Make your adventure dreams reality with Benegas Brothers Expeditions!
Veterans of the Himalaya, first ascents, rock, ice, snow and water, whatever adventure we embark on in whatever medium, come and experience our impeccable planning, service and guidance! Fixed date departures on Seven continents, tailor made adventures and ascents, filming, family or luxury travel and more.
Twin brothers Damian and Willie (Guillermo) Benegas are two of the most respected mountaineers and climbers ever to have been produced in Patagonia.
They have achieved a phenomenal number of summits worldwide and now boast over 20 years of experience and partnership that has taken them to the furthest corners and highest peaks of the world.
Damian and Willie's curiosity for climbing was sparked by their father, Rafael Benegas, who during long, cold Argentine winters, would entertain the energetic young boys with his climbing photos and tales of Patagonian adventures. These images along with mountaineering literature left them with an insatiable thirst for adventure, and the inspiration to embark on their own incredible journey. Before long, the steep granite towers and glacier coated peaks of Northern Patagonia, along with Aconcagua, became an immense training ground where the Brothers would nurture their love for the great outdoors, fine-tune their climbing skills, and establish themselves as truly world-class alpinists.
BBE was founded in 1992. Now, after over twenty seasons and more than 100 summits of Aconcagua, the Benegas Brothers have guided climbers and adventurers from countries all around the world, all over the world! Benegas Brothers Expeditions' mission is to provide YOU with the expertise, experience and partnership to help you reach your dreams. We strive to offer the highest quality adventures to clients by prioritizing small group sizes, custom designed trips, family values, and environmentally and socially responsible practices. These elements, combined with our many years of guiding experience from the Himalayas to the Andes and beyond, allow us to offer you a unique opportunity for a collaborative and personalized adventure experience. Benegas Brothers Expeditions reflect the spirit of mountain exploration in an exciting, safe, and intimate family atmosphere. We take pride in providing our groups with the best possible opportunity to summit, and to discover a mountain of possibilities on peaks worldwide.
Whether you are seeking a standardized expedition perfected over the years, or a client-designed customized trip, we guarantee a unique journey:
Fixed Date Expeditions
Our Fixed Date Departure programs are for individual clients or small groups wishing to join other guests on the trail. They're some of our most popular trips! The lodging, food, transportation and guiding services remain exceptionally high-quality. We can also add additional destinations and / or activities prior to, or after these itineraries. We guarantee the price irrespective of the number of participants.
Our groups range from 4 to 12 members (maximum), so you'll still get the small group experience, privacy and individual attention that you need. Some mountaineering programs have maximum group size requirements, such as Aconcagua where all groups are limited to 6 members.
Our Expeditions CalendarCustom Made Adventures
Benegas Brothers Expeditions also provides tailor-made expeditions for private groups to destinations around the world. You decide on the location, objectives and when you want to go, and we'll take care of the logistics.
A private expedition can be a carbon copy of one of those described on this website, simply made private to your group and arranged to suit your schedule. Or, together we can design a completely unique trip. Even if you are undecided on where to go, we can help you identify a suitable objective for your team. Additionally, you choose whether to have a BBE leader go with you, or to lead the trip yourself with the assistance of our local guides and helpers. Whether or not you have a clear idea in mind, do contact us for an initial discussion. Dare to make your dreams reality! BBE can take care of the rest.
Why Choose Benegas Brothers Expeditions for YOUR adventure?
Enriching Wilderness Experiences
Benegas Brothers Expeditions has a unique motivation: to provide rewarding and enriching experiences for our clients in diverse natural environments worldwide, without compromise to professionalism, community, environmental sustainability and risk management. We consider each of these attributes essential to our overall objective, reputation and overall impact. BBE offers a complete experience that positively affects everyone involved. We like to think of ourselves as experience "curators", and strive to cultivate on- and off-mountain experiences that contribute to lasting relationships. We have your goals and priorities in mind through every step of the creation of our meaningful and enriching wilderness experiences. The BBE Experience is meant to be different. Clients feel involved, well taken care of and part of the experience. This sense of involvement starts from the moment a client inquires about an experience with us through its completion and beyond. We encourage this engagement and we appreciate it.
