I signed up for a climb with International Mountain Guides and paid the deposit to reserve my spot. At some point, a payment reminder was sent--but it landed in my spam folder, so I never saw it. Next thing I know, I was charged in full for the trip, months before the actual climb. When I realized I could no longer attend and reached out, I was met with a rigid, impersonal response pointing to a no-refunds policy buried in the fine print. I tried calling and followed up respectfully via email, hoping for some basic flexibility or even a conversation. No luck. It's frustrating to feel like a company that's built around guiding people through challenges shows zero willingness to meet customers halfway when plans change unexpectedly. Just a heads-up: if you're considering IMG, make absolutely sure you're all-in and able to go--because once they charge you, that money is gone. And if their "reminder" ends up in your spam folder like mine did, don't expect them to care. read more

Here is my experience with #InternationalMountainGuides (#IMG): I am disappointed by the experience and the guides, Grace Akline and Lael Butler, I had on Mt. Baker in 2024. I participated in an all-women's program on August 6th - 9th and did not summit with the rest of the group on August 7th. This trip was starkly inferior to my attempt on Mt. Rainier in 2023, where the ENTIRE group was treated with respect, informed throughout the program (even though we were not going to be able to summit due to warm weather), and motivated with positivity at every step. Based on this recent trip, I will not be recommending your services or using them again. Firstly, the guides decided to summit a day earlier than programmed, preventing a day of rest and decent sleep prior to our ascent. We also had a very late start at 5:00 am on summit day. I saw many groups already on the mountain at 2:45 am when I woke, expecting to get going, but did not get my wake-up call until 3:40 am. These circumstances caused our summit to be rushed and at a pace that was marginally faster than I was capable of doing. I trained for 9 months for this trip, and I am a firefighter who annually participates in the Columbia Tower Firefighter Stairclimb. This requires climbing 69 flights of stairs in 60 lbs. of bunker gear and breathing apparatus. I am strong, have great endurance, and can summit Mt. Baker. I am very capable of doing hard things. The pace that was set by the guides was based on their poor choices, and I would have completed the ascent had it been more reasonable. I was with one guide, Grace, and with every step she took, I had to rush. I could not perform the suggested rest step or scuff step techniques she taught us, and I said this to her repeatedly, with her only saying the same thing in response. I had to rush to the point of slipping due to not being able to set my feet firmly in the snow. I asked her many times to go at a pace I could do safely, and she replied each time that I had to keep pace with her. The other group was never more than 100 feet ahead of us, but they refused to slow down and blamed me for being behind schedule. The guide's behavior demonstrated no desire to get me to the summit from the beginning and did nothing but degrade my abilities by demanding that I go faster and singling me out "to be honest about how I was feeling." The treatment I received was nothing like my program on Mt. Rainier. I ended up pushing myself over and over but was so worn down by the guide's remarks toward me that I broke down emotionally. The guides made it obvious that they never believed in me, which was a significant blow to my confidence. Their comments to the group and directly to me made me feel inferior, criticized, and put down. It was obvious to me that they did not have the ability to understand or relate to me, their customer. The constant berating for going too slow was unbearable. Their choices to start a day early and a few hours too late, demanded that I push myself so hard at the beginning of the climb that I was forced to quit. Your guides, Grace and Lael, did not have people skills. I did not doubt their climbing skills, but their decision-making and customer service were seriously lacking. I expected more from this company when I signed up for my second trip, especially since it was all women. In the end, it was their mistakes of changing the program to summit a day early and of waking up and starting extremely late that prevented me from summiting on Wednesday. This was a trip of a lifetime for me, and no consideration from your guides ruined it. In the end, Grace even said that she did not care if she summited and was ready to be done with the season. If the "goal is to give each of our customers the best experience we possibly can, regardless of the weather, route conditions, or time of year," you have missed the mark by a long shot on this trip. Their response: Thanks for the note. I appreciate you passing along your feedback regarding the Mt Baker program. We have now had a chance to debrief with your guides about your concerns: First the itinerary: it is typical for the guides to choose the better of the two available summit days (Day 2 or Day 3) to climb. Typically, the guides are more selective with the climbers they take to the top on Day 3 because not only do the climbers need to return to basecamp in good fashion, but they also then need to descend all the way to the trailhead. On top of that, a summit attempt on Day 3 means an earlier start time to accommodate the longer day, meaning less sleep the night before the climb. Your guides selected Day 2 as your summit day to accommodate a decent sleep and a better opportunity to summit. You noted other groups starting earlier than your group, and while I can't speak to the nuances of their decision making, Lael confirmed that those teams descended all the way to the trailhead on their summit day. Second the pace: Lael and Grace are both part of read more

