Have stayed mum about the recent earthquake tragedy in Nepal – and my planned Everest excursion this August.  For now, all’s still a go – Spring season is closed but Fall climb season remains hopeful.

More than 9,000 Nepali people have perished in the Apr 25^th & May 12^th earthquakes – literally, hundreds of thousands of people are displaced, sleeping outdoors.  People are fighting for survival, yet I am climbing a mountain?  Mighty self serving, huh.

Everest Base Camp a ‘War Zone’ After Earthquake Triggers Avalanches

The local climbing team reached out before the 2^nd earthquake (a 7.4 aftershock), asking folks not to cancel – that the country would need economic dollars.  Mentally though I remain conflicted.

we are in need of your support now more than ever! As things are slowly getting back to normal and people resuming their daily lifestyle, you can help us by coming to Nepal, visiting us and boost the morale of this devastated nation. In this time of need, we urge you to help us rebuild our nation from this disaster. We would like to assure you that our services will not be compromised and there shall be no hindrance while operating the trips.

We look forward to your support to Nepal and its people.

Visited the American Mountaineering Museum last night in Golden.

Attended a Nepal Relief benefit, hosted by a local Sherpa living in Boulder.  Many Coloradoans have visited Nepal – and those of us who haven’t, feel a connection because of common geography & our love of high peaks.

Pemba Sherpa will travel to his hometown, Sengma in mid-June.  His goal to build 200 homes at a cost of $1,000/home before heavy winter weather hits in November – puts it all into perspective, huh.

If you can donate, Pemba Sherpa’s details are:  www.youcaring.com/boulderpemba

100% of your contributions to this campaign will go to helping the people of Nepal whose lives have been devastated by this recent disaster. As we all know, Nepal and its people have been rocked by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which had left thousands upon thousands sleeping in the streets, country wide blackouts, and over 5000 dead. Please, donate what you can and you can rest assured that your entire contribution will be brought to Nepal by me personally when I travel there in June to support the relief efforts.

There are many ways to help.  I have personally supported the following 2 immediate-need operations.

To support our fundraising efforts via GoFundMe.com, please click on the following link: https://www.gofundme.com/t95dm85d

 

Finally, as you can imagine our recovery will require the efforts of a lot of people.  We are also asking for volunteers to help us in Nepal.  If any of you or someone you know are interested in volunteering in Nepal please contact us at sagar@himalayanglacier.com

WE’RE BETTER TOGETHER

We are humbled by our members’ overwhelming response and the collective power of the co-op. In just 24 hours, over 4,500 of you donated more than $350,000 to help the people of Nepal. This unprecedented level of support is indicative of the strong connection our members have to the people of this area.

 

If you want to share with others, here’s how to get involved:  SUPPORT NEPAL RELIEF EFFORTS

 

Jerry Stritzke, REI President and CEO

Kilian Jornet

 

“Nepal will climb now one of the most difficult mountains, and we, this time, must be their porters”

 

We are back home, Jordi Tosas and me have been almost 20 days in Nepal, changing the plans from climbing to helping the people who has been giving so much to all alpinists.  We arrived at Kathmandu 2 days after the earthquake, expecting a big destruction on the city as we saw on the medias.  Kathmandu was (is) not collapsed, just a few located buildings.  After a week the life on streets was “normal”.

 

Jordi has been many (28) times on Nepal and has many friends on Langtang area, so we were going straight there.  The destruction there is huge, the valley did not exist as it was anymore.  Big landslides and avalanches collapsed the valley and all the people there.  The dimensions of the avalanche on the upper valley are not human, not even on a science fiction film.  We was reporting identities and finding persons.  After that we meet people from ACTED association and we join them to run on remote villages in Ganesh and Tamang areas asking their needs and making the trails destroyed, and giving after food and shelters.  Last days we saw the help has been well expanded, many associations are working really hardly to give food and shelters to all the country, after a few weeks where the corruption and slow decisions of Nepali government was slowing down the help.  In Kathmandu we had a last earthquake that make more fear to the population.

 

Now Nepal need help, mostly on remote areas to get shelter before the monsoon that is coming soon. Many ONG are on place giving the help on the moment, and it is important to help them, they are many good options. But it will be really important to continue traveling there, to impulse the local economy and reconstruct the trails and villages and give the continuity and money they will need to survive from tourism.

 

Nepal is a poor country, many people is living with nothing and after the earthquake on many mountain areas they lose everything.  But the smile was always on the their faces, Nepali people have a incredible capacity to fight problems, to be positive and strong on the pain, to find the happiness on the small cracks.  We was going there to help them and they help us with their friendly reception, with their smile and shearing all they have.

 

Namasté