Our Reputation for Excellence
The Benegas Brothers' reputation for personal integrity and professionalism has taken them from their childhood Patagonian playground to the far corners of the world. Willie Benegas was named 2010 AMGA Outstanding Guide of the year, a testament to his reputation as one of the best guides in the world. Damian and Willie Benegas are veteran guides with extensive high altitude experience on all seven continents, and continue to challenge themselves on the hardest mountains around the world. If you're not climbing with Damian or Willie, you'll be meeting a lead guide who has traveled and climbed extensively at your destination. Our administrative staff and guides are highly regarded in their field with extensive experience. We believe in professional integrity and strive to go above and beyond in absolutely everything we do. We attempt to challenge current professional standards and push for higher expectations throughout our industry, everywhere we travel. We expect our staff AND guests to follow the principles of responsible travel — travel while respecting people, cultures, and local environments; travel while distributing wealth; travel in good will and cross-cultural sharing, and travel while contributing to sustainable development. Read More: Our Guides
Unparalleled local logistics
There is no replacement for over 20 years of hands-on guiding experience around the world. Benegas Brothers Expeditions provides intimate local knowledge around the world from decades of climbing and guiding, with each local crew cherry-picked to be the best in the industry. In the Himalaya, our guiding experience and notable first ascents of highly technical summits are a testament to our dedication and expertise. Benegas Brothers Expeditions makes an effort to always keep away from the crowds, and where this is not possible on busier mountains, to establish separate high altitude camps.
Empowering Clients
We encourage our clients to be fully engaged from planning stage, to training until expedition completion, continually learning about their environment and the technical and decision-making aspects of expeditions. BBE maintains a low client-to-guide ratio and proven acclimatization programs, while providing clients with the necessary support required (e.g. porters for equipment and supplies). We view our clients as partners and take a collaborative approach to expeditions.
BBE Comfort
BBE uses the highest quality The North Face tents and state of the art high camp gear and equipment. We are known for having the best food on the mountain in the High Camps, and we mean the BEST! On our larger expeditions, we have deluxe base camps featuring cook tents, unlimited solar power, movie nights, hot showers, insulated floors and heaters, personal tents you can stand up in, and the most advanced satellite and VHF radio comms systems available.
BBE Safety
We plan our trips using conservative estimates, and build in time for weather changes or unexpected events, ensuring that we can make a push for the summit on the very best day possible, and, unlike our competitors, unhampered by large group logistics. Our guides are equipped with state of the art radios, carry pulse oximeters to carefully monitor oxygen saturation levels daily and check for proper acclimatization on high altitude trips, also in addition to Gamow Bags – a hyperbaric chamber for emergencies – stationed at our Base Camps. We have ample emergency oxygen, our guides are trained to WFR or EMT-B level as a minimum, and have a Medical Doctor on call 24 hours a day during our expeditions. We never cut costs on safely!
Social Ethics and Sustainability
From people, to culture, to local environments, we are well aware that our expeditions have great impacts on local communities in many ways. Whether we realize it or not, our role in traveling affects the indigenous peoples and environment, and if we aren't careful, we can easily destroy these precious ecosystems and communities. This concept is paramount for us to keep in mind when planning and operating all of our trips. We hold a strong belief that each and every adventure operator must take responsibility for the way that they conduct business, both to ensure the welfare of guests and local communities, as well as to conserve the environment, both individually and also as an industry. We strive to provide each of our guests with real life experiences through our responsible manner of operating, as well as our incorporation of our principles of sustainable development. We meet these expectations in each of our day-to-day operations and in ALL of our expeditions. To accomplish this, we train and expect our staff and guests to follow the principles of responsible travel — traveling whilst maintaining a deep respect for people, different cultures, and local environments; travel while distributing wealth; travel in good will and cross-cultural sharing, and travel while contributing to sustainable development. Only through understanding, agreeing to, and following each of these principles are we able to guarantee and maintain a safe and enjoyable trip for all parties.
Environmental Concerns
At BBE, we pride ourselves in living as close to the natural world as possible whilst making every effort to minimize our footprint. To minimize our impact on the environment, we educate our staff and guests in appropriate techniques and methods to preserve the environment. We come from the wildest of pristine Patagonia in South America, and because of this, we have always been conscious of a necessity to leave zero trace when in the wilderness. We proudly apply this philosophy to every situation and location we visit. In fact, we strive to leave the area cleaner than how we found it, a concept in which we are the pioneers. Benegas Brothers Expeditions was one of the first expedition companies to lead cleanup projects, from Everest to Aconcagua, and we operate under the belief that "If you take care of the mountain, the mountain will take care of you." To protect the environment during outdoor adventures, we implement our "Leave No Trace" policy with the following seven principles:
We rely heavily on each of our principles to ensure we keep the environment our top priority during our outings. During each of our expeditions, we thoroughly explain and put our principles into use, making sure each of our guests have a deep and thorough understanding of the best methods and practices to reduce our impact on the environment.