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Trip Insurance
We highly advise the purchase of trip insurance and recommend TravelGuard Insurance. The most common reason guests need to make a claim is for missing the trip entirely due to forest fires and national forest and park closures. Insurance can also cover cancelled trips and expenses due to health concerns, unforeseen delays, reroutes, natural disasters, etc. Get a quote for Travel Guard here: Trip Insurance Quote.
SYMG Philosophy & Responsibility:
Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides is concerned with the beauty of the mountains, the strength of interpersonal relationships, the wilderness experience, and the challenges these provide. SYMG intends to make people more aware of the environment, while providing an opportunity to meet others with similar interests. The people who make up each trip are as important as the areas and the places we explore. The primary concern for all trips is that they are run safely and provide a positive outdoor experience.
SYMG places great emphasis on the well-being of our guests and our guiding protocol is above the industry standard. Providing a safe and rewarding experience is always our first priority. Experience, use of good judgment, leadership skills, and effective decision-making are all factored in to executing a safe trip. We regularly review and improve our risk-management policies and practices.
Deposits
All deposits are non-refundable and not available for credit or transfer.
Day Trips require full payment at the time of booking. Trips that cost under $1000.00 have a non-refundable deposit of $100 per group/guide scheduled, except Half Dome day trips where the non refundable deposits will be assessed on a per person basis within your reservation.
Multi-Day Open Sign-up Trips (as advertised on our website) have a non-refundable deposit per-person that is required upon booking to secure your spot on our trip roster. Non-refundable deposits are $200 per person for trips under $1600 and $400 per person for trips over $1600.
Private/Custom Trips have a 25% non-refundable deposit per person based on the total trip cost. A deposit is required to secure your trip on our calendar.
Final Payments & Cancellation Policy
Patagonia Departures and John Muir Trail Backpack Trips (23-day and 13-day): Final payments are due 120 days prior to departure. At that time, our office will reach out prior to processing your final payment to discuss your balance due. The cancellation policy is as follows:
Cancellations made 121 days or greater in advance are eligible for a full refund less the non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations made 120-91 days prior to the trip departure will incur a 25% fee, eligible for a 75% refund.
Cancellations made 90-61 days prior to the trip departure will incur a 50% fee, eligible for a 50% refund.
Cancellations made 60 days or less prior to the trip departure or after the trip has begun are not eligible for any refunds or credits.
Overnight Trips (except for JMT Backpack trips as listed above): Final payments are due 90 days prior to departure. At that time, our office will reach out prior to processing your final payment to discuss your owed balance. The cancellation policy is as follows:
Cancellations 61 days or greater in advance are eligible for a full refund less the non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations made 60-31 days prior to the trip departure will incur a 50% fee, eligible for a 50% refund.
Cancellations made 30 days or less prior to the trip departure or after the trip has begun are not eligible for any refunds or credits.
Day Trips (Hiking and Rock Climbing): Full payment is due upon registration. The cancellation policy is as follows:
Cancellations 8 days or greater in advance are eligible for a full refund less the non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations made 7 days or less prior to the trip departure or after the trip has begun are not eligible for any refunds or credits.
Private/Custom Trips Final payments are due 120 days prior to departure. At that time, our office will reach out prior to processing your final payment to discuss your owed balance. The cancellation policy is as follows:
Cancellations made 91 days or greater in advance are eligible for a full refund less the 25% non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations made 90-61 days prior to the trip departure will incur a 50% fee, eligible for a 50% refund.
Cancellations made 60 days or less prior to the trip departure or after the trip has begun are not eligible for any refunds or credits.
No refunds or credits will be made for any unused portions of a trip.
Weather, Trail Conditions, And Natural Disasters
There are no refunds or credits issued due to bad weather, inaccessible trails or routes, natural disasters (including forest fires), disease outbreaks, or for any other occurrences that the SYMG Directors deems your trip unsafe or unfit for travel.
We plan our trips and departure dates for times when conditions are most stable. We use long-range historical averages as well as over 30 years of personal experience running trips in the areas we operate. With that said, unsuitable and/or unsafe weather and trail conditions can affect any trip, even at the most stable times of the year. In some circumstances, we’ve had to re-route trips to different locations due to weather-related access (re: snow), blocked trails, damaged trails that affect pack stock access, snowed-in passes, impassable access roads, and forest fires to name a few.
We realize that many travelers have flights, lodging, and other details associated with their SYMG trip and so, in cases where trips cannot be executed as planned, we will design an alternative itinerary for you. In these cases, every reasonable effort will be made to keep intact the vital aspects of the trip itinerary you originally signed up for. Please keep in mind that your safety is our most important priority and we reserve the right to entirely re-route your trip itinerary to keep you safe. We stronglyrecommend Trip Cancellation Insurance if you are uncomfortable in any way with these policies.
Participation
SYMG works hard to ensure that all our travelers join the trip that best meets his or her own interests and abilities. Certain circumstances or specific trips may require that the participant obtain medical consent prior to departure as a condition of participation, at the discretion of the SYMG Directors.
Advanced Bookings
Many people prefer to plan and book their trips in advance of permitting & reservation dates. In these cases, specific trip itineraries are subject to change until SYMG can make the necessary bookings, which typically occurs between 1-year and 6-months prior to a trip date depending on which federal lands the trip starts on (i.e. Half Dome trips). If we do make a change, you will be notified as early as possible. The dates for these reservations all vary based upon the land entity(s) and/or vendor(s)associated with each trip. Please contact us for information specific to your trip if you are concerned about making other plans/reservations in association with your SYMG trip (such as flights, car rentals, etc).
Inadequate Enrollment
SYMG reserves the right to cancel any departure that has not met the minimum number of participants, which makes the trip economically infeasible to operate. We will notify you when final payments are due if the minimum has not yet been met and we can discuss alternative options then. However, last minute sign-ups are common to many of our departures and we will not fully cancel a trip outside of 30 days. If SYMG cancels a trip due to low participation, we will offer a full refund including the typically non-refundable deposit. If you prefer, we will also work with you to find an alternative solution that you are happy with (in the past, guests have opted to join a different trip in the same time frame, transferred their trip cost to a future trip, or even split the cost of a small group surcharge to make the original trip happen). SYMG assumes no responsibility for any expenses, including non-refundable expenses, incurred by participants due to cancellations or rerouting. We highly recommend Trip Insurance to protect you in these cases.
Photography
SYMG may take photographs and/or video of its trips. Trip participants grant SYMG permission to do so and for SYMG to use these photographs and/or videos for promotional or commercial use without payment of any compensation to participant.
Should you have any questions regarding our Terms and Conditions please call our office at 800-231-4575 or email us at info@symg.com
