You can register via our booking form on the trip description page, by phone, by mail, in writing or in person. Maybe you can think of another way. You can find detailed information about the booking process in the infocenter.
The section registration/booking in the infocenter has detailed information on this.
We are planning our season 6 to 9 months in advance. Since we are trying to guide most our trips ourselves, we welcome you to book as early as possible to make sure that our guides are availabl, and we can keep a free slot for your bespoke trip.
For trips that are using hotels or very popular huts in the high season it is increasingly important to make reservations as early as possible. We don't want a trip to fail only because there is no space available at the hut or hotel.
For demanding bespoke trips, we are only able to offer alternate dates if you give us enough time in advance to factor in a second go in our guiding schedule.
On the other hand, it is always worth to call us in short notice for a particular objective. Although we are guiding full time, we might still have availabilities even in the high season.
If you are interested in a trip but are not sure if you can participate until shortly before, please contact us and tell us so. We do not nail anybody down and find a flexible solution. So everybody has some planning security.
The booking of all accommodation necessary to accomplish the trip itinerary is done by us.
Normally we arrange accommodation in double rooms in hotels. If you prefer a single room, or if you want to leave earlier or stay longer, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can arrange this for you.
Of course! Contact us, we will gladly issue a gift voucher for a certain trip or a particular amount.
Our trips generally start "on site". The journey to the meeting point has to be organized by yourself. But we will do our best to assist you.
If you travel by car, you will receive a list of participants for carpooling before the trip. Our clients come from very different regions. It is not unlikely that someone from your neck of the woods will be there. If you do not want to be mentioned on the list of participants for reasons of data protection, you can object to this when you register.
Even if we have to make extensive use of our cars because of tons of (rental) equipment that we bring along: we would like as many of our clients as possible to arrive by train. This makes sense and we support it.
Get in touch. We will discuss how to get there and see if we can pick you up at the station. In order to reduce your luggage we will gladly provide you with rental equipment.
As a small contribution, we cover a part of your railway costs and compensate for travel distances. More about this in the next answer.
Mountain sports is motor sports. Sadly. We cannot be proud of our mileage. But everyone has to decide for himself, where it is possible to make a contribution.
We encourage our clients to travel by public transport. If possible we will pick you up at the station and offer a ride. Our rental equipment can reduce your luggage considerably. Depending on the number of participants we cover up to 50% of the railway costs.
If you arrive by car, we compensate for the CO2 emissions of our and our clients' journey via climate protection projects. This is not perfect, but it is a start. There are no additional costs for you. You can look over our shoulder while we are doing this.
This depends only on whether the accommodation has capacity. Get in touch and we will be happy to ask or give you the contact details of the hotel. You can then settle the extra nights directly with the hotel.
Most of our trip packages do not include accommodation. Please also read the point additional costs.
If the overnight stay is not included in the price, we indicate the additional costs as precisely as possible. On average, a night in a dormitory with half board in mountain huts costs between 45 and 65 €. Note: on alpine club owned huts, members of Alpine Clubs with reciprocity receive a discount. So don't forget your club's membership card!
Often a tea for the trip is included in this price. Otherwise, for 1.5 liters of water you have to pay another 5 – 10 €. Especially if there is no running water, because everything has to be transported by helicopter.
Even if more and more huts offer card payment, one cannot rely on it yet. Better ask in advance if you don't want to take cash with you.
This question probably only arises if weight is a factor in a hut tour lasting several days. In huts, we usually have half board. Thus, breakfast and dinner are provided.
During the day, it has proved to be a good idea to have some light, high-energy snacks. Hardly anyone carries a heavy lunch with bacon and bread to the summit. Energy bars, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, or even a piece of cheese and crispbread make sense.
On mountaineering and ski touring trips we usually return to the hut in the early afternoon and can enjoy a hot meal, provided you are willing to spend the dough.
A few huts offer packed lunch for sale. But it is (understandably) not at all welcome to make a sandwich to take away from the breakfast table.
