Your Booking

By making a booking with Mountain Craft, you agree to these terms and to any booking policy shown for the particular activity or event.

Where an activity has a specific booking or cancellation policy, that policy forms part of your booking. Where the Premium Event Booking & Cancellation Policy applies, it takes precedence over the general cancellation provisions below.

Full payment is required at the time of booking unless the activity is offered with a deposit and balance arrangement.

A booking reserves a specific place or places on a particular activity. Many Mountain Craft activities operate with deliberately small group sizes and limited capacity.

Activity Descriptions and Your Responsibilities

Before booking, you must read the activity description, including the expected duration, distance, ascent, terrain, technical difficulty, fitness requirements, experience requirements and required equipment.

These requirements are there to help participants make an informed assessment of whether an activity is suitable.

You are responsible for providing accurate information when booking and on any participation or consent form.

You must tell Mountain Craft before the activity about any relevant medical condition, injury, medication, access requirement or other factor that could reasonably affect your ability to participate safely or may require an adjustment to the activity.

Previous completion of similar activities does not guarantee suitability for a particular Mountain Craft activity.

Participant Suitability and Guide Authority

Mountain activities take place in environments where decisions sometimes need to be made quickly and where suitability cannot always be established from questionnaires, emails or previous experience alone.

The guide will continually assess the group, conditions and individual participants.

Mountain Craft may refuse, restrict or stop a participant's involvement before or during an activity where, in the guide's reasonable professional judgement, their fitness, experience, movement, confidence, health, injury, equipment, behaviour or ability to follow reasonable instructions makes the planned activity unsuitable or unsafe for them or for the wider group.

This assessment may only become possible once an activity has started and the guide has observed the participant moving on relevant terrain.

A decision to change or stop somebody's participation for genuine safety or suitability reasons forms part of the professional guiding service.

Where a participant has accurately provided the information requested by Mountain Craft, has met the stated requirements and Mountain Craft decides before the activity begins that it cannot appropriately provide the booked activity, Mountain Craft will normally offer a transfer or refund.

Where participation is refused because a participant has not met clearly stated requirements, arrives without required equipment, or has failed to provide relevant information requested before the activity, a refund is not guaranteed.

Withdrawal or Early Termination After an Activity Has Started

Once an activity has started, no particular duration, summit, route or objective is guaranteed.

If a participant chooses to withdraw, or the guide decides that the participant should stop for safety or suitability reasons, the booking will not normally be refunded or reduced on an hourly or pro-rata basis merely because the participant completed only part of the planned day.

Examples may include inadequate fitness or experience, difficulty moving safely on the terrain, inability to tolerate exposure, illness, injury, fatigue, unsuitable equipment, inability to follow reasonable safety instructions, or a relevant condition becoming apparent during the activity.

This does not affect any statutory right to a remedy where Mountain Craft has failed to provide the service with reasonable care and skill.

Group Activities

Open-group activities are delivered for the group as a whole and are not private guiding sessions.

Participants must recognise that the guide has responsibilities to every member of the group. Individual needs, pace, ability, illness, injury or other circumstances may require the itinerary to change.

The guide may alter the route, pace, objective or group plan where reasonably necessary for safety or effective group management.

Weather, Conditions and Route Changes

Mountain activities are not normally cancelled simply because the weather is poor.

Weather, visibility, wind, ground conditions, snow, ice, flooding, access restrictions and other mountain factors may require the route, start time, itinerary, technical content or objective to change.

The advertised route or summit is an intended objective rather than a guarantee of completion.

Where appropriate, Mountain Craft may provide an alternative mountain activity that is suitable for the conditions and group.

If Mountain Craft cancels an activity before it begins and no appropriate alternative is offered, you will be offered a transfer or a full refund of the amount covered by that cancellation.

If an activity has already started and is later shortened, changed or stopped because of changing weather, mountain conditions, an emergency or other genuine safety consideration, this will not normally be treated as a cancellation.

Standard Client Cancellation

More than 12 weeks before the activity: Full refund, minus a £10 administration charge.

8 to 12 weeks before the activity: 50% refund of the total booking cost.

Less than 8 weeks before the activity: Normally non-refundable.

Where Mountain Craft is able to resell a cancelled place, that will be taken into account. Mountain Craft will not seek to retain more than its reasonable loss resulting from the cancellation, including administration, irrecoverable costs and any difference between the original price and the price at which the place is resold.

We may allow you to move a booking to another date or transfer your place to another suitable participant, but this is at Mountain Craft's discretion and is not guaranteed.

Any replacement participant must meet the requirements of the activity and complete the required booking information.

Premium Events

Some Mountain Craft events use a £100 deposit and separate Premium Event Booking & Cancellation Policy.

For these events, the specific Premium Event policy displayed when booking applies instead of the Standard Client Cancellation schedule above.

Cooling-Off Period

Where a contract is for a leisure activity taking place on a specific date or during a specific period, the usual statutory 14-day cancellation right for distance contracts does not normally apply.

Any cancellation rights offered by Mountain Craft for those bookings are therefore governed by the applicable booking policy and these terms, subject always to your statutory consumer rights.

Under 18s

Mountain Craft's standard open-group activities are primarily designed for adults.

Anyone under 18 must be discussed with Mountain Craft before booking and must normally attend with a parent or legal guardian who is also participating.

Acceptance of an under-18 participant is subject to the nature of the activity, the young person's experience and suitability, the proposed group and any applicable licensing requirements. Mountain Craft may recommend a private activity instead.

Participation Forms

Where requested, the Mountain Craft participation or consent form must be completed accurately before the activity begins.

Completion of the form does not guarantee that a participant will be suitable for every activity. It provides information to assist the guide's planning and professional judgement.

Risk and Responsibility

Hill walking, scrambling, climbing and mountaineering take place in environments where there is an inherent risk of personal injury or death.

Mountain Craft follows the principles of the BMC Participation Statement, which asks participants to understand and accept the inherent risks of these activities and take responsibility for their own actions and involvement. The BMC's current statement now expressly includes climbing, hill walking and mountaineering.

Acceptance of inherent mountain risk does not remove Mountain Craft's legal duty to provide its services with reasonable care and skill.

Insurance and Personal Costs

Mountain Craft holds appropriate public liability insurance.

We strongly recommend that participants consider suitable personal accident and travel insurance, particularly for higher-value events, travel, accommodation and activities involving significant mountain objectives.

Unless required by law, Mountain Craft is not responsible for consequential travel, accommodation, parking, transport or other personal costs arising from a cancellation, route change, weather event or participant withdrawal.