You can book a trip via the booking form on our website, email or phone call. We need the following essential data postal address, email and the 5 digit number or title and dates of the chosen trip. Your phone number is optional but would be helpful in case of questions. If you are booking for additional participants, we need their respective postal addresses only if you want us to issue separate invoices.

We usually send a list to all participants containing the names, place of residence and phone numbers. If you don't want to be on that list, please indicate that when registering.

Upon your booking, we will contact you and send you a booking confirmation and eventually an invoice. The bill will be due only when all the details of the trip are settled, approximately 10 days before the trip starts.
You will also receive further information on your trip, a detailed itinerary and a kit list.

Please note that the booking confirmation is no guarantee that the trip will certainly take place! We will keep you updated on the status of your trip. In case we have to cancel the trip due to an insufficient number of participants you will of course be refunded all previously made payments.

The included services are listed in the description of the trip. As a guide agency our core services comprise guiding, coaching and mentoring by IFMGA certified Mountain- and Ski guides. Also included is the organization of the trip, like hotel bookings.
The number of guided days is indicated in the overview if a trip. We only count days that are actually spent climbing and skiing in the mountains. Travelling days without alpine activity are not considered.

Furthermore we are trying to give you an overview on the additional costs you have to expect. They are to be found in the tab Excluded of the respective trip.
We are working hard to give you the best mountain holidays we can! Thanks to our local knowledge and long term experience we will always be able to find an interesting teaching content, a dry piece of rock or a skiable slope.

Impairment of performance which can be attributed to force majeure such as weather, avalanche danger, non-operating lifts and other circumstances that are beyond our control, are principally at your expense. We will however try to find a fair solution. If you are unable to make use of booked services due to reasons that are beyond our control, we are not obliged to refund you. But again, we will do our best to find a solution both sides can be happy with.

We can claim with clear conscience that we have never let somebody down who has broken his pinky shortly before his long-desired dream climb.
We are always trying to make sure that not both, the longed for mountain holiday and the payment are lost. If somebody has to cancel a trip on short notice this will mostly be due to bad luck and not on purpose. We might be able to transfer your booking to a different date or offer a voucher for another trip in the future.

But please bear in mind: in case you have to cancel a group trip on short notice, it is unacceptable for neither the remaining participants nor us to balance the resulting additional costs. And it would not be fair either if the whole trip had to be cancelled.We therefore strongly recommend buying travel cancellation insurance.
They can be purchased online. If you wish to cancel you must notify us in writing, where upon the following charges may be applied from the date we receive your notice of cancellation

• More than 30 days before start date free of charge.
• From day 29 to day 15 before start date up to 50% of the full price.
• From day 14 to day 5 before start date 80% of the full price.
• Later then 5 days before, or after the start date 90 % of the full price.

Cancellation fees charged by huts or hotels that we have booked on behalf of the client will be fully charged in case of a cancellation by the client.

Please note that the described itineraries are propositions only. They may be subject to changes if necessary to ensure safety of the whole group. In particular the guide has total discretion to alter programs at any time, in the case of adverse weather, high avalanche danger, insufficient skills or fitness of group members, or other safety relevant factors that raise concern. Of course the guide will discuss changes to the itinerary with the group and make all related decisions as transparent as possible
Please refer to the FAQ for further information.

Moutaineering, climbing and skiing off secured ski areas are activities which carry an inherent risk.
Every individual should realize and accept this risk or refrain from mountain sports, even under guidance of a professional mountain guide.


Inherent Risk and Residual Risk in the Mountains
Any form of activity in alpine terrain bears an inherent risk to a certain extent. Objective dangers (deteriorating weather, avalanche danger, rockfall or crevasses), human factors (physical condition, health problems) and lack of information (uncertainty in the prediction of avalanche danger and weather forecast) can result in personal injury or even death. Risk awareness, thorough planning, knowledge, safety oriented and defensive behavior and a prudent guiding style help to reduce these risks. Yet there will always be a residual risk in the hills.

