Adventure Alternative

All About Adventure Alternative

Company background

Adventure Alternative began in 1991 as a small expedition company which Gavin Bate started during his years of travelling and mountaineering. Most of the trips reflected his favourite places where he had not only been himself many times but where he had also created many friendships.

In 2001 Adventure Alternative became a Limited Company. The Company was able to expand quite rapidly and there has been a steady increase in both client numbers, trip diversity and the degree of comprehensive back-up in each of the main countries where the company offered trips.

Over time Gavin also started up and assisted several other companies in Kenya, Tanzania, Russia and Nepal which became satellite offices to Adventure Alternative. Providing financial resources and advice on management style and principles enabled Gavin to ensure no outsourcing or middle-men, plus full employment in the host countries and an executive decision on issues like local salaries, sustainability and environmental concerns.

This long term business model and strategy has given Adventure Alternative an advantage in terms of staff loyalty, proper credibility and client satisfaction.


In Northern Ireland the staff manage all the trip preparation and correspondence. Chris, Andy and Helena work predominantly from home but also regularly travel to the destinations where we operate. They are also Trustees of the Moving Mountains Charity which benefits directly from Adventure Alternative.

In all our country operations we use an extremely strong, tried and tested network of people who have all been trained by Gavin and employed by Adventure Alternative for up to eight years. It is this strength of teamwork and skills which llends all our trips the safety, quality and professionalism that has become our hallmark.

Staff ratio is high. For climbing expeditions we operate on a ratio of one guide per three or four clients. On Kenyan expeditions every team of 25 will have with it a team of up to eight leaders. We always have a qualified medical staff on board – either a doctor or a casualty staff nurse. All the staff speak perfect English and all of them have considerable experience of both the country they are operating in and also leadership of teams of people.

Tourism Concern

Adventure Alternative is a member of Tourism Concern and employs local people fairly with proper wages, allowances and insurances. All of our porters are properly equipped and prepared and they are all acclimatised to high altitude if necessary. This has been an over-riding concern of Gavin's business model since the beginning, and has enabled all the employees in our host countries to benefit with the growth of the company.

Tour Operator

Adventure Alternative adheres to the legal requirements for a tour operator under the European Directive pertaining to such companies. We are not an ATOL member and for most of our trips we ask that clients purchase their own flight tickets with a registered ticketing agent. According to the European Directive we are required to provide all information about accommodation, food and activities for all holidays in our promotional literature and exactly what the trip fee covers. This we do in every case.

Company insurance is through Cork Bays and Fisher based in London; the policy is a combined tour operators, public liability and empoyers insurance package common to tour operators. Company bankers are Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland where they have been clients for 12 years. The Company currently has no liens or debts and operates a working account and a client account which complies with the requirements of the European Directive governing registered tour operators.

Risk Assessment

We have a risk assessment plan in place for medical emergencies, repatriations, natural or manmade disasters, and full back-up on mountains for rescue services, communications and assistance. This is especially true on mountains where we take young people, and we have in all cases at least ten years of knowledge and experience to fall back on.

The main tenet of our risk assessment is prevention through preparation. We engage in a proper training and briefing programme prior to all expeditions and during the expedition. All clients are provided with considerable information on issues such as altitude sickness and how to avoid it. We work very hard to ensure that clients learn as much as experience, and that policy has served us well.

Adventure Alternative currently has a 100% safety track record, with no rescues or emergencies or repatriations in over 80 expeditions worldwide, with an 85% success rate on Kilimanjaro and Elbrus.
Our percentage of repeat business is currently 60% and many clients use the expeditions to progress up the ladder of experience.

Gap Year

It was only after eight years of considerable experience in East Africa and Nepal, countless expeditions and travelling in each country, that Gavin decided he had sufficient resources to successfully and professionally manage extended trips for Gap Year students or people on career breaks. This came predominantly from his experiences in the aid industry and the lessons learnt from running urban and rural development projects. Gavin started the charity Moving Mountains and built a business model whereby the running costs of the charity would be met by the company.

Gap Year projects are chosen carefully and with considerable thought to the relevancy and sustainability of the project we are promoting, and our ability to justify each project as having the correct approach towards 'aid'. Every project is funded both by the charity and the company, and Gavin personally involves himself with the logistics and the implementation. Only then do we involve Gap placements.

Fundamentally we do not leave people on their own; members will find themselves part of a wide 'family' that represents a network built up over twenty years.

Our testimonials from previous Gap Year students have been praising and ecstatic, stating most commonly how impressed they were with the organisation, the contact, and the quality of the placement. They also commented very highly on the staff, their commitment and standard, and on the fact that their trip was ‘much more than a placement, it became a way of life’.

Moving Mountains

Gavin has been organising charitable work in Kenya and Nepal for most of his adult life, building clinics and schools and sponsoring street kids. This became formalised into a charity called Moving Mountains in 2002 which currently has six Trustees. He also started an NGO in Kenya, also called Moving Mountains, which is registered in Kenya and is run by three Trustees.

Most of the expeditions in both Kenya and Nepal in some way support or work parallel to the work of the charity. This was a strategic decision by Gavin to use the business to some good in the countries he was operating in. Gap Year students work in the institutions like schools and clinics which are supported by the charity, thus benefiting all. It is a very strong and successful partnership. Gavin uses his personal expeditions to Everest and the like to promote the charity and raise funds.

The Company funds the overheads of the charity. All the running costs of Moving Mountains, both in UK and in Kenya, are given as a donation by Adventure Alternative. All the Charity Trustees are Company expedition leaders in their own right with considerable experience of the beneficiaries and we find this is a successful way of monitoring the projects and the sponsored children.

Statistics

Adventure Alternative has run annual youth expeditions to Kenya (Africamp) for the past ten years, averaging 90 people each year. All of these have been successful and 80% of the staff remain the same to this day.

Annual expeditions to Kilimanjaro and Elbrus in Russia have been guided 60% of the time by Gavin Bate personally and have all been successful. Gavin has personally summitted Mount Kilimanjaro 40 times by the end of 2007.

Expeditions to Nepal have been equally as successful with all peaks being climbed unless due to bad weather, and all clients returning safely and successfully.

With an almost 100% success record on all our climbing expeditions or treks and such a high rate of repeat business we feel very strongly that with the degree of personal service offered, the preparation and work that goes into the logistics of each and every trip, and the projects we run in conjunction with Moving Mountains, Adventure Alternative offers a trip that does not fall into the trap of being a commercial conveyor belt.