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Being a beginner, conquering Mount Everest is no joke. Climbing any peak in the world, in fact, is equally challenging, especially if you are a beginner. In addition, beginners have to undergo tough physical training, seek expert guidance, and have essential gear know-how to ensure a successful mountaineering experience.
After Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first conquerors of Mount Everest 62 years ago, they have always inspired pioneer mountaineers. From rigorous training, experimenting with different routes, inventing efficient climbing techniques, and innovating gear that would make their climbing easy, mountaineers have never stepped back then.
Mountain climbing guide companies play a huge role in ensuring a seamless climbing experience for new and experienced mountaineers alike. From offering climbing tips, providing equipment checklists, or ascent and descent hacks, a climbing company can make a mountaineering experience mellow and memorable.
Meet Alpenglow
Founded in 2004 by an IFMGA certified guide Adrian Ballinger, Alpenglow Expeditions conducts expeditions in mountain ranges of the Himalayas, Lake Tahoe, and many more! The mountain expedition niches include mountaineering, skiing, ski mountaineering, and rock climbing. The organization leads around thirty international expeditions each year with a core value to provide tailor-made experiences to each client who keenly wants to explore mountains.
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Pick any Alpenglow expedition itinerary, and you will know why the organization has been successfully attracting more mountaineer clients year after year. Alpenglow is an AMGA accredited service provider that
- Conforms to industry standards
- Guarantees rigorous and uniform guide training
- Complies with state and federal law
- Promotes ethical business practices
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Alpenglow trusts only AMGA and/or IFMGA certified guides for international mountain expeditions. After years of rigorous training and passing a tough examination process, these guides then work in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand.
Besides this, the organization keeps its team size and client count small. This is because a group of small people can adjust to changing mountain conditions fast. Moreover, taking a few clients means the guide team can focus on each one of them personally and precisely.
Along with climbing the mountains, the expedition guides are also passionate about teaching different climbing techniques to their clients. After spending decades of mountaineering in different corners of the world, the Alpenglow guides have partnered with local resources to join hands together.
Therefore, with the expert guides of Alpenglow and knowledge of a local guide, the expedition experience becomes utmost safe, successful, and enjoyable.
Top Nepali climber Dawa Yangzum Sherpa believes that, for beginners, only the fixed ropes and ices axes don’t work on the Himalayas. They need experts to accompany them till the end. Alpenglow assists the mountaineers with full potential to make the mark on the summit.
Why Alpenglow is Worth Partnering With?
The starting cost for climbing Mount Everest is somewhere between $20,000 to $30,000. If we talk about some top-tier and best-known western operators like Adventure Consultants, Himex, IMG, and Alpine Ascents, they charge their clients $65,000 for the Everest expedition. On the contrary, two operators have a jaw-dropping price for their Everest expedition offering, and it includes Alpenglow, too. While Furtenbach Adventures charge $95,000 for a 31-days expedition, Alpenglow, on the other hand, charges $85,000 for a 35-days expedition.
After reading this, it promptly springs to your mind: Is it worth paying these many bucks? You might also wonder about such a massive disparity between the prices. Therefore, let’s get into why! Western operators like Alpenglow and their trainers bring certified Sherpas (the world-famous Nepali guides to their Everest expeditions). Moreover, there is an increase in staff costs because Alpenglow and similar operators don’t compromise oxygen-carrying equipment. Hence, from both viewpoints of safety and ethical concerns for clients, it is totally worth going for western operators like Alpenglow rather than cheap travel partners.
Alpenglow’s Own: The Rapid Ascent™ Program
Alpenglow developed Rapid Ascent™, a unique approach towards mountain climbing, in 2011. Rapid Ascent™ is a special training program that involves hypoxic training using innovative industry-leading logistics and small team size. The motto of this training is to make climbers efficient in increasing chances of success while staying away from home on international expeditions in minimal time.
Alpenglow uses a training device, i.e., a hypoxic tent used by elite athletes for their Rapid Ascent™ program. Team Alpenglow dispatches hypoxic tents, also called altitude tents, to each client eight weeks prior to the Everest departure.
These tents feature air thinning effects, similar to those on the mountains. The climber sleeps on his bed covered under this tent, stimulating oxygen downfall each week. The entire setup mimics the oxygen-deprived environment climbers will face on the mountains. This training is common for elite athletes’ endurance. The body that deprives oxygen adopts physiological changes.
Conclusion
No wonder professional expedition agencies like Alpenglow are nothing less than a blessing for adventurers. With full-fledged support in clearing the pre-mountaineering paperwork, certified guides accompanying the journey, and trainers to celebrate the conquering, conquering mountains has become easy and safe because of companies like Alpenglow. Alpenglow’s techniques have proved successful in nine out of ten situations, and mountain climbers thus have a perception towards them “If I’m in some trouble while mountaineering, they are the ones I trust to come to my rescue.”