History
After traveling widely throughout Europe and Asia and living in Nepal for 5 years, Steve Conlon and his Nepali Wife, Muna returned to the US and opened Above the Clouds. Initially we offered treks only in the Nepal and Bhutan Himalaya, establishing ourselves as the premier Himalayan trekking company by the late 1980s. We began offering adventure travel in Patagonia in the late 1980s. As we had done in the Himalaya, we developed a reputation for operating quality treks in areas that most other companies hadn't even heard of. We didn't do this just to avoid other trekkers, but rather to introduce our groups to villagers who weren't so accustomed to seeing trekkers that we'd be forced into a tourist-to-native relationship. By getting well off the beaten path we enable our guests to have person-to-person experiences that open a window into the world of our hosts. Above the Clouds was born out of a passion for adventure travel and 30 years later it remains that way for us, we love it.
Specialties
Since 1982, we have organized hiking and trekking trips among some of the world's most spectacular mountain ranges: the Himalaya, the Andes of Patagonia, and the Alps and Dolomites of Italy. We specialize in getting off-the-beaten-path, where traditional village rhythms are still the norm, and inroads of the outside world are few. Our groups are small, average size fewer than ten. Many of our travelers opt for custom or private trips, which we handcraft for them based on their dates, interests, and abilities. We are always looking for ways to innovate, resulting most recently in the introduction of heli-trekking and helicopter flightseeing in the Mount Everest region of Nepal.