Adventure Alternative

Adventure Alternative - Contact details:
Telephone: +44 (0) 28708 31258
Email: office@adventurealternative.com
Website: www.adventurealternative.com

Adventure Alternative began in 1991 as a small expedition company which Everest Mountaineer 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.

Over time Gavin also started up and assisted several other companies in Kenya, Tanzania, Russia and Nepal which are satellite offices to Adventure Alternative. This allows 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 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 lends 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.

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, Moving mountains and the company, and Gavin personally involves himself with the logistics and the implementation.

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.

Adventure Alternative offers a trip that does not fall into the trap of being a commercial conveyor belt.