Updated Mountain Madness Covid-19 Response

Dear Moun­tain Mad­ness Community,

Update/​May 22, 2010

With the sum­mer sea­son fast approach­ing we’re all won­der­ing if there’ll be climb­ing or trekking any­time soon. There is always some­thing to dream about to keep us moti­vat­ed and there is a pos­i­tive out­look for the sum­mer as areas con­tin­ue to open up every day! Here at Moun­tain Mad­ness head­quar­ters in Seat­tle we have been devel­op­ing a plan to help pro­tect both our guides and our guests. Cur­rent­ly, we are look­ing at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of open­ing pro­grams dur­ing the Wash­ing­ton State ​“Phase 3” peri­od, which could be as soon as the mid­dle of June. With a great snow­pack from the win­ter and a sea­son that can go well into Sep­tem­ber, there will be plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ty for all.

Moun­tain Mad­ness will oper­ate this sum­mer under the guide­lines out­lined by the CDC and the gov­ern­ment land man­agers. Once we get the green light we will offer our reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled pro­grams, with an addi­tion­al empha­sis on cus­tom guid­ing. Cus­tom trips enable you, your fam­i­ly, and close friends to main­tain ade­quate social dis­tanc­ing, allow­ing for less exposed to the poten­tial risks of Covid-19. Let’s focus on the moun­tains and all of the spec­tac­u­lar aspects that they bring to our lives and stay respon­si­ble to everyone’s health dur­ing this unusu­al time. 

Please call our office at 800−328−5925 or email Jaime at jaimep@​mountainmadness.​com

March 30, 2020

As we all con­front the chal­lenges of COVID-19 on a glob­al lev­el, every indi­vid­ual is expe­ri­enc­ing this pan­dem­ic dif­fer­ent­ly; some are not yet impact­ed, oth­ers have lost loved ones, health care work­ers are fac­ing per­haps the most sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges of their careers, and most of us will face some sort of eco­nom­ic hard­ship — for many these reper­cus­sions will have last­ing effects. To all, our thoughts go out to you dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time.

At Moun­tain Mad­ness our objec­tive is to do our part in pre­vent­ing the spread of the virus and pro­tect­ing the health of our clients, guides, office staff, and over­seas part­ners and their staff. As such, we are fol­low­ing the inter­na­tion­al, fed­er­al, and local gov­ern­men­tal guide­lines out­lined by the agen­cies list­ed below. Here is what we’re doing;

• Our office staff is work­ing from home
• We are sus­pend­ing both domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al trips until fur­ther notice based on strict agency guidelines 
• We are devel­op­ing new best prac­tices to ensure the health of our groups once our trips resume; this will include, but not lim­it­ed to, COVID-19 spe­cif­ic staff train­ing for food prepa­ra­tion, height­ened clean­ing of vehi­cles after trips, plac­ing addi­tion­al empha­sis on hand clean­ing with use of hand san­i­tiz­ers, etc.

Resources

• Cen­ters for Dis­ease Control
• World Health Organization
• Nation­al Park Service
• Nation­al For­est Service
• King Coun­ty Pub­lic Health Guidelines

Sum­mer Schedule

If you are already on a sched­uled trip for the sum­mer or are con­sid­er­ing join­ing us, we cur­rent­ly intend to con­tin­ue with our adven­tures until fur­ther notice. Giv­en the ever-chang­ing direc­tion and and increased data around the sit­u­a­tion, we will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the places we trav­el. It is with hope and opti­mism that we will move for­ward with our sum­mer plans, and pro­vide updates as needed. 

For all of our trips from May onward, we will deter­mine whether a trip will oper­ate as sched­uled based on the guide­lines out­lined by the orga­ni­za­tions above and in addi­tion for our inter­na­tion­al trips, assess the spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion for the coun­try to be vis­it­ed. Final deter­mi­na­tion will be made approx­i­mate­ly one month pri­or to sched­uled trip depar­ture. To accom­mo­date sched­ule changes, we have added more trip dates lat­er in the sea­son, which you can refer to on our website.

Post­poned Trips

You’ve already laid the ground­work by train­ing hard, allo­cat­ing nec­es­sary funds, putting aside work com­mit­ments, and men­tal­ly prepar­ing for the chal­lenges of your adven­ture. We share your dis­ap­point­ment but want to do what we can to keep your plans alive and well. For our cur­rent clients, if your sched­uled trip becomes dis­rupt­ed, we will work on resched­ul­ing or pro­vide full cred­it for a future trip. 

Trav­el Insurance

As with many in the trav­el indus­try, from air­lines to insur­ance com­pa­nies, flex­i­bil­i­ty has become a part of mak­ing this sec­tor of the econ­o­my stay intact. To that end, insur­ance car­ri­ers Glob­al Res­cue, Rip­cord, and oth­ers are extend­ing cov­er­age already pur­chased should your date change. In addi­tion, a ​“can­cel for any rea­son” add-on can be pur­chased, which will be use­ful for those con­sid­er­ing join­ing a trip but have not yet reg­is­tered with Moun­tain Madness. 

A Final Note

Many of us have been through var­i­ous, shared dif­fi­cult times in our lives — 9 11, the Great Reces­sion, and now the unprece­dent­ed dif­fi­cul­ties pre­sent­ed by the COVID-19 virus. We will get through this togeth­er and once again face the chal­lenges we all have a shared pas­sion for, climb­ing, trekking and ski­ing. If there is one thing gained from adven­ture trav­el, it’s over­com­ing adver­si­ty, and with that we will prevail.

We will con­tin­ue to explore the moun­tains we love, vis­it the peo­ple that often become our friends, and absorb the cul­ture of the world’s most amaz­ing places.

Until then we hope you, your fam­i­ly, and friends stay healthy.

All the best,

Mark Gun­log­son President/​Owner