Concerning drinks, you should have at least 1.5L with you during the day. Thermos flasks are usually not necessary in summer. On high altitude huts water is almost always sold in 1.5L PET bottles. So you can simply take a bottle from one hut to the next and exchange it for a full one. In case you wondered how some mountain guides start a hut week with a minimal backpack: they simply starve during the day.
The five-course Paul Bocuse style menu usually doesn't work out. However, most huts are now prepared to serve vegetarian or even gluten-free meals.
Please let us know any dietary requirements with your registration. Most huts require special dietary requests to be made well in advance.
There are huts, where you will be crammed into a room with 30 bunks. Others offer 4-person rooms. In any case you should be prepared for limited space, a limited supply of oxygen at night and- most importantly- snoring fellow sleepers. So don't forget ear plugs!
Even though many huts have already changed from horse blankets to down duvets, the linen is not changed after every guest. Therefore, hut sleeping bags made of silk or cotton are obligatory. A heavy alternative is a duvet cover in which you can lie down. Some people claim that weight-conscious people in particular would do without this comfort and sleep in their clothes...
Slippers, or Swiss Alpine crocs, are available in almost all huts.
One more thing about hut etiquette: Technical material such as crampons, piolets etc. must not be taken into the room. There are baskets provided for this purpose. You should pack your rucksack the evening before. Because if you get up at 2am, others might want to sleep longer. You should leave the dormitory right away. There is nothing more annoying than those fellows who rustle plastic bags for hours in the morning.
Alpine clubs are no professional guide companies, but rather clubs for mountain sports that run trips and courses for their members on a honorary basis. According to membership figures, the German Alpine Club for example is one of the largest sports clubs in Germany and the same certainly applies to our neighboring countries. As a member, you benefit from discounted overnight stays in huts and an insurance package for alpine accidents.
In addition, alpine clubs take care of the hiking trail network, maintain huts and are involved in environmental protection. As in many areas, you don't have to agree with all the aims of the club. On the whole, however, membership is worthwhile for alpinists. All alpine clubs of the alpine countries offer a reciprocal right, so that the cheap hut overnight stays are also valid there.
Our group sizes vary between 1 and 7 clients per mountain guide, depending on the trip type. Our courses and ski tours/freeride events are held on average with 4-6 participants. For climbing and mountaineering trips and coaching events the number of participants is limited to 1-3 participants.
You can find the maximum group size in the trip description. More information is to be found in the infocenter.
We try to give as much information as possible on additional costs to expect. Those who want to have an afternoon lunch and a beer for dinner in a hut besides the half board should definitely plan for plus 70 € or more per day. In any case, you should not yet rely on the possibility to pay by card in the hut!
You can find more information in the infocenter. Each of our trips links to a kit list. You will receive this list after booking, or you can print it out directly. In this list you can also see the gear we can provide.
If you have any questions, please contact us as soon as possible. Also, if you want to buy something, we will be happy to advise you.
You can find information about this in the infocenter. In our equipment lists, the items we rent are marked. The most important thing is that we do not rent ski- or mountain boots.
As a rule, we provide you with rental equipment free of charge. For advanced trips we assume that you have your own equipment and want to use it. If something is missing, we will help you if possible.
If you would like to rent gear for private tours, you can refer to our rental price list.
Kit that you have reserved for a booked trip is usually brought by the mountain guide directly to the meeting point. In exceptional cases we try to give the equipment to the participants in advance.
If you want to rent equipment for a private tour, you can pick it up at our office in Freiburg.
Please also read gear/kitlists. Normal wear and tear is covered by us. But if you break our rental skis during a cliff drop, you have to provide a replacement.
If we're walking with crampons, you'll at least need boots that will hold them. For glacier hikes and beginners' courses, a B1 boot may be sufficient. A C1 type crampon with a strap binding can be attached to its sole. Light trekking boots are not suitable.
