When you go into the mountains for mountaineering or off-piste skiing, you enter a real environment where not everything can be fully controlled. Weather, snow and ice conditions, visibility, terrain, altitude and physical fatigue are constantly changing factors that directly affect the experience. For this reason, these activities always involve a degree of risk, which can also be significant.
To reduce hazards as much as possible, we work exclusively with certified professionals: UIAGM Alpine Guides for high-mountain and glacier activities, and Mountain Leaders (AMM) forHiking routes and trekking itineraries.
The guide accompanies you throughout the entire experience and manages decisions with method and care. They assess conditions, set an appropriate pace, ensure route safety and support you in the correct use of equipment. At the same time, they continuously observe how you are doing: how you breathe, how you move, and how you react to altitude and fatigue. These are ongoing evaluations, often unobtrusive but essential.
Before starting, clear and complete explanations are always provided regarding the activity, and throughout the day the situation is monitored continuously. If conditions change, or if continuing is no longer considered safe — due to weather, terrain or physical exhaustion — the guide may decide to modify the itinerary or stop the activity. This decision is taken to protect your safety and that of the group.
We also ask something simple but essential of you: to take part only if you are in good physical and psychological condition and adequately prepared for the level of the chosen activity. During the activity, it is essential to follow the guide’s instructions and comply with safety rules. This is how the experience remains enjoyable, serious and properly managed.
Group activities
During group activities, progress is always adjusted to the pace of the slowest participant. If someone feels unwell, is excessively fatigued or is no longer able to continue safely, the guide may decide to return or modify the programme. This is part of the group agreement: the group ascends together and returns together.
In the mountains, reaching the objective matters, but even more important are the decisions that allow you to reach it in the right way.
Information on risks, nature of mountain activities and acceptance of participation conditions
Definitions of hazard and risk
In this document, terms used in the singular shall also be understood to include the plural, and vice versa, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
Likewise, references to the client and the professional shall also apply to multiple clients or groups of participants, where applicable.
Hazard
A hazard is a factor linked to the natural mountain environment (by way of example: terrain, snow, ice, weather conditions, altitude) that has the potential to cause harm.
Risk
Risk is the probability that a hazard may result in harm in the presence of human activity.
Risk also depends on individual decisions and behaviour and, although it can be managed and reduced, it cannot be eliminated.
Nature of mountain activities
Recreational and sporting activities carried out in mountain environments are free activities and are inherently exposed to risks, as they take place in a natural context that is variable and not fully controllable.
The mountain professional accompanies, advises and operates to ensure proper risk management, but cannot eliminate hazards inherent to the mountain environment.
Role of the professional
In mountain activities, it is not possible to establish rigid procedures in advance that apply to every situation.
The professional applies principles of prudence, technical competence and experience, constantly adapting decisions to real conditions.
Their role is to manage and reduce risk as much as possible, with the awareness that zero risk does not exist.
Shared activity and acceptance of risk
The professional and the client undertake the activity together, like a rope team, aware that it involves an inevitable level of risk.
The professional does not aim to eliminate all risk, but to manage it through:
information, provided through clear explanations of the risks associated with the activity;
guidance, offering technical and behavioural instructions aimed at increasing safety margins and reducing exposure to risk.
Information and cooperation
The professional has a duty to provide information and to gather information, including from the client.
The client is required to provide full cooperation in order to allow proper risk assessment and management.
In particular:
the professional collects information regarding the physical condition, technical ability and experience of the client and/or group, assessing their suitability for the proposed activity;
the client undertakes to provide information that is accurate, complete and truthful.
Information on the proposed activity
Monterosa Booking and the appointed Alpine Guides / Mountain Leaders provide the client, through written programmes and verbal explanations, with information regarding:
route characteristics;
expected level of difficulty;
required equipment;
necessary precautions in terms of behaviour, preparation and use of equipment;
the presence of an unavoidable residual risk.
This information enables the client to give informed and conscious consent.
Client’s freedom of decision
The client declares that they have understood the information received and give their consent to the proposed activity, while remaining free to:
refuse the activity;
request changes to the programme, subject to the professional’s technical assessment.
Modifications or cancellation during the activity
After the activity has begun, the professional continues to monitor risk factors.
Should unforeseen conditions or elements arise, the professional may decide to modify or cancel the programme for safety reasons.
The client shall be informed and must accept the guide’s final and non-appealable decision.
Client’s obligations
The client undertakes to:
provide accurate and complete information regarding their physical condition, level of fitness and technical abilities;
strictly follow the professional’s instructions;
refrain from any personal initiatives that could endanger their own safety, that of other participants or that of the professional.
Declaration of acceptance
By paying the deposit or the full amount, the client declares that they:
have read, understood and fully accepted this information notice;
confirm the accuracy of the information provided regarding their physical condition and technical abilities;
undertake to follow the professional’s instructions and, in case of doubt, to seek clarification before acting.
This information notice forms an integral part of the conditions of participation in the activity.
In the case of participation by minors, acceptance of this information notice and of the participation conditions must be given by both parents or by the person(s) holding parental responsibility.
