Acknowledgement and Assumption of Risk, Release and Indemnification

In con­sid­er­a­tion of the ser­vices pro­vid­ed by Moun­tain Mad­ness, Inc., its share­hold­ers, direc­tors, offi­cers, employ­ees, agents, vol­un­teers, par­tic­i­pants and all oth­er per­sons or enti­ties asso­ci­at­ed with or act­ing in any capac­i­ty on its behalf (col­lec­tive­ly referred to as ​“MMI”), I here­by agree to release, indem­ni­fy and dis­charge MMI, on behalf of myself, my heirs, assigns, per­son­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive and estate and for all mem­bers of my fam­i­ly, includ­ing minor chil­dren, as follows:

1. I acknowl­edge that trekking, avalanche edu­ca­tion cours­es, canyoneer­ing, skiing/​snowboarding, rock climb­ing, moun­taineer­ing, kayak­ing and oth­er water sports entail known and unan­tic­i­pat­ed risks that could result in phys­i­cal or emo­tion­al trau­ma, injury, paral­y­sis, death or dam­age to myself, prop­er­ty and/​or third-par­ties. Although MMI has tak­en rea­son­able steps to pro­vide me with appro­pri­ate equip­ment and skilled guides, I under­stand that such risks sim­ply can­not be elim­i­nat­ed with­out jeop­ar­diz­ing the essen­tial qual­i­ties of the activ­i­ty. The risks include, among oth­er things: the haz­ards of trav­el­ing in uneven moun­tain­ous ter­rain and slips and falls; being struck by rock fall, ice­fall or oth­er objects dis­lodged or thrown from above; the use of climb­ing ropes and equip­ment; the forces of nature, includ­ing light­ning, weath­er changes and avalanche; the risk of falling off the rock, moun­tain or into a crevasse; the risk of expo­sure to insect bites; the risk of alti­tude and cold includ­ing hypother­mia, frost­bite, acute moun­tain sick­ness, cere­bral and pul­monary ede­ma, con­trac­tion of or expo­sure to air­borne ill­ness or infec­tious dis­ease and organ­ic pathogens/​specific con­ta­gious virus­es (ex: COVID-19). and risk of drown­ing; my own phys­i­cal con­di­tion; and the phys­i­cal exer­tion asso­ci­at­ed with this activ­i­ty. Addi­tion­al dan­gers may include the haz­ards of trav­el­ing in the Third World; acci­dent or ill­ness in remote places with­out access to emer­gency med­ical facil­i­ties; war, ter­ror­ism and oth­er forces. I under­stand that this descrip­tion of these risks is not com­plete and that oth­er unan­tic­i­pat­ed inher­ent risks may occur. Fur­ther­more, MMI has a dif­fi­cult job to per­form. It seeks safe­ty but is not infal­li­ble. It might be unaware of my or anoth­er participant’s fit­ness or abil­i­ties. It might mis­judge the weath­er or oth­er envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions. It may give incom­plete warn­ings or instruc­tions and equip­ment being used might mal­func­tion. I acknowl­edge that engag­ing in this activ­i­ty may require a degree of skill and knowl­edge dif­fer­ent than oth­er activ­i­ties and that I have respon­si­bil­i­ties as a par­tic­i­pant. I acknowl­edge that MMI has been avail­able to more ful­ly explain to me the nature and phys­i­cal demands of this activ­i­ty and the risks, haz­ards, and dan­gers asso­ci­at­ed with this activity.
2. I express­ly agree and promise to accept and assume all of the risks exist­ing in this activ­i­ty. My par­tic­i­pa­tion in the activ­i­ty is pure­ly vol­un­tary, and I elect to par­tic­i­pate in spite of the risks. I fur­ther acknowl­edge the guide deci­sions are final and if he/​she con­sid­ers a par­tic­i­pant behav­ior dan­ger­ous to them­selves or the group, the said par­tic­i­pant will be asked to leave the group with no refunds. Such behav­ior could include, but not lim­it­ed to, men­tal ill­ness, phys­i­cal state, health-relat­ed ill­ness, and any oth­er fac­tor hav­ing detri­men­tal impacts on the safe­ty, health, or well-being of par­tic­i­pant or group. Social­ly unac­cept­able behav­ior, includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, sex­u­al harass­ment and dis­crim­i­na­tion towards oth­er mem­bers of the group and in-coun­try nation­als, can also lead to ter­mi­na­tion of par­tic­i­pants trip and no refunds.
3. I here­by vol­un­tar­i­ly release, for­ev­er dis­charge and agree to indem­ni­fy and hold harm­less MMI from any and all claims, demands or caus­es of action which are in any way con­nect­ed with my par­tic­i­pa­tion in this activ­i­ty or my use of MMI’s equip­ment or facil­i­ties includ­ing any such claims which allege neg­li­gent acts or omis­sions of MMI.
4. Should MMI or any­one act­ing on their behalf be required to incur attorney’s fees and costs to enforce this Agree­ment, I agree to indem­ni­fy and hold them harm­less for all such fees and costs.
5. I cer­ti­fy that I have ade­quate insur­ance to cov­er any injury or dam­age I may cause or suf­fer while par­tic­i­pat­ing, or else I agree to bear the costs of such injury or dam­age myself. I fur­ther cer­ti­fy that I am will­ing to assume the risk of any med­ical or phys­i­cal con­di­tion I may have.
6. I acknowl­edge I have read and under­stand all infor­ma­tion­al doc­u­ments relat­ed to this trip pro­vid­ed by MMI. Fur­ther I acknowl­edge to bring all equip­ment as out­lined in list provided. 
7. I under­stand that MMI may con­tract with inde­pen­dent con­trac­tors to pro­vide ser­vices on the trip or activ­i­ty, includ­ing trans­porta­tion, trav­el ser­vices and guide ser­vices. I under­stand that MMI has no con­trol over and accepts no respon­si­bil­i­ty for the actions of any inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor involved in pro­vid­ing ser­vices on the trip/​activity. The laws of the State of Wash­ing­ton will gov­ern this Agree­ment and I con­sent to the juris­dic­tion and venue of the fed­er­al and state courts sit­ting in Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton. If there is a dis­pute between the par­ties relat­ing to this doc­u­ment, the par­ty sub­stan­tial­ly pre­vail­ing will be enti­tled to recov­er all costs and expens­es of any sub­se­quent pro­ceed­ings (includ­ing tri­al, appel­late, and arbi­tra­tion pro­ceed­ings), includ­ing the attor­ney fees incurred there­in. By sub­mit­ting this doc­u­ment, I acknowl­edge that if any­one is hurt or prop­er­ty dam­aged dur­ing my par­tic­i­pa­tion in this activ­i­ty, I may be found by a court of law to have waived my right to main­tain a law­suit against MMI on the basis of any claim from which I have released them here­in. I have had suf­fi­cient oppor­tu­ni­ty to read this entire doc­u­ment. If any part of this Agree­ment is deemed unen­force­able, all the parts shall be giv­en full affect to the extent pos­si­ble. I have read and under­stand it, and I agree to be bound by its terms.
8. Mod­el Release: I autho­rize and release to MMI the use of my image in any pho­to­graph or video record­ing for any pur­pose of MMI.