Backcountry Skiing in France

Great trip.

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Due to bad weather conditions, we could not do the Haute Route. Instead, the guide proposed an alternative route in Gran Paradiso

Amazing trip, thoroughly enjoyed myself. Unfortunately, the Haute Route was cancelled due to incline weather, a safe decision by the guides, but they were able to create a new tour on the fly which was still spectacular. The Guides were very friendly and helpful, were able to pick me up from town as i didn't have a car, and transport me to the starting location. Both Elis and Claudio were very hospitable, knowledgable and friendly. Highly recommend PeakHunters for any guided needs!

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Nicolas was a skilled and knowledgeable guide. We were disappointed that there were not told beforehand that we had to pay for the transport up and down the mountain. We were given the impression these coats were included in the trip. Be prepared to pay 150 Euros more than the quoted price for the tram and train tickets.

Kyriakos Rossidis is a fantastic touring and skiing guide. Our safety and well-being was his top concern. Extremely competent and helpful with equipment and all arrangements with huts, etc. Also great company — low-key, friendly, sense of humor. Could not ask for a better guide.

The snow quality was pretty mediocre- crud, ice, but the surroundings spectacular! Truly one of the most beautiful places on earth. We actually toured with a different guide, Vasile, who was careful and very competent. Nice guy too! My second time doing the VB. Highly recommend.

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This is more of an experience in a wonderful nature, than good off pist skiing!

Our guide Paulo (PeaksHunter Guides) was absolutely brilliant. Highly professional throughout the day (especially when he rescued one of our party's snow boards out of a crevasse) and very knowledgeable about the area, but just as importantly a really pleasant and positive person. We had a thoroughly enjoyable trip. Thank you!

Andre was an outstanding guide and I really enjoyed my glacier adventure! It was really amazing to be in the mountains where we were the only tracks in the snow. In addition to planning a trip that was beautiful and at the perfect difficulty level, he gave me pointers to improve my skiing and backcountry skills. I would definitely book another trip if I come back!

First of all, I want to say that we were guided only one day by Stephane Combe. I have been ski touring for more than 20 years and never without a guide. What I like about the process is the proximity to calm nature, the sporty aspect and the adrenaline that comes with it from time to time. My best outings were those where trust with my guide was total. I rarely do reviews on sites but it seems important to me today to do so as the experience with Stephane Combe was unpleasant. As a customer, I did not feel listened to. To make him agree to propose a program different from the one he wanted to do personally was energy-intensive. Then he chose a blown descent to the west to descend at noon. Obviously the snow was not transformed. We arrived downstairs at 1.30pm to be told the day was over. He apparently wasn't there to work full days. In 20 years of experience, I have never seen such a selfish, egocentric, self-centered guide, swearing at anything he doesn't like. A very unpleasant character that I do not advise anyone to meet.

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Great experience. Silvia from the Admin team and Mauro the experience guide were very helpful and professional. I would recommend this to my friends and I would gladly return for more trips.

Our giude Kyriakos Rossidis was excellent.

We had a private splitboard tour with Carine. Carine was a great guide and she took us to cool places in Val Thores and Orelle. The freerides were amazing. What a great day trip. We really appreciate flexibility of Maison des Guides who changed the date of our trip to another day because of bad weather on the day when we had booked.

Best guide Oskar.Cosy hotell. Good and frendly service from explore-Share.We are really satisfied.

The skiing trip to Vallee Blanche was very good, a guide helped us to stay safe, and showed most beautifull places in Vallee Blanche.

