures, cleared by the Trust. Do not estimate.

• 

  Support

  Red Bull

  A drinks company with a media arm that has spent a long time filming people doing difficult things at altitude.

  What they cover

  Support.

  To be suppliedwhat Red Bull actually provides here — media, product, funding, or nothing — and precisely what may be said about it in public. If the answer is nothing, this entry comes off the page.

• Not named yet

  Medical

  The medical provider

  An expedition doctor on every step and an addiction-medicine consultant on call are in the price. Who they are is not on this page, because nobody has told us.

  To be suppliedname the medical provider. None of the five partners above is one. Needed: the clinic or provider carrying expedition medicine, the addiction-medicine consultant arrangement, who employs them, and what may be published about either. Until this is filled in, the page says so out loud.

Safety and medical

This is the shape of the policy: what gets decided, when, and by whom. Where an operator's real figure belongs there is a labelled gap, because a protocol written for a website is worth nothing at seven thousand metres.

1. 01

   Oxygen

   There is a written oxygen policy, and it is written before the season starts, at sea level, by people who are not tired. It sets the height at which supplemental oxygen goes on, the rate it runs at awake and asleep, how many bottles are carried for you and how many for each guide, and what the reserve is never touched for.

   One morning above eight thousand metres you will feel strong and want to renegotiate it. That conversation already happened, months earlier, with a version of you who was thinking clearly and sitting down. He wins.

   To be suppliedthe operator's actual oxygen policy — the altitude supplemental oxygen starts, flow rates awake and asleep, bottles per client and per guide, the size of the untouchable reserve, and who carries it. Numbers come from the operator in writing. We publish no litre rate we have not been handed.

2. 02

   Getting you down

   Every step has an evacuation plan and it exists before you walk in, not after something has gone wrong. Where the nearest doctor is. What aircraft can reach you and to what height. What weather grounds it. How long the walk down takes when nothing flies.

   Above a certain altitude nothing flies, and your money does not change that. What gets you down is people, on foot, in the dark, and how many of them there are was settled when the season was planned. That is the whole reason the plan is written early.

   To be suppliedrescue capability, step by step — helicopter provider and its ceiling, the insurance and repatriation cover you are required to hold before step one, the nearest medical facility to each step, and whatever response commitment the operator is willing to state. Publish no evacuation time we cannot stand behind.

3. 03

   Who can overrule you

   Somebody can end your day, your step or your season, and it is not you.

   On the hill the guide's call is final — on weather, on the clock, on the state you are in. He does not need your agreement and he is not required to give you a reason you find satisfying at the time. You sign that before step one, when it is abstract and costs you nothing. It stops being abstract somewhere around step nine.

   You have not been told no by somebody you were paying in about ten years. That is not a side effect of this programme. It is the programme.

   To be suppliedThe turnaround-authority clause exactly as drafted by the operator and read by a lawyer — who holds the authority on each step, what triggers it, whether it can be escalated, and what happens to the money when it is used.

4. 04

   Before step one

   There is a medical before anything else happens. Not a form your own physician signs on the way past — an examination, run by somebody instructed by the operator, who has no reason to pass you and does not care who you are.

   What is tested, and what result stops you, is fixed in advance and written down. That is the only version of a medical that survives contact with a man who has been told yes since he was nineteen.

   To be suppliedthe screening protocol — who performs it, what is tested, what result stops you outright, what result stops you temporarily, and how recent the clearance must be at each step. From the medical provider, not from us.

5. 05

   Detox comes first, and not here

   You must be past supervised detox before step one. Past it. Not starting it, not most of the way through it, not doing it quietly on the flight over.

   This is not treatment and it does not stand in for treatment. Coming off alcohol or benzodiazepines without medical supervision can kill you, and nothing on any of these twelve mountains is worth that. If that sentence is the one that disqualifies you, it has done its job.

   To be suppliedWhat evidence of completed supervised detox is required, who verifies it, how long ago it must have been, and the exact wording of the medical disclaimer. Waiting on the medical provider and a legal review.

6. 06

   If you use on the mountain

   It is the question everybody has in the first call and almost nobody asks, so it is answered here instead.

   There is a written protocol. It is agreed with you at sea level, while you are well — who is told, who decides whether the season ends, what the medical response is, and what it costs you. It is not reopened at altitude and it does not bend for what you have already paid.

   This runs until you summit. That is long enough that pretending this could not happen would be a lie, and this is the one page on the site that does not get to lie to you.

   To be suppliedThe relapse protocol — who is informed, who decides whether the step or the season ends, what the medical response is, and what the financial consequence is. Waiting on the medical provider and a legal review.

This is not treatment. Detox must be supervised by a doctor.

Who gets taken

• One client at a time. Not one a season. One, for the whole business, until you summit.
• Medically cleared by somebody who examined you, not by somebody who signs what you put in front of him.
• Past supervised detox before step one.
• Willing to be told no by a guide earning less in a season than you spend on dinner, and to be wrong about it.

The rest of the terms, and what $100,000 a month actually pays for line by line, are on the offer page.