As soon as it gets more technical and steeper, the boot must at least be B2. Boots for ice climbing are generally B3 classified.
If in doubt, please ask if your boot "harmonizes" with our rental crampons. Maybe you know the model, or you can find it on the Internet and send a link. Or you can take a picture of the boot and email it to us.
Not too big! There's something to be said for always filling up a pack, no matter how big... Here are a few guidelines: 30L should be enough for one-day treks. Also, on a week of high altitude mountaineering from hut to hut you will get everything stowed in a 35L pack. At most!
Especially on ski trips you should not overfill the pack, otherwise the descent is no fun anymore. For off-piste skiing a small 20L rucksack is sufficient. But even if we stay close to the lifts we need a small pack because shovel and probe must always be on you.
Please let us know in advance if you want to rent skis from us - as our ski trips without skis are simply less fun.
To make sure nothing can go wrong, we need your height and the length of the sole of your ski boots. This is usually stamped on the outer edge of the sole in millimetres. But you can also measure the outer length yourself.
With the bindings of our rental skis you can also ski and ascend with normal alpine ski boots. On your first ski tour this might be ok. But for advanced events you should use a ski touring boot.
If you have boots with pin inserts, you can try out a light tech binding.
We as a guide company and our mountain guides hold a liability insurance for all courses offered. By the way, the prerequisite for this is to complete training within the international mountain guides scheme.
If a company without this qualification offers alpine trips commercially, it can be worthwhile to ask which insurance they have. (This does not apply to trips of the Alpine Clubs that take place on a honorary basis)
Only individuals who have completed the three years of vocational training through the IFMGA guides scheme may bear this title. It is the only training worldwide that qualifies to lead individuals or groups in alpine terrain. See also the following question.
Please see the websites of the national VDBS and international IFMGA guides associations for more details.
All Picos Guides are certified and licensed by the national (VDBS) and international (IFMGA) Guides associations. Becoming a mountain guide involves a long, costly and demanding training process. To be submitted to the guides training scheme already requires a long record of personal experience and way above average all round alpine skills. Earning the full accreditation as an IFMGA Mountain Guide means a level of expertise in the realm of alpinism that compares to the highest level of education in any other profession in craftsmanship or the service sector.
As for the electrical wiring for your expensive newly build home you might want to hire a professional rather than an amateur when it comes to safety and maximum experience on your mountain holidays.
Of course, this depends largely on the chosen trip. In case of high altitude routes, thus with peaks above approximately 3500 meters, it is surely a good idea to arrive two days before in order to acclimatize. Thereby, you can also get familiar with the mountain boots that were in the cupboard for maybe a year.
On demanding routes above 4000 metres, prior acclimatization is often indispensable. For our alpine courses including a summit ascent the course itinerary allows for sufficient acclimatization time.
Skiing deep powder snow requires a certain amount of fitness and strength in the legs. Ski gymnastics at the beginning of winter, weight training and running make perfect sense.
It is important that you read the prerequisites in the tour description carefully, question them self-critically and in case of doubt just ask us.
On demanding routes above 4000 meters, prior acclimatization is often indispensable. Whilst the guide might have been at altitude the weeks before you meet him, you might have not. So it is clever to spend some time high up before you start your climb.
A word on acclimatization: please make sure that you don't waste yourself during the acclimatization phase. Light exercise above 3000 meter e.g. some easy hikes are sufficient for the Alps. Spending a night between 2500 and 3000 metre is even more efficient. Don't try to do interval training at altitude! The acclimatization period has to take place shortly before the actual altitude exposure, with no bigger breaks in between. You can assume that the adaptation only lasts as long as you have spent at altitude. One night at Aiguille du Midi and then a week at Côte d'Azur doesn't help much. Get in touch in case of questions!
Anytime to us of course :-) We try to provide all necessary information in the tour descriptions. Please read them carefully first and ask if something is unclear.
Normally we respond to emails within one or two days. Please understand if it takes longer, we might be out in the hills without reception.
