Let's keep the mountains beautiful!
Alpine Exploratory is keen to promote considerate and common-sense responsible travel policies in order that we can all enjoy stunning mountain landscapes in future.
Please have a look at our Responsible Tourism Policy below and feel free to suggest how we might improve.
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![]() False Aster, Tour du Mont Blanc |
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Alpine Exploratory groups follow the guidelines below. Clients on self-guided holidays are also encouraged to follow them. We split the guidelines into on-the-ground, environmental and social impacts.
Impacts on the ground
Tread lightly
Take only photos, leave only footprints... a well-known saying and one that encourages us to make those footprints as harmless as possible! If faced with a tempting short-cut on a path, sticking to the main path will keep the scene neater and less trampled. Faced with the all too common wide muddy patch on a path, it's worth getting muddy boots by walking through the centre instead of helping to further widen the path by walking to the side. But please don't wade into any bogs!
Small groups
A small group imposes less wear and tear on the path. This is not just true for the group as a whole, but also true per person. This is because fragile ground is eroded more slowly by a given number of people if they walk on it in smaller groups spaced out over time than if they walk on it all at once giving it no time to recover. As well as being less harmful to paths, small groups mean more attention and a bigger role for each person, a better sense of team spirit with less faff, and greater safety in the unlikely event of an accident.
Rubbish
When packing for your holiday, try to reduce the amount of packaging that you bring into the mountains. Disposal is often harder in rural areas, so the problem is avoided by not bringing extraneous material to start with. Once in the mountains, be prepared to carry your rubbish for a day or two until you reach a good bin. It's better for us to avoid using bins that we find on the hills or trails, because such bins might not be emptied often and also the bins discourage other people from packing out their rubbish.
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Posters from a campaign by the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park
Flowers - photos only!
June and July in the Alps can be a very colourful time. The flowers are newly out and you can find yourself walking past meadows that are almost every colour of the rainbow except green! Higher up the mountains and at other times of year, flowers are less common due to the harsher environment. At all times, we should avoid picking flowers for any reason but be content with taking photos. Many upland species exist with very meagre natural resources and are vulnerable to any human interference, whether this is being trampled, being picked or having food and rubbish left in their environment.
Don't disturb animals
Animals and birds are vulnerable to humans, just as flowers are. This is especially true in winter when animals are often short of food. Being startled by humans uses precious energy, so we should avoid going too close.
Wider environmental impacts
Travel to the trek
All Alpine Exploratory holidays can be reached by public surface transport (trains) from the UK, in some cases with a bus ride or short pick-up to finish. Your holiday notes include information on how to reach your holiday by train as well as by air.
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![]() Train near Leysin, Swiss Alps |
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Local transport
All Alpine Exploratory holidays are designed to work perfectly using only the local transport, so there is no need for a hire car (except in the case of our French Alps Multi-Activity holiday). In many mountain areas, local bus and train lines are surprisingly useful. On self-guided holidays your holiday notes show you how to use local transport to reach the walks described in your routecards. Of course, you are free to take your own car, or hire one, if you prefer.
Baggage transfer
Our trekking holidays do not include baggage transfer as standard. (Baggage transfer is also called a sherpa service in some areas.) If you would like to have your bag transferred between each night's accommodation, we will be happy to arrange this for you for a supplement where this is possible. But it is interesting to consider the environmental aspect of baggage transfer. A typical mountain trek involves staging posts linked by rural roads, so a minibus driving between each point might cover several hundred miles during a holiday, especially if it is moving baggage elsewhere at the same time. By carrying your spare set of clothes, shampoo and other items it's possible you could save some pollution. As well as this benefit, avoiding baggage transfer allows us to keep our prices down and, we think, makes for satisfying self-reliant trekking holidays.
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