This was, hands down, one of the coolest and most difficult outdoor experiences I have ever had. It was visually stunning. The ancient mountains that surround you on the Vallee Blanche are absolutely breathtaking, but there is good reason to be cautious. Do not ride the Vallee Blanche without a dedicated and experienced guide. You must be in very good physical condition to take this trip on a snowboard- skiing is a bit easier because you can traverse flat land better. You must be able to handle rugged terrain, and have pinpoint accuracy to cross ice bridges between crevices. Altitude, deep snow, unexpected weather and massive crevices are just a few serious hazards that require true alpine expertise. Our guide, Paulo, and his team were incredible. They were knowledgeable, friendly, and their communication skills were impeccable. The day that we were suppose to ride the valley turned out to be dangerously cold and windy but our guide was on top of the weather the entire time. We changed our original go-date to another one with safer conditions. As someone with a little bit of climbing experience, I truly appreciated our guides priority on safety & weather conditions; trust me, you wouldn’t want to be on Europe’s highest summit in the middle of a storm. We wound up going the next day after the storm. The powder was so deep that it was impassable on a snowboard at some points. The ski poles that we rented to traverse flat land, sunk all the way down into the powder, and there was no resistance to push yourself forward. On several occasions, our guide had to attach a rope to my harness and pull me out of a powder-jam. Paulo guided us safely down the mountain, taking breaks to rest and for water and food. At the bottom, we grabbed a few beers and nothing ever tasted so good. Hire these guys, you will be thankful that you did!!!

Great service by explore share. Our guide, Fred, gave us a fantastic day. Totally wild adventure that would be impossible on our own. I’m really impressed. Thank you very much.

I initially was not planning to submit this review but after much thought, we (the four of us who participated in this activity) feel it is important for others to know the experience that we had. In addition, Nicolas was the organizer but not the guide that took us on our skiing descent so I would like to make sure that is reflected in the review. Jean, the guide that accompanied us, lacked diplomacy, did not treat us with respect and did not respond to a difficult situation as you would hope that a guide would. In this business, I imagine tricky situations occur with some frequency. In our experience when dealing with an undesirable situation with our guide, Jean, we were cursed at repeatedly, and treated in a way that compounded the situation, making it worse. This happened in front our two teen children and the only redeeming part of the experience was providing an example of how NOT to act in a difficult situation. Our recommendation is that you provide training in how to deal with situations that are challenging with diplomacy as they happen continually in life and on the mountain.

The Guide did not even know I'am on splitboard. Everyone else was on skis, I was the only one on board. Guide has no experience on board, so the daily trips was designed for skiers, not borders. I would like to know which company is responsible putting me in a ski group, Azimut or Explore-Share? If you don't know the difference between what is doable with skis and splitboards, you would not sell trips for splitboarders! In the only day I could enjoy somehow, I did very hard time to stay on my feet on icy steeps, because I should have had a crampon, but I did not have it, because the list of necessary equipment does not mention it. All the skiers had one. The guide anyway did what he could to help me, all the respect for Rafael. But the whole trip was a fuckup for me that way. I really want to know who is responsible!?

Excellent job making your platform available to all mountain lovers. Our guide Gabrielle was an excellent companion

Great Trip and Guide

We had a nice trip. Unfortunately one of us fell en had to skip 1 day. The guide Olivier is very professional, knows the area well en is high skilled. Thereby he is a nice guy and wel had good talks and laughs. He brought us to some simple but very good auberges and we had lovely meals, accompanied with good wine.

Martin provided us with a challenging weekend that stretched and developed our skiing a lot. He was very responsive to our feedback tailoring the programme as we went. Would absolutely book him again.

A great day out exploring the off piste of the Portes de Soleil. Benjamin was friendly, professional and tailored the day to our needs perfectly. I would definitely recommend him as a mountain guide to help further your off piste and ski touring skills. He offers trips in the Portes de Soleil, Chamonix and Verbier. I’ll be looking him up for sure next year. Thanks Ben

Fast last minute organizing. Great guide.

Ben was a great Guide. I can fully recommend him. I had a great day. I can also recommend him for people who are little bit scared. He stays calm and show you how to move on and give you convidence. Thank you

I did the 4 day off piste at Mont Blanc. Riccardo is a very patient,funny and professional guide. He definitely speaks all 3 languages fluently and is accessible to ask questions and plan your ski trip. His vast knowledge about the mountain and skiing are incredible.He is always on time and checks the weather the night before to determine the iternary for the next day. He is very organized and helpful too. He even came with me to get my ski gear. He will always give you suggestions on which mountain and will ask what you would like to do. Due to the bad weather, I got to ski La Flegere and Le Tour. The views were still incredible and we had fresh powder snow. I had a great time and learned alot from him. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget and would definitely recommend him.

