SAFETY ON THE TRAIL
On the trail, we prioritize the safety and comfort of both guests and the Altitude team.
We take great pride in the precautions we take on treks through the Andes. We were the first company to require satellite phones on the trail, our team goes through annual safety and first aid training, and we are always aware of weather and trail conditions.
Explore our safety practices and standards to gain a better understanding of the proactive role we play in your trail experience with us!
Satellite Phones
One of the best parts of hiking through the Andes is the remoteness. Being on top of the mountain with just your fellow trekkers and team can help connect you to the world in a way you have never experienced before. It’s amazing to be disconnected from work and the daily grind you left back home.
However, with this isolation comes limited access to emergency resources. This is why Altitude Team has purchased satellite phones for all treks.
While our team is well-trained in many areas, having direct access to a doctor at all times greatly increases our ability to respond quickly to medical emergencies and get you off the mountain and to safety.
Our top priority is your safety, so we’ve invested in dependable satellite phones, which are one of the most important tools for any operator running treks through the Andes. This means that every guide on one of our treks will carry a fully charged satellite phone as well as radios. While these are intended to be used in an emergency, we allow our clients to use them at any time.
Annual Team Training
To work as a guide for Altitude Experience, you must have a degree in tourism from a university.
History, archeology, language, sociology, and other courses relevant to displaying our history are studied. The most important course for all guides, however, is safety.
Every year, during our annual training event in February, we hire a medical doctor to retrain and re-evaluate all guides.
Among the topics covered in training are how to deal with the following issues:
- Mountain accurate sickness
- What to do if you get altitude sickness and how to recognize it
- Pulmonary edema and brain edema
- Asthma
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR
- Animal Bites could be mosquitoes, spider, snakes or whatever bites you can get along the way
- Broken bone or toe, How to evacuate in case this would be the situation
- Cuts and wounds
- Burns
- Diarrhea, sometimes people’s stomach react to the food and water of Peru.
- Dizziness
- Fever in Adult and child, this may be the case when one gets infection
- Food poisoning
- Heart palpitations
- Hypothermia
- Insect bites and stings
- Sunburn
- Allergy
Medical First Aid and Trail Procedures
Tensiometer
We will monitor your heart rate and blood pressure while you are in the mountains.
Oximeter
Every Altitude Experience guide is equipped with an oximeter, which allows us to monitor your condition as you ascend in elevation: this tool tells us your oxygen percentage level. Everyone reacts differently to altitude, and our guides will keep you informed and let you know if you need to use the portable oxygen tank our guides carry with them.
Emergency Horse for alternative treks
Our alternative treks (such as the Salkantay Trek or the Lares Trek) will always have one emergency horse to use if you are out of breath or tired; we also provide helmets when riding. Please consult your tour guide.
First Aid & O2 Kit
Our guides will transport an oxygen tank as well as a first aid kit containing medicine and other equipment required for health care and safety on the trail. We also strongly advise our guests to bring their own medical kit, which should include any personal medications or preferences for their own care, such as vegan supplements.
Drinking water for our tourist and porters
It is always important to know what type of water is consumed on treks; it is glacier water collected from a river or stream. It is filtered, boiled, and cooled before being served as drinking water to everyone. These hikes do not necessitate the use of purification pills.