Quality of equipment – what does it mean?

Quality of equipment – what does it mean?

By Himalayan Ecotourism team

It is always very challenging to explain our future guests why we are more expensive compared to most of our local competitors.

Of course we can say that the tents we use, for instance, are imported from Europe by us and cost from 20,000 to 80,000 rupees each whereas the tents used by other companies cost 2 to 4,000 only.

But most importantly it is the care and maintenance of the equipment that really matters for your hygiene and comfort.

To illustrate what I mean I would like to tell you the story that happened during the last season.

I was in Gushaini for the briefing of a trek that was going the same morning. I was at the café of the brother of Sanju, one of our guide, waiting for my guests.
In the room where the Himalayan Ecotourism staff was making everything ready for the trek there was another team preparing another trek for another operator.

Suddenly I recognized one of the Himalayan Ecotourism sleeping bag in the hands of the guide of the other team. I immediately asked him from where he got it as we do not hand over our equipment to any other companies. Whatever the story he told me, it took almost one hour and the intervention of our Cooperative President to convince him to give us the sleeping bag back.

Back at our office I handed over the sleeping bag to Poonam who cares about all our equipment. Together we opened the sleeping bag and that was simply awful !

Just have a look at the photos below.

But the one I found was in this condition, just before going for a trek !

If you are looking for the cheapest trekking package you may have to sleep in this kind of equipment. This is without talking about the rest of the equipment, mainly tents and mattresses.

Similarly what to expect from these kind of companies in terms of safety in the mountains ? I don’t dare to think about it…

Dear guests, please understand that, at Himalayan Ecotourism, we not only give you the best equipment but after each trek everything comes back at our office where each item is double checked, cleaned and repacked completely fresh for the next group.

Quality has a cost. We know you understand that 🙂