Given the fairly poor snowconditions the ride on Vallee Blanche was really good. Our guide Daniel was excellent with stories about every peak and decent. The kids also thought we had a great day!

Gauthier was helpful and patient with my questions leading up to the trip. Our guide, Daniel, was fantastic. Very nice guy who had us feeling comfortable and confident. We loved doing the Valle Blanche and seeing the panorama at Brevent. Daniel catered our experience to fit the needs of our large group that had varying skill sets.

IMPORTANT COMMENT: the trip couldn't be made due to the weather. But both Cedric as the backoffice team has been extremely helpful in finding an alternative and solution. Finally we didn't go because of illness of 2 of the group. But definitely I will look for another trip next year.

An excellent guide, who planned an amazing route and combined technical instruction with local knowledge to provide a very enjoyable day of skiing that improved my off-piste skills and gave me confidence to try lines that I would never consider alone.

Really happy with our guided off piste tour! Kyros took us places where other people hadn’t been skiing before, which was really nice.

Merci beaucoup à Manu et Antoine, nos deux guides, pour cette excellente semaine. Ils ont été aux petits soins et très professionnels: s'assurant que chacun était en sécurité et profitait le plus possible de son séjour, de la montagne et de la bonne neige ;). L'hébergement, à l'hôtel Les Agneaux était aussi fantastique: nourriture faite maison, locale, chambres très confortables et propriétaire encore une fois aux petits soins. C'était top!

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Really great experience in Chamonix. Daniel was my guide, and he was wonderful. Friendly, personable, and seemed to genuinely care that we had a good time. Not only did he take us to some great spots, but he told us about others and gave us advice for subsequent days, and it made my whole weekend in Chamonix excellent. Highly recommended!

Was a great experience. Daniel took us to great off piste locations and catered to our level of experience

Really cool journey!

Kyros was excellent and professional! I had some delays getting my equipment in the morning, and he was more than flexible and capable of making sure I got what I needed. I would recommend him to anyone.

We very much appreciated Kyros’ professionalism and knowledge of the area. We’re fairly adept skiers but were not all that familiar with the mountaineering gear or protocol - Kyros was very thorough with his directions and making sure we were all safe. I had a 12 and 13 year old with me and he gave me a lot of confidence with his skills without being patronizing. ( Plus...he found us the goods!) We all had a great day. Happy to recommend him for or offer other intel.

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Kyros was a great guide and did a wonderful job over two days. I highly recommend him and think he's a great guide.

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Had a great experience with my wife off-piste, highly recommended!

This was absolutely the best day of our 7 day ski trip to Chamonix. It wouldn’t be the same without our guide Daniel who made us feel comfortable, welcome and most of all, safe. From the start to finish everything was perfectly planned and adjusted to our possibilities. It was not just skiing, there were times when genuine knowledge and skills were needed and Daniel showed his best. Nevertheless, he’s a kind of person you’d like to be friends with. While reading reviews about Vallée Blanche, I’ve noticed that some described this descent as a piece of cake, but in reality you should evaluate your fitness and skiing possibilities with your guide first. All in all, the scenery is spectacular, the whole experience unique and totally worth the money. Thank you Gauthier for smooth and proper communication before the experience! And thank you Daniel for everything!

Daniel was an excellent guide. He took my son to some places we would have never have gone and was able to find powder and some skiing terrain that he would not have found in the northeastern US where he typically skiis. Daniel's knowledge of the mountain was terrific. He worked with my 15 year-old as best as he could to get him comfortable with a stranger to the point where they communicated openly and shared personal stories. Daniel also made positive comments about my son's skiing abilities and about his conditioning which were encouraging. They seemed to really connect on a passion for skiing and my son's desire to return again to take on even more challenges with Daniel are strong. We highly recommend him.

The Vallée Blanche tour was really incredible and our guide, Daniel, made sure we enjoyed our day. All in all, it was one of the highlights of our trip!

Ne pas hésiter à vivre cette fabuleuse expérience, un guide super vous encadre et vous fait découvrir ce lieu magique un niveau de ski correct seulement suffit pour découvrir ce lieu unique. Notre guide Daniel nous a fait partager sa passion et son amour de ces montagnes. Il nous a aussi fait part de ses expérience au milieu de ce paysage magique. A faire !

