Why we cap groups at eight

Eight is a number we arrived at, not a number we started with

We didn't pick eight because it sounded reasonable. We ran groups at twelve, then fifteen, and watched what happened — conversations splintered, the group stretched out until the front and back couldn't hear each other, and the slowest person ended up carrying the weight of everyone's patience.

Past a certain size, a group stops moving like a group and starts moving like a queue. That's not the experience we're trying to sell, so we stopped offering it.

What eight actually buys you

At eight, a guide can learn your name by the second day and actually use it. Everyone's within earshot when something needs explaining — a change in terrain, a weather call, a decision about pace. Nobody's trailing so far behind that the trip feels like two separate experiences happening at once.

It also means the itinerary can bend. A group of eight can wait ten minutes for someone to catch their breath without the whole day falling apart. A group of fifteen can't.

Why we haven't raised the number since

We get asked fairly often why we don't just run bigger groups during peak season, when demand is highest. The honest answer is that we tried, saw the drop in what the trip actually felt like, and decided the extra seats weren't worth what we'd be trading away. Eight isn't a limitation we're working around — it's the number that makes the rest of what we do possible.