Gala Bingo Employees are raising money for the Sue Ryder charity with their trek to Everest Base Camp. They should be setting off today from Lukla, and when they get to the other end they aim to play Bingo on Mount Everest. Shameless publicity stunt? Perhaps, but they’re still putting the effort in for a good cause.

Happy hiking guys,

Gareth

Arriving at Everest Base Camp tomorrow is a charity expedition aiming to raise money for
the support of people with severe learning disablities by cooking.

Yes, that wasn’t a mis-type: a chef is currently moving along the Everest Base Camp Trek
armed with the ingredients of a meal she intends to prepare for her team at an altitude of
5,360 metres, with a glacier below and the mighty Everest towering above.

Sounds like the perfect setting for a breakfast, and were not talking about milk & cereal;
the trekking chef aims to make a posh salmon and caviar breakfast on the mountain.
Suddenly I’m feeling hungry.

Here are some more photos of our visits in Delhi to the Childreach-related projects. I’m really glad that we got to see this in the run up to our Everest base camp trek.

Hope you like em!
Rosanna

Day 2 of my Everest Base Camp Trek adventure began with a much needed lie-in before we went to breakfast at the Smile Foundation’s office – the partner charity in Delhi. We had spicy crackers, biscuits and a MacDonald’s veggie burger … interesting! We were then given a briefing about their partnership with Childreach and the projects they have in India.

Then we went to visit two of the projects. The first was a college where the students could learn beauty therapy, English and basic computer skills. The students attend sessions which last for 6 months, 6 days a week. The students couldn’t speak much English and when they spoke to us they were quite shy, but they all wanted us to write our names out for them on paper.

We went to a shopping mall briefly before going to the next project and I was again surprised to see that in the toilets there was a shower hose connected to the wall to use in place of loo roll!

The next project was in a slum and I was shocked at some of the conditions the people were living in - flies and bugs were all over the food which was being prepared in the streets.

Read the rest of this entry »

Following up on my earlier post on the heroic Apa Sherpa, I’ve found a nice ecology related post on Powinthekisser:

Cleaning up Mount Everest

April 6, 2009

Nearly 9,000 meters above sea level and dangerous to reach, Mount Everest would seem a likely place to be free of litter and waste. However, you may be surprised to know that climbers over the past 50 years have left a staggering 50 tons of trash and debris and human waste along the summit. This has prompted the world’s most experienced sherpa to join forces with the Eco Everest expedition for his 19^th ascent of Mount Everest, this time not for a climbing expedition, but rather for a conservation expedition.

Apa Sherpa and company left today on their journey and will use this trip to highlight the devastating effects of the global climate crisis on Mount Everest, where global warming is causing the snow at the summits to melt at a rapid rate. Along the way, they plan on filling hundreds of rubbish sacks with human waste and litter left behind by previous climbers.

Read the rest of this entry »

As it’s the anniversary of Hillary’s famous first summit success on Everest, I thought he deserved a mention.
Sadly, he died last year, but he left behind The Edmund Hillary Trust.

I think it’s important to remember the local community and environment when making a journey like mine, especially when I’m associated with a charity. We will rely on the Sherpa people and thier kindness so much, but without groups like The Edmund Hillary Trust, their lifestyle will only be damaged by our visits.

Since inception the achievements of The Edmund Hillary trust have been wide ranging. They include:

• Two hospitals and thirteen health clinics have been built.
• Over 30 schools have been built
• Over 100 students receive grants annually from the Trust for further and higher education. A programme of women’s Literacy Classes is evolving into Adult Education.
• For Sherpas, improvements in life expectancy have been achieved through programmes to control tuberculosis, smallpox and other life-threatening infectious diseases. Stillbirth and infant mortality has been reduced.
• Almost 100,000 young trees were nurtured each year and more than 1 million have been planted in 25 protected sites.
• Several Sherpas have gained degrees following training in forestry and in national park management in New Zealand and Canada.
• A three-year Primary Teacher Training project in Solu Khumbu attracted 200 teachers and is seen by HM Govt. of Nepal as a model for other rural areas. This has been so successful that it has been extended for another three years.
• A three-year Secondary Teacher Training project was grant aided by the The Community Fund with the grant matched by the UK Himalayan Trust.
• A pre-University Campus has been established in Solu district and attracts a high proportion of young women.
• The re-building of Thyangboche Monastery after a fire was helped mainly by the Himalayan Trust.
• The building of a new monastery at Salleri was achieved by the Trust matching money raised by local people, mainly by those who now live and work in Kathmandu.
• Isolated communities are helped to re-build washed away bridges and tracks; drinking water systems have been constructed.
• HM Government has been encouraged to create National Parks and has been advised on their management.
• Sherpas trained with support from the Trust are wardens of Nepal’s National Parks.
• Above all, the Sherpas are being helped to overcome some of the harshness of their environment and to work for a better future, whilst retaining their independence.