I second the other 1 star review. I signed up for the Mt. Rainier DC Route 3.5 day climb. What I actually got in return was a rush to get on the mountain in the middle of an imminent winter storm, forcing participants to shelter in place. A fully predictable bait and switch. First off, the guides themselves were fantastic -- doing everything they could to make a difficult situation manageable. The guides aside, the climb itself was a completely foreseeable failure and should never have gone ahead in the first place -- an unintentional yet inevitable bait-and-switch program where the agenda of summit attempt was never a realistic possibility even before orientation. Instead, the "climb" amounted to sheltering in place in a location reachable by a simple day hike and filling up the down time with small-scale lessons. In the lead up to the climb, weather reports had been solidifying in predicting a significant late season winter storm for Mount Rainier, with NOAA issuing a winter storm warning on for the upper parts of the mountain. It called for sustained high winds, significant snowfall and elevated avalanche hazard. During orientation, the first question asked was about the weather situation. It was largely dismissed. The morning of departure for the mountain, the NOAA reports were consistent and clear -- the storm was not only as promised but now could get worse. I asked the Operations Manager before departing if he had any concerns about the weather to which the response was that sometimes the summit will pop above the storms. I've been around Pacific mountains most of my adult life, this was a full-fledged Pacific system, not a local storm. It was obvious that we were heading into a brutal situation where summit attempt success was zero percent. Hurriedly, we all got into the van and went up the mountain anyway. On the mountain, everything unfolded exactly as the reports said it would. Conditions deteriorated quickly with white-out conditions, sustained high winds, and accelerating snowfall. To add insult to injury, we learned on the ascent that the tent camp was taken down by the very same company -- another nail in the summit program coffin -- before we even got close. For anyone with marginal mountain experience, if it wasn't clear from the weather reports days earlier, it was beyond clear halfway up the snowfield that we would be ascending no further the shelters at Camp Muir. For the next 2 days, we huddled and largely sheltering in place and doing basic skills lessons. To put it mildly, I am disappointed and frustrated. I feel used of both my time and money to simply serve as a inanimate cog in IMG's business and operating model. It's one thing to not make a summit because of a challenging situation encountered on an attempt on the mountain, but it's a whole other thing to willingly send a team up into a glaringly obvious winter storm hazard with no possibility of a summit, and with the participants having no say, forcing them into an alternate basic program they had not signed up for. I'm frustrated that we were not given a realistic assessment and an opportunity to reconsider the climb during orientation or the morning of departure. It was obvious and clearly stated what kind of weather was imminent. Instead, likely motivated by the IMG business and profit objectives, we were hastily moved into the climb, weather concerns dismissed and a deceptive program switch from summit attempt to basic skills inevitable. I'm not a wealthy person. To have this all come down to "well, hopefully you got something out of this" is callous and apathetic. In conclusion and to reiterate, I'm disappointed and frustrated with IMG, to say the least. I am shocked and angered that we were sent up the mountain in an imminent and obvious multi-day winter storm hazard. I am frustrated that we were forced into paying for a program that was absolutely nothing like the one we signed up for. I feel robbed in that I did my part to keep IMG's business running as that was clearly the company's chief objective -- keep the operating gears moving, clients are secondary. And I leave with absolutely nothing to show for this program except a very large credit card bill. After reaching out to IMG with these thoughts they responded with essentially a, bad and tough luck, our product is not guaranteed -- sometimes you win sometimes you lose. All in all, the experience felt like a hybrid form of financial and emotional larceny. And they really couldn't care less. read more

Summited Mt. Rainier on 6/20/13 (3.5 Days DC Climb). For my climb, the weather forecast didn't look good. so we expressed our concern to the lead guide. She let us know that weather on Rainer change and based on feedback from the team that were already on the mountain, we have a good chance. She was right. It rained and snowed, but we were above the clouds the whole time. 4 guides that lead us were very nice and made great efforts to get to know us and makes us feel safe the whole time. Guides cooked us great "real" meals (not dehydrated kind). Many information and instructions were given through out the climb which made it possible for me to finish the climb safely. Climbing Mt Rainer was be one of best highlights of my life. You should try it too. read more

