MOUNTAINEERING WITH PURPOSE
About Summit Stoke
Summit Stoke: More Than Just a Mountain Guiding Company
Welcome to Summit Stoke, where adventure meets purpose. Based in Quito, Ecuador, we specialise in mountaineering expeditions in Ecuador and Peru. From beginner-friendly peaks to advanced climbs, our trips combine physical challenge, practical mountaineering skills and opportunities for personal development through yoga and breathwork.
What sets us apart? For us, mountaineering is about more than reaching a summit. It’s about learning, sharing the adventure and finding your own connection to the mountains.
That passion also inspired our NGO, The Summit Stoke Foundation, whose mission is to help Ecuadorian women access mountaineering. Its goals include offering free mountaineering courses and, as funding becomes available, scholarships towards the training required to become certified mountain guides.
Ethical climbing
We believe mountaineering is about more than summits. It’s about personal transformation. Our passionate team ensures world-class logistics, safety, and local expertise while creating an atmosphere of camaraderie and growth. Whether you’re tackling your first peak or conquering Alpamayo in Peru, Summit Stoke is here to guide you every step of the way.
Sometimes we don’t get to reach the summit and that’s okay because it really is the mountain that decides whether we get to climb or not and for us it’s all about listening and also teaching others how to do just that. We aim to support the development of each climber that comes our way by providing a safe learning space that is focused on skill-building in harmony with our surroundings. Climb with us, make a difference and come back different!
Team size
That’s why our teams are never bigger than 10 climbers and our itineraries are built up around lots of acclimatization and pre-climb knowledge before we set out for the summits.
And this is exactly what we mean with ethical mountain climbing. Summiting is rad, but our respect for the snow-capped giants is bigger than our desire to summit and having to give in to these greater forces is a valuable life lesson in itself. Success, according to us, is not necessarily reaching the summit, but knowing yourself and the mountain conditions well enough to make qualified and safe decisions.
After any trip with us you will be one step closer to climbing mountains safely on your own.
Educational Climbing
No matter the destination, we at Summit Stoke always partner up with certified mountain guides (IFMGA or ASEGUIM recognized by The Ministry Of Tourism in Ecuador) to ensure the best quality of your mountain experience. Because of our belief in ethical climbing and our love for the journey as a whole, our programs are not focused on express climbing. They are carefully planned out as an end-to-end experience focusing on the development of each climber in a holistic way; technically, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our mountain guides are very passionate and eager to teach others their ways. Each climb is therefore a unique partnership between you and the guide, which adds a lot of learning about leadership and mountaineering to the experiences we offer.
Sharing The Stoke and Creating Opportunities
At Summit Stoke, we believe mountaineering should create opportunities beyond the people joining our expeditions. That belief led us to establish The Summit Stoke Foundation, an Ecuadorian NGO focused on helping more local women access mountaineering and, for those who want to pursue it professionally, supporting pathways towards mountain-guide education.
Women have historically been underrepresented in professional mountain guiding, and we want to play a small part in changing that. Through the Foundation, our aim is to create opportunities for Ecuadorian women to experience mountaineering through courses and mountain activities offered at no cost to participants. As funding becomes available, the Foundation also aims to offer scholarships that women can apply for to support their education towards becoming certified mountain guides.
Summit Stoke’s funding policy is to allocate 5% of its annual profits to The Summit Stoke Foundation. This contribution is calculated from Summit Stoke’s annual profits rather than as a fixed amount from each individual booking. Together with funding from sponsors and other supporters, these funds are intended to help finance the Foundation’s mountaineering activities and future scholarship opportunities. We can’t wait to share the stoke with many more awesome women!
About the owners
Shortly after completing their first high altitude climb together in Bolivia back in 2017, Summit Stoke Founders Alberto Serrano and Amalie Kragmann realized that they were hooked on the idea of sharing with the world, the magnificent challenges that mountaineering has to offer. The following years saw Alberto and Amalie setting out for countless high altitude climbs and treks in the Andes mountains and the Alps, gaining more and more knowledge each time they summited – or didn’t. Along the way they encountered many climbers with the intention of summiting at all costs as well as also feeling this selfishness pull in themselves at times, which always led to bad decisions and bad endings, thus it quickly became a mission for the owners to help climbers overcome these moments of weakness.
That is why the concept of Summit Stoke is about the journey as a whole and not summiting at all costs; only when guided by clever decision making and extensive knowledge of the mountains in which we operate. This is not only knowledge that the guides of Summit Stoke possess, but knowledge that they are eager to pass on to you. Through their many alpine adventures the Summit Stoke founders have experienced how much the challenge of mountaineering can transform people’s lives and from this adventurous partnership emerged Summit Stoke and a desire to share that challenge, those life-lessons and the beauty of mountaineering with others. Their burning desire: To offer unique mountaineering trips off the beaten track in South America providing the highest level of growth possible for each of their climbers; beginners and advanced climbers alike, all while supporting the local women of The Andes through mountaineering.
Travel & Tourism Awards 2026