If you're asking yourself that question, that's half the battle! Without exception, our trips are more fun when you are up to the demands. If this is not the case, we may have to cancel the tour for safety reasons.
You can get an idea of the overall difficulties in two places: On one hand, the mountain pictograms give you a first overview, whether it is a trip for beginners or advanced climbers or skiers.
In addition, you will find detailed specifications of the prerequisites in the trip description. You can find additional information in the infocenter. Please ask us in case of doubt!
That would be nice of course! Unfortunately, as described in the infocenter, we cannot guarantee that the trip will take place if the number of participants is too low. If we have to cancel a trip due to insufficient numbers, you will of course be refunded the full price.
It usually works like this: If it becomes apparent that the number of participants could be too small, we will inform you. Then we can discuss how we would like to proceed: either keep the trip open until a certain date (unfortunately, many people register at very short notice!), or cancel early so that you can look for alternatives.
Sometimes we run a trip even if the specified minimum number of participants is not reached. At least the costs of the mountain guide and his expenses must be covered. If we have to change the itinerary in any way, we will discuss that with the clients.
Of course! Contact us, we will gladly issue a gift voucher for a certain trip or a particular amount.
This depends only on whether the accommodation has capacity. Get in touch and we will be happy to ask or give you the contact details of the hotel. You can then settle the extra nights directly with the hotel.
If you book a bespoke trip or a course with one or two clients via our Guideservice, we charge a daily rate ranging from 430 to 500 €. This rate includes the fee of the mountain guide and his additional costs for travel, accommodation, transport etc.
Exceptions to this general rule are made in the following cases:
For trips with hotel accommodation e.g. in Switzerland and/or high lift costs, where the additional costs can unfortunately make up a considerable part of the price.
For difficult, long and serious routes and summits, in summer and winter, where the rates of the local guide associations may be applied.
We are happy to keep our expenses for lodging as low as possible by using basic accommodation or staying on campsites.
If we do not attempt the summit due to weather and conditions, we won't charge the expensive summit rate. Please read more in the infocenter.
There are two types of insurance that we strongly recommend:
First, an international health insurance or accident insurance, which also covers rescue costs in case of an alpine accident. An easy way to be covered here is to become a member of an alpine club. In addition, you can also benefit from discounted overnight stays in huts.
The second is a travel cancellation insurance. If you can't start a journey at short notice, it's annoying. We certainly don't want to annoy you even more, but sometimes we have to charge costs in this case, so that the other participants don't lose out. You can find more information about this in the infocenter
We as a guide company and our mountain guides have a liability insurance for all courses offered. By the way, the prerequisite for this is to complete training within the IFMGA mountain guides scheme.
If a company without this qualification offers alpine trips commercially, it can be worthwhile to ask which insurance they have. (This does not apply to trips of the Alpine Clubs that take place on a honorary basis)
We cannot cancel, reschedule or postpone every trip if the weather is not perfect. It's actually not necessary. You will be amazed what you can do with a little knowledge of the area and imagination, even in sub optimal conditions. Especially for courses, a rainy day can be very intense and instructive.
This is somewhat different on trips aiming at a certain summit or route. When a life's dream is at stake, it is not so easy to find an adequate substitute. For this we agree on a fair solution in advance. Be it in the form of an alternative date, a voucher or an adjusted daily rate.
We could say: then let's learn to ski! Of course, we also like champagne powder best. But with a good sniffing nose you can also find great snow, even if it hasn't dumped heavily the day before - and we can claim to have a good instinct. In addition, with the right tips, one or another downhill run in "neige carton" or "breaking powder" can be really fun.
If the possibilities are really limited due to high avalanche danger or bad visibility, we will most likely find some cool forest terrain or low angled slopes to play in. Or we jump in the car and drive to a different resort. We'd rather drive an hour or two and make sure that you can do what you came for: to ski good snow! Please also read the point Included Services in our infocenter.