I can not say enough good things about this company. My family booked a Kilimanjaro climb with IMG. This was my first experience with them, but other members of my family had been on a couple other excursions with them previously. They did a great job of ensuring that we had all of the logistics lined up for the trip. They booked great acomodations for us in country. They had good partnerships with the local guides that acompanied us on the mountain, and on the 3 day safari that we did after the climb. Our lead IMG guide Phunuru was outstanding. He was extremely knowledgable, experienced, and led a successful and enjoyable trip. read more

Sorry to say, but I can't give a good review to Mr. "Nickel" Wood, who was a lead guide on Aconcagua expedition in December 2022. I climbed with various guides before and all of them where very good. Once I sent thank you letter to IMG for excellent guidance in Bolivia. This time around I met someone centered not on members of the team, but rather on himself. He claimed he was the best guide on IMG staff and taught all other guides of the company. Without doubts he knew a lot of technical things. But he was hostile, constantly irritated and not assessable to questions. His whole behavior was grotesque. He was particularly unhappy when asked repeat questions. He said answering such questions would take his strength from climbing and would affect his trip (!). Hard to believe, right? But it is true. He said that. So, I was very hesitant to ask questions after all. The meals in mess tent went in silence, the tension was in the air, and as stress built up I started to view perspectives of summiting as problematic. Indeed, on the day preceding summiting attempt, on the way from Camp 2 to Camp 3 he gave me "goose step" drill accompanied by shouting and threats to not allow going to summit. Due to stress I could not sleep that night. On the summiting day being in the lead during the the second stretch Mr. Wood walked the group for 2 hours without break. Naturally, it did not help to conserve the energy for more difficult second part of the climb. Soon after that, near Cave he stopped me stating I was not stable and could have problem with balance on decent. I disagreed, but had to comply. So, I failed to summit, stopping climb 1,000 feet short. Then, all of the sudden he became very sweet. Unfortunately, it was too late. And his "kindness" looked not sincere on the background of his prior abusing behavior. Did I do something wrong? My walking technique was not to the guide's satisfaction, but I made very good time: not more than 4 hours on each single climb from entrance to the park through all camps on Polish traverse route without particular physical difficulties. So, my all measures I did just fine physically and had a strong motivation. I did ask repeat questions maybe 5-6 times over duration of the trip of 20 days. Logistics of interaction with porters and packing of duffels and back back for each camp was not clearly explained, and I was just trying to understand this better. Is it fault? I don't think so. It is reasonably expected that your guide is friendly, informative, encouraging and instructive. So, he works for the better end. And it is not expected that guide is aloof, rude and cares about himself, not about climbers. After all he supposed to work for us, not other way around. Unfortunately, my trip was all about Mr. Wood, not about Aconcagua, for which I was preparing during long 12 months. read more