I’ve reached my target! - Well actually I’ve exceeded it having raised £2,450! Everyone’s been so generous and supportive. I really thought it would be very difficult to get the money and convince people to donate but it was actually much easier than I thought.

I raised the money through a combination of writing letters and pestering everyone knew to help out. I visited my old school and spoke to past teachers who were interested in supporting me, and the head teacher told me to put an advert in the school newsletter to spread the word. I also put a post in my synagogue newsletter about the Everest base camp challenge. The bag packing at M&S was successful, and before I knew it, my target had been reached!

I had planned to phone up some big supermarkets in Leeds to organise sponsored carwashes, put on a few fundraising concerts and dinner parties, and I also wanted to do some pub crawls, collecting in each pub along the way. However, by the time I got round to thinking about doing these events, it wasn’t necessary!

One of the easiest fundraising activities I did was busking. In February, I played a double flute concerto from memory in Leeds town hall. The concerto is very showy, and the other flautist I did it with happened to be down in London one weekend. We’d talked about busking for some time and we thought this would be a perfect opportunity. Over that weekend we went to some bustling markets around the area I live in London. We spent one morning making a big, eye-catching poster, explaining what the money would be going towards. The weather was fantastic and there were so many people sitting outside pubs listening to us play.

We played the concerto over and over again (it’s about 25 minutes long), people listening would walk past and not realise that we’d been playing the same piece for the last hour! In just under two hours we’d raised £40!

Fundraising’s going quite well. I’ve got a couple of weeks until the deadline and just got around £500 to make until I reach the total!

If any one fancies contributing to this fabulous cause just go to www.justgiving.com/rosannaterberg and click on ‘sponsor me now’ to donate online.

I’ve just realised that I haven’t mentioned anything about how I got involved with Childreach. My boyfriend, David Milton, is the student fundraising manager for the charity. He organises the events and volunteers for every challenge event the charity offers i.e. climbing Kilimanjaro, cycling across Death Valley, hitch-hiking to Dublin etc.

Dave is going to be the group leader for the Everest base camp trek once we’re out there on our travels – the link between the porters/guides and us. (Just to clarify - Lucy, who I wrote about earlier, is the group leader for the Leeds group whilst we’re in Leeds). 

To say that Dave likes to trek occasionally is an understatement…I reckon he is the most active, outward-bounds person I have ever come across!

  

Before I met him, I had always thought that the idea of doing something like climbing to Everest base camp was absurd, but his sheer enthusiasm for hiking is very inspiring, and also seeing the incredible photos of some of the place he’s been to has really motivated me to want to do it!

I have chosen to do something quite crazy – I’m climbing to the base camp of Mount Everest for charity. On June I will start the two week (showerless!) expedition to reach a dizzying height of 5600m metres (18,370ft) to raise money for the children’s charity Childreach International.
At school I was very active and fit, being primarily a gymnast and long distance runner. However after the age of 15, from absolutely no other reason apart from pure laziness, I regretfully stopped pretty much every form of exercise! So I am now really not the fittest of people.

 

Climbing to Everest base camp is such a great opportunity to discover an amazing part of the world, but will have to push myself to the limit, forcing myself to be fit enough to climb the immense height at extreme weather conditions - it’s around -20c at Everest base camp which is colder than a freezer - and I’ll be dealing with altitudes higher than most sky divers will face! Yet more importantly, by climbing the mountain I will also be helping a fantastic charity which improves so many children’s lives.

 

I’ve been given the below itinerary, but I’ve not yet been to the socials due to the stress of the final year dissertation which is now thankfully handed in! So, I now aim to be more sociable and put all my effort into preparing for the challenge!!

 

Very brief overview of the itinerary

Day 1 - Depart London Heathrow

Day 2 - Arrive Deli and visit Childreach International projects

Day 3 - Transfer to Kathmandu

Day 4 - Transfer to Lukla and trek to Phakding

Day 5 - 2nd day’s trekking to Namche Bazaar

Day 6 - Rest day at Namche Bazaar

Day 7 - Namche Bazaar to Debouche

Day 8 - Debouche to Dingbouche

Day 9 - Rest day in Dingbouche

Day 10 - Dingbouche to Lobuche

Day 11 - Lobuche to Gorak Shep

Day 12 - Gorak Shep to the Kala Patthar summit

Day 13 - Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp

Day 14 - Gorak Shep to Pheriche

Day 15 - Pheriche to Namche Bazaar

Day 16 - Namche Bazaar to Lukla

Day 17 - Transfer back to Kathmandu and rest.

Day 18-21 - Optional elephant-back safari and cultural sightseeing in Kathmandu!

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