Kyriakos was awesome! Very knowledgeable but didn’t push or feel like a lesson. If we asked a question he’d answer but we never felt like he was trying to teach. I was extremely happy with how we saw every other “group” going down more or less the same route and he brought us over to a spot that was untouched.

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Our guide Valerie was amazing. She knows the mountain extremely well and was able to take us to one run after another with fresh powder and first tracks. She pushed us hard, but also knew our limits. I highly recommend her! (And she is also an incredible and accomplished snowboarder).

Très belle journée de ski dans un décor et des conditions magiques.

Had a great experience with my wife off-piste, highly recommended!

The Vallée Blanche tour was really incredible and our guide, Daniel, made sure we enjoyed our day. All in all, it was one of the highlights of our trip!

Gauthier organised a very highly experienced mountain guide, Daniel, who was IFMGA qualified, to look after me on the day. Gauthier was friendly, had excellent english, and was totally professional and organised. Daniel guided me with professionalism and absolute safety. We became good friends in no time at all. I had a great day out in a safe but somewhat challenging environment. I would recommend Gauthier and his team to anyone looking for a safe but adventurous day out in Chamonix. My experience was personalised, adventurous, controlled and safe. I look forward to returning soon for another great day or days skiing in Chamonix with Gauthier and his team. Thank you.

The planned date was changed due to better snow conditions one day earlier and we felt like the Guide, Daniel, understood what conditions we would appreciate. Daniel took us out on this amazing trip down Vallee Blanche, on perfect snow and told us stories about the area and all the visible peaks we could see from our line.

Ne pas hésiter à vivre cette fabuleuse expérience, un guide super vous encadre et vous fait découvrir ce lieu magique un niveau de ski correct seulement suffit pour découvrir ce lieu unique. Notre guide Daniel nous a fait partager sa passion et son amour de ces montagnes. Il nous a aussi fait part de ses expérience au milieu de ce paysage magique. A faire !  

Explore share did very good job in finding a mountain guide group for me in Val Thorens. Smooth and quick communication.

Edy was a fantastic guide, the entire trip was well organised, and we had a fantastic time. Thank you!

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Francesco is awesome! Amazing guide. Highly skilled and a super nice guy. Recommended!

Claudio is an excellent guide who takes safety seriously. He is extremely knowledgeable and was able to judge our capabilities and pace our trips perfectly. We hired Claudio for a small group trip on two occasions in 2018 and 2019 and will go with him again in 2021 if we can. Our attempts at the Haute Route both failed after 4-5 days due to bad weather, but sooner or later we will complete it!

One week in a winter fairy tale. With a lot of fresh snow, freeriding all over the mountains, from top till the end of forests. Happy time to have such powder conditions like it was in our childhood...

My Son and I we're absolutely delighted with our day out skiing the Vallee Blanche. Our guide Kyriakos was friendly, helpful and extremely professional. We really felt that we were being looked after by one of the best. Kyriakos also shared his knowledge of the route, the mountains and he even gave us some tips to improve our skiing. An absolutely fantastic experience that we will never forget.

Thank you Aurelien for your outstanding care, guidance and knowledge. Best day ever!

My Son and I we're absolutely delighted with our day out skiing the Vallee Blanche. Our guide Kyriakos was friendly, helpful and extremely professional. We really felt that we were being looked after by one of the best. Kyriakos also shared his knowledge of the route, the mountains and he even gave us some tips to improve our skiing. An absolutely fantastic experience that we will never forget.

Mathis was great. He is very knowledgeable about the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc area. Our trip down Vallee Blanche was amazing and we felt comfortable knowing Mathis was our guide

Jessy took good care of us. He contacted us in good time before our actual day. Super nice and skilled. We like to ski long days and so did Jessy. If we come back we will definetly contact Jessy again.

Thursday was a fantastic day, we were lucky with the conditions and I was lucky with the company! A big thanks to you and the team for such a great week, but particularly to Clement who made each day so different and showed me so much of Maurienne - I'm sure I'll be back!