I did the 3.5 day D.C. climb on Mount Rainier with IMG. Overall, I completely second the other 1 star review on Yelp so far. First off, the guides themselves were fantastic -- doing everything they could to make a difficult situation manageable. The guides aside, the climb itself was a completely foreseeable failure and should never have gone ahead in the first place -- a bait-and-switch program where the agenda of summit attempt was never a realistic possibility even before orientation. Instead, the "climb" amounted to sheltering in place at Camp Muir, a location reachable by a day hike, and filling up the down time with small-scale lessons. Nothing about this trip had anything to do with a "Disappointment Clever Summit Climb". In the lead up to the climb, the weather reports had been predicting a significant late season winter storm for Mount Rainier, with NOAA issuing a definitive winter storm warning for the upper parts of the mountain. This report called for sustained high winds and significant snowfall. During orientation, the very first question asked was about the weather situation. It was largely dismissed. The next morning, day of departure for the mountain, the NOAA reports were consistent and clear -- the storm was not only as promised but now with potential to get worse. I asked the Operations Manager before departing if there were any concerns about the weather to which the response was that sometimes the summit will pop above the storms. I've been around the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains most of my adult life, this was a full-fledged Pacific system, not a passing-by local storm. It was obvious that we were heading into a brutal situation where summit attempt success was zero percent. The summit would not be popping above. Hurriedly, we all got into the van and went up the mountain anyway. On the mountain, everything unfolded exactly as the weather reports said it would. Conditions deteriorated quickly on the Muir Snowfield with white-out conditions, sustained high winds, and accelerating snowfall. To add insult to injury, we learned on the ascent that the 2nd camp at Ingraham Flats camp was taken down the day prior, something IMG already knew. For anyone with marginal mountain experience, if it wasn't clear from the weather reports days earlier, it was beyond clear up the snowfield that we would be ascending no further in a serious way than Camp Muir. For the next 2 days, we huddled around Camp Muir, largely sheltering in place and doing basic skills lessons. The last night, we were confined to the public shelter for 12 hours before coming down early the next day. To put it mildly, it's supremely frustrating. I feel used of both my time and money to simply serve as a inanimate cog in IMG's business and operating model. It's one thing to not achieve a summit because of a challenging situation encountered on an attempt on the mountain, but it's a whole other thing to willingly send a team up into a glaringly obvious winter storm hazard with no possibility of a summit, and with the participants having no say, forcing them into an alternate and haphazard basics program they had not signed up for. Firstly, I'm frustrated that we were not given a realistic assessment and an opportunity to reconsider the climb during orientation or the morning of departure. It was obvious and clearly stated by NOAA what kind of weather was imminent. Instead, likely motivated by the IMG business and profit objectives, we were hastily moved into the climb, weather concerns dismissed and a program switch from summit attempt to basic skills inevitable. Secondly, this is a ton of money and time commitment to do something like this. It's hard to get time off from work, arrange life responsibilities, and assemble the money to have an opportunity like this. For it to be so not even remotely what it was supposed to be and to walk away completely empty handed feels like a hybrid form of financial and emotional larceny. In conclusion and to reiterate, I'm disappointed and frustrated with IMG, to say the least. I am still shocked and angered that we were sent up the mountain in an imminent and obvious multi-day winter storm hazard. I am frustrated that we were forced into paying for a program that was absolutely nothing like the one we signed up for. I feel robbed in that I did my $2250+ part to keep IMG's business running as that was clearly the company's chief objective -- keep the schedule and business operating gears moving, clients and on-paper objectives are secondary. And I leave with absolutely nothing to show for this program except a very large credit card bill and a lot of hours sleeping in a shelter. After reaching out to IMG with all of these concerns, they responded and dismissed them with a back luck, sometimes you get good weather sometimes bad, message. Callous. read more

I would NOT recommend using this guide company. While they claim to be the best in the area, I was thoroughly unimpressed. First, the guides led us to base camp (Muir) well knowing that a summit was not possible just to secure our money. At the start of our ascent, no summits had occurred in almost 72 hours, the second base camp was being broken down and the trails were covered in snow. So why were we led under false hope that a summit was possible? Because IMG does not issue refunds if the group reaches base camp. These guys are money hungry! When the climbers unanimously chose to end the trip one night short (since we could not reach our goal), the guides tried to convince us to stay the third night. Why? Because the guides get paid in full if climbers stay the full expedition time length. Even their rental equipment is more expensive then the other local guide companies. Second, the customer service was seriously lacking. We hiked in the cold and pouring rain for an extended period of time without breaking on the last day. When we finally returned to IMG headquarters, we had not eaten since breakfast. A company with good customer service would have seen that the group was fed or at least offered something warm to drink... especially since we had paid for and carried food for four meals, but only consumed two of them. Furthermore, one of the guides was unprofessional and made offensive comments throughout the trip. Climbing Mount Rainier was an expedition that I prepared for mentally, emotionally and physically for 6 months. This was suppose to be a lifetime memory. I accept not summiting due to harsh weather conditions. Even more disappointing, however, was the tainted and dissatisfying service from IMG. read more

