Alpine mountaineering ascent to Regina Margherita Hut

Dear Exploreshare, I am unfortunate to inform you that I passed a very bad experience with the guide Paolo Molinari (PEAKSHUNTER), especially during the descent from Margherita Regina hut, the 23rd of September. The treatment that I experienced from the guide was gravely unprofessional. I was pushed to my limit by Paolo. During the last meters to the summit and especially on the descent, he constantly put pressure on me to go faster despite telling him that I prefer to conserve my energy so that I can last for the rest of the descent down. He ignored and pushed our group much faster than I was comfortable. On the descent down from Margherita Hut, we were nearly running down as he was leading, even with the knowledge that one of the people (me) was slower than the rest. If we had kept a more slower pace, even if we were a couple hours later, I believe I would have been able to kept walking down without becoming exhausted. The descent was an extremely horrible experience for me as I was pushed to my limits by Paolo. We were given almost no breaks for me to drink water or eat after the summit. At times I told him that I needed a pause to drink water as I was getting dehydrated and he refused and had us keep walking, leading me to become over-exhausted. I understand that he had other plans in his agenda after Margherita Regina or potentially the risk of bad weather (which I’m not even sure was true because all afternoon was good conditions as everyone else in the group can agree with and attested to me after finishing the descent to the parking) but it did not excuse his treatment and lack of empathy and common sense. I was becoming more and more over-exhausted that I reached my limit due to his impatient attitude. When I told him that I’m at my limit, he scolds me in front of everyone and saying how it’s my fault when he didn’t consider that maybe his pushing and rushing and putting pressure on me caused me to over-exhaust myself instead of going slower to avoid my over-exhausted state. I believe as a guide, one should be flexible to the group (as the conditions allow) and he was unnecessarily pushing when he did not need to. This led me to needing more pauses which clearly irritated and angered him. He ridiculed me in front of the group in English and Italian. He said “In all my 6 years as a guide, never had I had a client that had problems descending down in these conditions”, without even considering that I was EXHAUSTED and other problems of mentality due to his ridicule of me in front of the group, which did not encourage me to keep going nor put me in a mental space to believe that I can keep going. He called me a baby (in front of everyone in the group), when I tried to express my worry about being dehydrated and needing water. He did not have us pause to allow me to drink water when I really needed it, I was refused several times by him. I was very scared about fainting from exhaustion for how he was pushing me. I tried to tell him and he did want to not listen. I believe his cruel behavior was to punish me on purpose as he was obviously unhappy with the situation. At one point, the group had to pull me because I could no longer feel my legs and at one point, he took a photo of me, WITHOUT MY CONSENT, of me lying on the ground, ridiculing me, causing people in the group to laugh. I don’t know if this photo was used to communicate to Peakshunter or for his own personal purposes. I would like him to DELETE it if you can as it was taken of me when I was in a very vulnerable and exhausted state. Giorgia and the others in the group can attest to this. He was on the phone with other colleagues and Silvia (I think, as he omitted communicating to me his actions as he purposely only spoke in Italian to the group so I didn’t understand what was going on). Although I don’t speak fluent Italian, I heard him constantly say on the phone and to everyone in the group in front of me “la merda” several times about me, about this situation which doesn’t inspire confidence in the group but fear. I believe he told Silvia or someone on the phone that I had drunk alcohol and that I was under alcohol influence which was a reason why I wasn’t performing right which is NOT CORRECT as I was NOT drunk. Near the end of the descent towards Gnifetti Hut, he was on the phone again as I was constantly asking for pauses and was not happy with me. I do not understand the entire call in Italian, but I believe he said something along the lines of considering to ABANDON me “abandonnarli” on the mountain if I couldn’t continue or go faster. Again, he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. This inspired fear in me. I don’t know if he was truly considering it or saying it as a joke (I’m not sure to who), but that was absolutely NOT appropriate. I lost trust and confidence in him as a guide and I was outraged when I heard that, though I did not say anything in the moment. (Later when we arrived at Gnifetti Hut, I told him “Well, I guess you didn’t have to abandon me then”, referencing to his call earlier on the mountain, and he showed irritation to me briefly, proving and confirming that he knows what he said in front of me in Italian.) Especially for a guide to omit speaking in both languages, most of the time only speaking in Italian to the group and leaving me out of the discussion made me uncomfortable as I did not understand what are the risks ahead of us, what needs to be done and what is going on or what is going to happen. While passing by a crevasse on the way down, he asked me if I had seen this crevasse this morning. I said no. And he made a joke saying, “well that could have been you in there”, implying that I should have fallen and died in the crevasse. He told me this in English. I do not understand why he felt the need to say unnecessary things if this was a joke or he said this to me out of spite because he was clearly unhappy with me and the situation we were in. My experience with Paolo Molinari was inexcusable and completely horrendous. I was enraged at this treatment that I injured all afternoon. I have seen other trek and high-mountain guides react better to stress and vulnerable clients. I believe he acted on his own agenda and his own needs instead of considering the needs of the group and the weakest during this course (me). If he had listened to me and adapted to the group, I think this descent would have gone differently. I hope something will be done so he corrects his behavior so no other future client will experience such unprofessional, abusive, and ridiculing treatment. I would even recommend him being admitted into training again or temporarily losing his license as a mountain guide as this was absolutely UNACCEPTABLE behavior that no client or participant should experience. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, Samantha BAQUIRAN

Gigio was careful, sober and supportive, Silvia outstanding in cooperativeness, problem solving and persistance. However, a little less cost effective as compared to other teams.

During our mountain experience Elis was very confident, balanced emotionally, with a strong sense of responsibility for the security of his customers. He takes security very seriously and follows the minimum-risk scenario. Example: Elis insisted on compromising our planned Mont Blanc ascend and advised to consider more predictable mountain since the weather conditions made Italian way we were planning to take too dangerous for our level. He is also great in keeping very steady consistent pace as well as adapting to the group and infusing fun where it is safe to have it (e.g.: we tried crampon descend on a really steep sections and it was so much fun). We also got very well connected on a personal level. What can be improved: communication while planning all the details before the trip. We would appreciate to have more attention to details, more information about the trip and receiving it as early as possible instead of last minute. Since Mont Blanc did not happen this year, planning it with Elis for 2018. Thanks, a million Elis!

We didn´t reach the top because my daughter had big problems with her stomack, but Claudio took care after her and was very thoughtful. Thanks to him we reached at least Lysjoch.