The one day we had with Nicolas was excellent max. We toured the Vallee Blanche and it was an outstanding tour and he was an amazing guide!  Thanks again Nico!

Skiing from Aguille du Midi down to Chamonix has been an experience of a lifetime. We enjoyed the Valle Blanche breathtaking views all the way down and the best route and ski conditions we could ever had! Our guide provided us with the avalanche material and safety information prior to start the run and shared his knowledge and skiing advice with us during the day. We'd 100% recommend the activity and our experienced guide Mathis! Having him guiding us made it an incredible day. Thank you so much for the unforgettable adventure!!

The Vallee Blanche is near the top of every skier's bucket list and I am happy to say that it did not disappoint! The spectacular views, various snow surfaces and inclines, and the adrenaline rush of skiing on a moving glacier cannot be beat. Mathis was an amazing guide. From the beginning, he was knowledgeable about every face of every mountain in the area. It is very clear that skiing and climbing are his passions. He evaluated us and chose the perfect route down. Even when things got a little dicey on the ridge and around the crevaces, he kept his cool and gave very clear instructions. I would 100% reccomend hiring him for this trip or any other skiing or mountaineering experience.

We had a truly wonderful ski tour with Mathis, he is a fantastic guide and incredibly knowledgeable about the area and his passionate about getting people to know and see his backyard shows! We will definitely be coming back to Chamonix to ski tour again!

Stephane was injured so arranged an alternative guide who was very good. When I booked the trip it was to do the Vallée Blanche. After I made the booking it was suggested that if that trip was not possible, we would do off-piste skiing in Megeve (where we were staying). The day was very good but it would have been better if I had been told before confirming my booking that the chances of doing the Vallée Blanch at that time of year were very low.

Excellent guide - Stephane has a unique knowledge of the area and we were in safe hands throughout the off piste tour - we can highly recommend Stephane Comte. Regards, Anders

He knows every detailed information so well..., and he advised the best course in consideration of my skiing technique and my wishes(such as would like to see good views, train the off piste skills...) He is very good guide !

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Parfois pince-sans-rire, Alex nous apporte toute sa sagesse dans son activité et n'hésite pas à nous conseiller pour encore mieux en profiter.

The tourski experience was absolutely great. The accommodation and food in the Galaberna hut were absolutely top. The excursions with Paolo were nice. There wasn't too much snow, which meant carrying skis for the first couple of hundred meters, but apart from that ... a magic first toursking experience. Olivier

Sous ses airs sérieux et stricts, Alex possède une vraie expérience de la montagne et n’hésite pas à la partager. Il nous a permis de découvrir la montagne sous un nouvel angle et ce en toute sécurité.

An amazing few days of skiing, ski touring and glacier exploring with Jessy. Jessy is a true professional, always alert, safety conscious and tailoring his trips to the ability of his clients - making for a great, memorable experience. (Photos included!). I have been ski-touring with guides for 16 years and would definitely choose Jessy again and recommend him to others.

We spent a half day with Elis on the Vallée Blanche (from Courmayeur to Chamonix) where he guided us for a wonderful tour. I recommend Elis who was very keen on making us discover the breathtaking environment of La Vallée du Mont Blanc. Nice plus: Elis is taking pictures and send them to you afterwards.

Superbe échappée aux pieds du Mont Blanc. Nous sommes partis du côté italien, ce qui évite la traversée d'une arête un peu périlleuse. Il fait du moins s'organiser pour le trajet jusqu'au départ de la cabine (sensationnelle) et le retour depuis Chamonix. Elis nous a guidé avec beaucoup de prudence et d'attention sur cette jolie balade. Nous avons été gâté par la météo qui nous a offert de faire une visite guidée avec Elis sur l'histoire de l'alpinisme de la région et découvrir la topographie des lieux. Magique !

Deux journées top au milieu des 3 Vallées. Très attentif, Jessy s'adapte au niveau du groupe et choisit les bonnes pentes. Il nous a fait découvrir de nouveaux coins loin des pistes et cela en toute sécurité. Merci Jessy, on s'est éclaté et on a bien rigolé. Au fait, tes photos sont magnifiques.