Fabulous experience climbing Mt. Rainier with IMG. I did the 3.5 Day Disappointment Cleaver climb, with a summit day on 7/3/14. The positives: Pre-climb..... 1) Much of the gear is able to be rented without pre-ordering 2) Fast responses to questions via email 3) Extremely thorough gear check. None of the items on the list are optional unless specified - you really will need all of it. During the climb: 1) IMG maintains shelters/camps for both Camp Muir and Ingraham Flats, so no need to carry up tents. 2) The pace is s-l-o-w. If you're nervous about physical performance, the IMG's 3 day climb is much more relaxed than some of the other 2 day ones offered. 3) The hot dinners were really delicious! One of the other guide services require you to bring your own food. After a long day on the mountain, we were glad we had something tasty to look forward to. 4) Guides are FANTASTIC. On the last night before attempting the summit, we were short a guide due to a member of our team reaching his physical limitations and not being able to continue. George Dunn, one of the co-owners and current record holder for most Rainier summits, made the hike all the way up from Paradise and then filled in for the climb to the top. 5) Mountaineering class on Ingraham Flats the second day was very informative and provided more time to acclimate and really enjoy the views on the mountain. The ONE negative: 1) No pre-arranged rides from Seattle/Portland airports Recommendations: 1) Bring TP, lots of it. You'll get familiar with the wonderful practice of "blue bagging" on the mountain, and for the sake of your sanity, it's always better to have more rather than run out. 2) Bring 3 pairs of socks. One the first day (and to dry out for summit morning), one the second day, and one for switching out on the way down at Camp Muir. Dry socks were critical for preventing blisters. 3) You will have to force feed yourself as your body loses its appetite at high elevations. I found that bagels and smoked meats were a lot easier to get down than energy bars, and I was absolutely craving snacks like potato chips and candy. 4) Energy chews were a lifesaver for the last day as you summit and then have to climb all the way back down. The extra boost was essential as my endurance started to flag at the end of a 14 hour day climbing. 5) Ditch the Camelbak - the lines will freeze. Two large Nalgenes are all that you'll need for water. And most importantly.... have fun!! IMG really turned me on to mountaineering. Looking forward to doing some expeditions with their company in the next year! read more

International Mountain Guides - IMG camp at Ingraham Flats on Mt. Rainier - Rock Climbing Near Me - Ashford, Washington

I've attempted Mt. Rainier a few times with friends without success. This time, I decided to spend the cash on a guide service and I chose correctly. I did the 3.5 day Rainier summit program. The conditions were good for an IG Direct route attempt. The guide staff had prepped the route after a recent snow, so the risks were adequately mitigated. The weather cooperated and my group made the summit without trouble. IMG made this as easy as possible. Spending two days at 10k feet made a huge difference and summiting from Ingraham Flats instead of Muir is ideal. Other groups were pushed faster up the mountain and attempted a longer summit from Muir. My group enjoyed hot meals (burritos, bacon, chocolate chip pancakes, french press coffee, pasta with broccoli and chicken sausage), time to relax, and nearly a 1:1 guide to client ratio (not by design, but when people don't show and quit after an hour, the guides still continue up). Get trip insurance, and don't schedule an attempt at the end of a season. read more

Did the 3.5 day Disappointment Cleaver route with IMG this past weekend (8/20-9/2). It was a good experience and I do recommend them and this 3 day climb to get to the summit of Mt Rainier. Having a lay over day, where we learned skills and only moved camp another 1,000 higher above Camp Muir to Ingraham Flats made it a much more enjoyable trip for me. I did not envy the group hiking with the other guide company who were doing the summit in only 2 days. I like the way IMG ran the trip. Having 1 guide for every 2 clients made me feel very safe without having a lot of crampon or rock climbing with crampon experience beforehand. They did a great job of making sure we had the right clothes and equipment at the pre-check meeting. They explained what we were doing and why very well. The food was good ( Chicken burritos 1st nite, Sausage stir fry the 2nd nite) I have a few minor disappointments. The tents at Ingraham flat had only 2 ridgerest mattresses on snow. This caused 2 problems. 1) The floor was very unlevel because the body heat of prior campers had melted in deep depressions 2). I could feel the cold coming up thru the mattresses. Both these made harder to sleep. Another disappointment was with the rental Koflach boots. IMG was wise to tell us to keep them loose to avoid shin bang on the way. but this did not prevent calf bang on the way down. I was disappointed we could not stop more frequently for photos while on the upper mtn. We were only allowed to take photos at the official rest stops and the summit. No stopping to take pics of the sunrise on the way up or any of the glaciers or closeup of crevasses on the way down. read more

