The Mountain Company Traveller Reviews

irst days extremley hot, beatiful weather

Excellent trek with a grat leader

I did a beautiful trek in the Annapurna foothills using the wonderful comfort lodges with ensuite showers. Afterwards flew onto Bhutan with highlights walking up to Tiger's Nest monastery and the black necked cranes in Gangtey.

Highly recommended, they were knowledgeable and helpful with pre trip and in country support.

This was a challenging trek with lots of ups and downs and a few long days. However, it is worth the physical challenge. Got to meet local villagers and learned about their way of life. The colour and stratification of the mountains and rock formation in the Mustang region are just amazing and very unique.

The Mountain Company (TMC) is a first-class tour operator. This is my second trek with them. There are three main factors that are important to me when I am selecting a trekking tour operator and they are: 1) safety, 2) environmentally friendly, and 3) ethical treatment of trekking crew. TMC ensures safety of its clients by having a guide at the front and one bringing up the rear. This is important to me as I am slow on descend. During the many descends, a crew member was always there to lend a hand and I never felt pressured to keep up with others. TMC participates in a project called PROTECT … People/ Resources/ Outreach/ Tourism/Environment/ Conservation/ Tomorrow. This project promotes sustainable tourism and help clean up the garbage found on trails in the Himalaya and Karakoram mountains. TMC encourages its crew and clients to pick up garbage during the trek. We did and felt great to be able to help. Though what we did maybe insignificant, but every little bit helps. I believe in the long run that this will help bring awareness and change the behaviour of those using the trails. I am very pleased that TMC takes on this project. Ethical treatment of the crew involves TMC enforcing weight limit of how much the crew carries. As well, the English guides on the treks are monitoring the well-being of the crew. I witnessed this first-hand on the Naar to Upper Mustang trek. Our English guide, Ade Summers, changed the itinerary to allow time for the crew to rest and hired horses when down on lower elevation to help out. A young crew member was not feeling well, he ensured the young man rested and provided the necessary medical treatment. My entire experience from start to finish have been a positive one. Roland Hunter, owner of TMC, was very helpful and responsive. He provided all the necessary information and answers all inquiries on a timely manner. He is hands-on managing the treks and ensures all the details are looked after. He is also very proactive in accepting feedbacks at the end of the treks from his guides and clients, and make the necessary changes if required.

We waited for this trip for so long and thought at some point that our expectations have gone too high but that was not the case. It exceeded all our hopes!

The Mountain Company run by lovely Roland is the best tour operator we have come across. Everything was so smoothly organized and we could not have asked for anything else.

This autumn I was finally able to join a group for the famous Lunana/Snowman trek in Bhutan. With a duration of 35-days and taking the long exit via Bumthang, the so-called Snowman II, it was by far the longest trek I've ever done. But the benefit of trekking for this long, is that it also puts you right in the middle of one of the most beautiful and remote places in the Himalayas. Not seeing a car, road, no wifi and other modern comforts for such an extended period was a much needed reset of myself. That said, lots of thought was put into the preparations for this trip and our staff did a magnificent job at keeping us feed and happy, so you could enjoy the scenery and walking and relax and recover at camp. Very quickly you got into a daily routine starting with bed-tea at 6am and no day in itself was particularly difficult with no altitudes above 5400M - but continuously trekking 6-8 hours everyday for almost a month is definitely a challenge. In many ways it was both the toughest and most beautiful trip I've ever done - Bhutan is truly a magical country with a fascinating culture, wonderful people and stunning nature. And definitely choose the Bumthang exit if you ever consider going - one of the highlights of my trip was the hot-springs at Duer Tsachu, which was just an amazing treat after all the mountain passes.

It was very obvious throughout, that the The Mountain Company have many years of experience in doing the challenging Snowman trek in Bhutan. Everything from the preparations that had been month underway, to the highly experienced crew selected for the trip. Roland Hunter himself provided what felt like 24/7 e-mail support in the month leading up to our departure, and Almas, our trekking leader, turned out to be a very charismatic leader with a combination of highly experienced leadership (this was his 10th snowman) and excellent social skills and humor. From the food to tents and itinerary, everything had been selected specifically to give the best experience and comfort - no cutting corners. Making such an unpredictable trip run like clockwork is a truly impressive feat.

The holiday itself is hard work, becasue of its nature, but the travel company tried really hard to schedule to trip to help our bodies to acclimatise to the altitude. The hotels on route were good given the environment.

The company director was very hands on, and really quick to respond to any question one might have, also very good at giving advise/suggestion to prepare for the trek.

The Lunana Snowman trek is a major logistical challenge for the leader to organise horses and food over such a long remote trek. On this trip everything worked really smoothly. TMC offer the Bumthang exit to the trek which is much less frequently visited and we had a real sense of being in a quite different world in Lunana. The scenery is fantastic, the walk is long but most days are quite straightforward. There is a bit of a sting in the tail going over the last few passes but by then we were all pretty fit and acclimatised.

Very efficient. Potential trekkers are screened for suitability so the risk of being held up by someone unfit is minimised. From personal experience I can confirm this is important!

Trek to Everest Base Camp. Amazing views of Everest region mountains throughout the trip

The mountain Company. Real personal attention from the owner himself. The way you’d always want to be treated for your holiday but rarely do

We took a six day trek to the Kathmandu Valley Rim, with two nights in Kathmandu either side of the trek for sightseeing. We had a very knowledgeable and experienced mountain guide with us every day of the trek, who looked after us really well and spoke very good English. The accommodation en route ranged from clean and comfortable - with en suite facilities, to absolute luxury! We were lucky enough to have clear views of the Himalayas on most days. The Mountain Company kindly arranged a scenic flight to see Everest as an extra - we will never forget this experience! This trip enabled us to get a real flavour of Nepal - it’s jaw-dropping scenery, amazing wildlife and wonderfully warm and friendly people!

The Mountain Company were happy to answer any questions we had and were always quick to respond when we contacted them. Every aspect of the trip was really well organised and we were made to feel that our enjoyment and safety were really important to them. We always felt really well looked after.

All along the trek, strong is the feeling of the immensity of the surrounding environment. The route is often on a rough terrain, with sections exposed to falling rocks, and includes steep slopes on a loose ground and crossing of streams. In general the weather was quite warm and it was never really cold even at night. The length of all the stages is comfortable and allows a good acclimatization, including also an appropriate rest day at Urdukas. The local staff supporting us was always very friendly and helpful. In general, I never perceived an hostile attitude from locals both in villages and towns. People I met was always kind, both while taking a walk in Skardu and during the visit to the Faisal Mosque and the Daman-e-Koh viewpoint in Islamabad. Sadly a significant amounts of rubbish is present along the route and especially at some camps. The overall management of the garbage has to be improved to reduce human impact.

I had complete pre-trip information regarding all the aspects of the travel, as well as all the necessary documental support to obtain entry visas. Along the trek the western leader has proved himself competent and effective in all circumstances. We also had prompt remote support from UK by phone, including meteo forecasts. All the staff of the local Agency gave us a very good support. Pakistani guides, cooks, their helpers and the porters made the trip successful.