Nous avons passé un bon moment avec Jessy dans les Trois Vallées. Nous avons fait du ski hors-piste et malgré la météo difficile, il nous a trouvé de belles décentes. Il est sympa, dynamique, prudent et il aime bien les nouvelles technologies dans le domaine du ski.

Hervé est fort à l'écoute de son client, il cerne très bien les attentes et les envies. Il est aussi très rassurant et porte une attention particulière au bien-être de chacun. Il a beaucoup d'expérience, on sent qu'il connaît bien la montagne et il est prudent. Enfin, il est discret et sympatique. Je le recommande vivement !

Jessy est un jeune guide très agréable, il est discret tout en étant à l'écoute et sympathique. Les journées ne se sont pas limitées à un programme unique, il s'est arranger pour nous faire découvrir des bons spots du début à la fin.

Malgré la malchance d'une semaine avec très peu de neige, Jessy a pu nous dégoter de chouettes randos à peau de phoques! Outre sa connaissance indéniable de la montagne et son grand professionnalisme, Jessy s'est révélé être un guide extrêmement sympathique! Je vous le recommande chaudement et je garde son contact précieusement pour de futures randonnées! (Petit plus: il s'éloigne régulièrement du groupe pour prendre de magnifiques photos qu'il nous envoie en fin de journée par whatsapp ou mail!).

Nous avons eu le plaisir de passer plusieurs magnifiques journées de ski avec Jessy qui s’est avéré être un guide hors pair : très fiable, sympathique, donnant de bons conseils « techniques », connaissant fort bien le domaine skiable et s’adaptant au niveau de chacun. Jessy nous a emmené dans différents endroits magnifiques, où nous avons pu profiter d’une excellente neige et ce, alors que les conditions d’enneigement étaient franchement défavorables (il n’avait plus neigé depuis plus d’un mois). Jessy prend une juste place dans un groupe où il s’y mêle très spontanément, sans être invasif et en nous laissant profiter de certains moments entre nous. Il semblait manifestement animé par le souhait de faire vivre à ses clients une belle expérience ! Je le recommande très vivement. Charles

J'ai fait 2 jours avec Jessy et j'ai vraiment beaucoup apprécié son rapport avec le groupe et le choix des randonnées à ski. Il arrive bien à estimer la force du groupe, à satisfaire les plus expérimentés et à soutenir les moins aguerris. Toujours là au bon moment et en même temps pas intrusif. Il porte de l'attention à chacun et prends même des photos spontanément pour nous les envoyer en fin de journée. Quelqu'un de souriant et enthousiaste qui prend du plaisir à partager sa passion! Je le recommande vivement. Jean Phi

De magnifiques journées, parfaitement organisées par Romain. Une parfaite connaissance des massifs de Chamonix pour trouver des itinéraires originaux, adaptés aux participants. Un vrai talent pour trouver les belles pentes et la bonne neige. Après la très belle expérience Alpinisme avec Romain quelques mois auparavant (Triangle du Tacul ), de nouveaux moments mémorables en ski free ride sur le versant italien et français de l'aiguille du midi et du Mont Blanc.

23/20 pour Romain le deglingo... des journées fantastiques toujours super bien orchestrées. Que ce soit en heliski, randos, ski sur tous les versants de Cham, rien n est jamais laissé au hasard ! Un expert hors norme ... pour des souvenirs à vie ! :)))

The conditions were hard, a lot of wind and some cloud layers downside. Quentin managed to keep the group together and drove us trough deep powder on the lower parts of Alpe d'huez since La Grave was closed. It is an excellent guide with huge human skills ! We loved our journey with Quentin and are sure we will ride together again soon

Excellent guide. Nous avons beaucoup aimé son professionalisme et sa gentillesse.

Great moments of fun and found some lush powder in difficult conditions.

Hi Hervé, thanks for the 3 wonderful days skiing in the 3 Vallées. My family & I had a great time. You picked out the perfect runs. Hope to see you soon. Ashley.

Many thanks for 3 great days of snow powder and amazing views in the 3 vallees. Knowledgeable, cautious and takes peoples tempo and abilities into account, adapting to needs.