Dishonest bait-and-switch rip-off. I signed up for a trip to go up Mt. Rainier in 2022. Long after I paid, the company informed me that it would not be honoring our agreement. If I wanted to join the trip, they said, I would have to comply with their newly announced Covid vaccine mandate, which I never agreed to. If you have an allergy, a history of poor reactions to medication (such as the first dose of the vaccine), another medical contraindication, or one of myriad other reasons not to get the jab, then too bad. Your only alternative is to submit to the hassle and expense of taking the notoriously unreliable PCR test in a very narrow time window before the trip. Then, if you're lucky enough to avoid a false positive, you'll have the privilege of being treated like a second-class citizen the entire time. You will not be allowed to be in the same camp as the other climbers or to eat near them. While the rest of the group is together, you will be off in a leper colony. I refuse to do business with a company that treats me so poorly, and I refuse to participate in creating two castes of citizens through medical discrimination. It is bad enough that the other two major Rainier guide companies have these medical apartheid policies, but at least they're upfront about it. I saw their policies and chose not to do business with them. IMG differentiated itself by being the only one of the three without these policies, so I signed up with them. But this turned out to be a bait and switch. IMG waited until most of the slots on their trips were full, and only then did they announce the policy. I was furious at their deception and immediately resolved to get my money back. They repeatedly cited the "nonrefundable" $500 application fee and kept giving me the runaround, but I was adamant that they cannot simply change the terms of our agreement at will. After sufficient threats, they finally gave me a full refund. That doesn't make me whole since I can't recover all the money I spent on equipment and insurance, but at least IMG didn't profit from trying to rip me off. That IMG is willing to stab its customers in the back like this tells you everything you need to know about the character of the people running it. Even if they rescind this horrendous policy, I will never do business with them again--and neither should you. read more

I booked a trip in January to climb Kilimanjaro July 2021, took deposit without any representatio, when they couldn't get additional climbers they increased our cost by 40%. I balked and they cancelled The climb!!! Now I have flights etc booked to manage, now we are out $$$$'s. Not cool. Very Poor organization, stay away from IMG! read more

I had amazing time on IMG's 3.5 day DC Rainier climb. I too am surprised at the one bad review. This is a fantastic guide outfit that really has their act together. We had 3 guides, who had a combined total of over 200 Rainier summits and something like 13 Everest summits. You can't be in much better hands than that. The rental gear is super high quality - I had to rent double boots and a gortex shell. The tents at high camp are the best tents I've ever been in - so many vents, pockets, etc. The guides are super knowledgeable, friendly, and essential for a successful summit. The guides motivated us, cooked for us, collected snow and melted it for water, shoveled snow around camp to keep the tents in good shape... It can not be understated how much work they did while we were saving energy and resting in our tents. We all felt extremely safe the entire time due to the organization of the whole trim and the professionalism of the guides. Summitted 9/14/16 with guides Josh, Justin, Eric. read more

Had a fantastic experience on the Glacier Skills and Rainier Summit Attempt trip. Our guides Betsy, Mike, Eric and Rob were exceptional. Every day was challenging, instructive and rewarding. And ending the trip with watching the sunrise from the summit of Mt. Rainier was a perfect ending to a great week with IMG. read more

International Mountain Guides - Rock Climbing Near Me - Ashford, Washington

Great company and awesome guides. I climbed Aconcagua with IMG and was very pleased. They were very professional and organized and the logistics were great. I'd definitely recommend IMG. read more

We purchased a Kilimanjaro climb with International Mountain Guides. I asked to pay for the trip with my credit card that includes baggage insurance, medical insurance, and trip insurance. International Mountain Guides didn't allow the use of the credit card and required the purchase of $944 of insurance from a third-party insurance company. We purchased the insurance through Trip Assure which is their recommended insurer. On the way to the climb we were robbed, and I was injured with two broken ribs. After six months and twelve phone calls Trip Assure is offering $750 for the $2564 of stolen baggage and hasn't offered anything for the $13597 medical and lost trip. If I had paid for this with my credit card, we would have been fully reimbursed five months ago. IMG is responsible for a business practice that intentionally increases their profits without providing the advertised protection to the purchaser. There are numerous other guiding services that don't intentionally put their clients in this position by precluding the use of credit cards with good insurance benefits or by directing their clients to purchase insurance whose only value is to provide a veil of protection to the guiding service. read more