The Mountain Guide as a Risk - Manager
Your guide will strive to reduce mountain-inherent risks as far as possible, based on his long term experience and professional training. To achieve this he will apply the latest state of the art techniques and strategies. He will also raise awareness among clients for the remaining risk. Whilst our trips take place within the range of residual risk that is commonly accepted in mountain sports, risk acceptance on the personal level will always be a decision everybody has to take on his own.


Risk management as a Group Task
Climbing together in the mountains will automatically turn a group into a risk-sharing community. Undisputedly the mountain guide takes on the main responsibility and major parts of the risk management. He cannot delegate this task to others.

However, this does not preclude that every group member has to recognize his individual responsibility to prevent accidents. This also implies that clients must accept responsibility for certain residual risks, after being instructed by the guide.
Risk management is a common task that every individual of the group has to contribute to.

Prerequisites
The physical and technical prerequisites for each trip are specified in the description of the trip. Participants must scrutinize if they match all of these requirements. The guide is entitled to exclude participants who are not fulfilling the requirements at any time during the trip, to ensure the safety of the whole group. No refund can be made in this case. By booking a trip, participants confirm that there are no health issues which contradict the participation.

Booking
Valid bookings can be made via the website, in written or verbal form. Through his application the interested party offers to sign a travel contract with us. The booking will only be legally binding after we have sent our booking confirmation to the applicant. We reserve the right to cancel a course due to an insufficient number of participants on short notice.

Changes of Itinerary
Although we adhere to planned itineraries wherever possible, changes may occur to itineraries due to external factors beyond our control such as adverse weather, high avalanche danger, insufficient skills or fitness of group members, or other safety relevant factors that raise concern. In particular, the guide has total discretion to alter programs at any time in the interests of safety of the entire group.

Cancellation of the Participant
Registered participants may cancel their booking any time before the start date. Notification must be done in writing. Cancellations made more than 30 days before the start date are free of charge. To ensure that a course can still take place, the following charges may be applied from the date we receive your notice of cancellation

• From day 29 to day 15 before start date up to 50% of the full price.
• From day 14 to day 1 before start date up to 80% of the full price.
• Later then 5 days before, or after the start date up to 90% of full price.

Cancellation fees charged by huts or hotels that we have booked on behalf of the client will be fully charged in case of a cancellation by the client.
The right of revocation generally does not apply to contracts concluded online having travel, sports and recreational events as the contractual object.

Insurance
We advise to buy a travel cancellation insurance. In addition, we highly recommend a specialist mountaineering insurance covering helicopter rescue, medical treatment and repatriation (plus on and off-piste skiing for ski courses) as well as a personal liability insurance. Needless to say that our Guides hold a professional liability insurance.

Minimum Numbers
Our PICOS trips can take place as soon as the minimum number of participants is attained. We reserve the right to cancel a course due to insufficient numbers at the latest 14 days before the start date. In this case all previously made payments related to the cancelled trip will be refunded.

Privacy policy
All personal information transferred in the application are only used to process the booking and fulfill the contract. It can be necessary to pass personal information to third parties directly related to the accomplishment of a course, e.g. the names to make hotel reservations. Email and phone numbers of all participants will be stated on a list send along with the trip letter unless the participants contradiction.
If you sign in our Newsletter, you will irregularly receive emails with information on mountaineering topics and on our trips. These emails origin solely from Picos your address will not be passed to third parties. Please unsubscribe here or send us an informal mail.
Please see our data protection declaration for more details.

Course Transfers
For course transfers a fee of 15 € can be charged any time until 30 days prior to the start date. From day 29 before the trip start a transfer may be treated as cancellation, unless the participant can present a substitute person fulfilling all requirements.

Payment
Along with the booking confirmation, the contracting party receives an invoice for the agreed price. The full price of the course is due before the start date by bank transfer. For keeping the term of payment the day of the in-payment on the account of the organizer is crucial. Courses that are not paid may be treated by us as not booked.

Services included and Impairment of performance
The services specified in the trip description apply. Impairment of performance which can be attributed to force majeure such as weather, avalanche danger, non-operating lifts and other circumstances that are beyond our control, are principally at your expense. For services not used due to break-off or other compelling reasons the participant cannot claim to be refunded. Change of services after conclusion of the contract are eligible as long as they are not carried out against good faith and do not significantly modify the course of the trip.