I feel compelled to write because I totally disagree with person who gave IMG the crap review. I just finished doing the 3.5 day Rainier summit climb via the Disappointment Cleaver (summiting successfully!). I have also participated in a mountaineering day school with them, and have done an Everest Khumbu trek through one of their affiliates. I have had nothing but positive experiences with them. They hire the most competent guides in the business (two of our group's 4 Rainier guides had summited Everest, and 2 had done more than 100 ascents of Rainier). The whole Rainier trek has a very safety-oriented schedule (you eat, rehydrate and reapply sunscreen every 1 1/2 hours that you are on the trail, and spend 2 rather than 1 nights at altitude to better acclimatize). Their goal is to get you up and down the mountain safely and intelligently--sometimes this means keeping a rigorous pace, or turning around if weather pulls in, but I felt absolutely well taken care of and looked after. Given the scant number of reviews, people are not exactly flocking to Yelp to search for mountain guiding companies, but I just wanted to offer my opinion. You are literally trusting these people with your life, so it's good to do your research, but I feel completely confident in IMG and will hopefully be climbing more mountains with them in the future. read more

We tried to climb Rainier with IMG and were very frustrated by about everything. Our guides didn't seem to be intending on summiting, we didn't summit, and the other companies (RMI and AAI) were both summiting. First of all, our guides were constantly talking about not summiting. They brought it up at HQ before we left, at Muir camp, and at Ingraham Flats several times. It seemed to me like they never really intended to try for the summit, so I wasn't surprised at all when they decided to turn back at the top of Disappointment Cleaver. They said the weather/route was the reason, but the RMI team passed us at DC, talked to our guides, and continued on to the summit. In fact, not only did RMI summit on that day, but they also did for at least three days before and after that. I also called Alpine Ascents and they were also summiting through the dates we turned back. We selected what is historically the best weekend of the year for summit success. RMI and AAI were in the middle of a large summiting window during this period ... IMG not so much. We had some very experienced and knowledgeable guides with us, but another frustrating aspect was that the two most heavily experienced guides were not the ones who went up to evaluate the route before deciding to turn back. I decided to call IMG to discuss before I left reviews. The person I talked to suggested I talk to one of the owners and said he would call me after he finished a meeting. He never called. Instead, another person (operations manager) called and that conversation went nowhere. The call wasn't helpful, as he seemed to only be interested in providing counter-argument to everything I said. So, considering IMG's lack of interest in my complaint, I decided to leave reviews based on my experience. The real unfortunate part of this was the huge amount of money and time we sunk into this to go with a company that, in my opinion, seemed to be planning for failure even before we stepped foot on the mountain. read more

We tried to climb Rainier with IMG and were very frustrated by about everything. Our guides didn't seem to be intending on summiting, we didn't summit, and the other companies (RMI and AAI) were both summiting. First of all, our guides were constantly talking about not summiting. They brought it up at HQ before we left, at Muir camp, and at Ingraham Flats several times. It seemed to me like they never really intended to try for the summit, so I wasn't surprised at all when they decided to turn back at the top of Disappointment Cleaver. They said the weather/route was the reason, but the RMI team passed us at DC, talked to our guides, and continued on to the summit. In fact, not only did RMI summit on that day, but they also did for at least three days before and after that. I also called Alpine Ascents and they were also summiting through the dates we turned back. We selected what is historically the best weekend of the year for summit success. RMI and AAI were in the middle of a large summiting window during this period ... IMG not so much. We had some very experienced and knowledgeable guides with us, but another frustrating aspect was that the two most heavily experienced guides were not the ones who went up to evaluate the route before deciding to turn back. I decided to call IMG to discuss before I left reviews. The person I talked to suggested I talk to one of the owners and said he would call me after he finished a meeting. He never called. Instead, another person (operations manager) called and that conversation went nowhere. The call wasn't helpful, as he seemed to only be interested in providing counter-argument to everything I said. So, considering IMG's lack of interest in my complaint, I decided to leave reviews based on my experience. The real unfortunate part of this was the huge amount of money and time we sunk into this to go with a company that, in my opinion, seemed to be planning for failure even before we stepped foot on the mountain. read more