Now you can book online for these and other Eastern Mountain Sports adventures!

NEW! WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERFALL EXCURSION
NH – Weekend adventure to visit New Hampshire's most picturesque waterfalls

NEW! BIKING, CANOEING & BACKPACKING TRIPS IN ALASKA

NEW! CLIMBS OF LOBUCHE AND THE KHUMBU ICEFALL ON MT. EVEREST
NEPAL – Finishing at Camp2 on the world's tallest mountain!

NEW! LAKE PLACID ICE AND HIKING ADVENTURES
NEW YORK - Explore the Adirondacks in the winter with EMS.

PATAGONIA THREE VOLCANOES ASCENT
Argentina - Non-technical ascent of Copahue 9,728’ / Villarrica 9,338’ / Osorno 8,728’ (14 DAYS)

MT. KILIMANJARO CLIMB AND SAFARI
KENYA/TANZANIA, AFRICA – Choose the full 17 day adventure with a walking safari on the Serengeti for $3995 or just the 12 day climb of Kilimanjaro for $2750.

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For more information, or to book your very own Eastern Mountain Sports adventure, call our travel guru Becky Harrison at
888-755-TREK or e-mail us at becky@emstrek.com.

Pasang Sherpa
Lead Climbing Guide/Head Cook/Trekking Guide

At the age of 30, Pasang has accomplished a lot for a guy from a fatherless home, raised by his aunt and mother in the remote Solu Khumbu of Nepal. From an early age, Pasang knew he wanted to climb his countriy's mountains. His hero was Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, climbing partner of Sir Edmund Hillary.

With little education and no husband, Pasang's mother turned their home into a lodge for trekkers. From these encounters with foreigners, Pasang made many friends and got his chance to work for a few different companies. As he got older, one foreign friend funded an extensive mountaineering education for Pasang, allowing him to receive his Nepali government climbing certificate.

After having climbed several of the lesser peaks in Nepal, Pasang got the chance to guide in 2000 on a joint American and British team to climb Mt. Everest – his dream seemed to be coming true. Everything went well and he'd gotten his assigned client up to camp 4, but during the night his client took ill and they had to turn back. Being a practicing Buddhist, Pasang believed this just wasn't his time to summit, and more enlightening, he said that perhaps a fulfilled life didn't require summitting Everest.

When Becky Harrison met Pasang in 2001, she felt she'd found her perfect head climbing guide. During the previous years, Pasang had also gone back to school and earned a certificate to be a head cook for treks and expeditions, along with his guiding license. As Becky recalls her meeting, "He was just the perfect package, being trained to do so many jobs made him very valuable, along with being one of the cleanest guys I've ever met!"

During their seven year relationship, Pasang has been to many areas of Nepal with Becky's crew, from Kanchenjunga to the remote Jugal Himal and even for a climb of Stok Kangri in Ladakh, India. Pasang is dedicated to Becky's vision of bringing to everyone the passion of exploration.

Pasang will be the Lead Climbing Guide on our EMS 2009 Everest Expedition.

Singa Rai
Trekking Guide and Porter Organizer

During a 2002 Kanchenjunga trek, Becky met Singa, who was then age 22. During this trek, Singa was just a porter, but he was definitely in charge of what all the porters were doing. No one asked Singa to take charge – he just did it. Since we only hire our portage staff from the same villages in the Solu Khumbu, Nar knew Singa very well,. After all, their families have been in the same area for many generations. Becky knew that Singa's personality, quick thinking and leadership skills needed to be taken to the next level, and that was as a guide. Singa already had an education up to grade 12, so English wasn't a problem, but we needed to change his perception of who he was in the social scheme of things.

Now, Singa has flourished and has proven Becky right about his talents. One of Singa's unique abilities is to solve problems and to find the right solution. He has a very quick and active mind, so he is constantly multitasking. No problem is too much for Singa to fix, and being a real thinker has lead him to win many a game of Scrabble, to the amazement of our clients.

We're proud to have Singa as part of the core staff that makes every trek or expedition feel seamless to each group.

Nar Bahadur Rai
General Manager and Lead Guide (Sirdar)

Born into extreme poverty in 1956, Nar's motherdied when he was just 3 years old – yet he persevered against unimagniable odds. Nar is currently the general manager for all Eastern Mountain Sports trips in Nepal.

From an early age, Nar knew that to get ahead he'd have to leave the very remote village of Bung in the Solu Khumbu. At the age of 20, he was hired to work on the roads in Sikkim and Bhutan, and ended up indentured there for 10 years. As Nar says, "I'd never even owned a pair of shoes and when the recruiting guys came around, we just went."

Once back in Nepal, Nar wasted no time. He headed to the trails leading to Everest and got a job as a porter carrying food to teahouses, and later as a porter for trekking groups. In 1998, an American woman noticed Nar during her trip and felt that his personality and leadership qualities were being wasted just hauling stuff around. So she paid to bring Nar for the very first time to Kathmandu and enrolled him in an English speaking course for 6 months. After the 6 months were finished, Nar was hired to trek with clients as a guide. This is when Becky Harrison met Nar in 2000, during one of her trips. As Becky recalls, "I remember meeting Nar and noticed how well he worked with my clients and realized he had a lot more potential." After their trek finished, Becky hired Nar to travel with her all over Nepal to help research her trips. During that time, they built a very strong friendship that still lasts today.

Today, Nar is Becky's manager in Kathmandu and he leads groups all over Nepal. He also takes care of all domestic travel arrangements within Nepal for our groups, and organizes everything from gear to staff. He is a very important part of what makes our EMS trips to Nepal so successful.

About our other staff in Nepal & India.

Putting together any adventure in this part of Asia takes a talented group of dedicated workers. We hire all our porter staff from the same area of the Solu Khumbu and bus them wherever we need them. That way, we can assure you a seamless trek, without needless porter strikes, gear delays, arguments over wages or other hassles that can occur when hiring unknown workers. One other reason we don't have these problems is that we pay a fair wage to all of our staff, considerably above what most outfitters pay (though you'll undoubtedly notice our prices are still well below most of our competition), so our staff want to come back each year between farming seasons. We also encourage our porter staff to take English lessons which we provide in Kathmandu so they can move up to other jobs. No one who's willing to work hard to get ahead is left behind.

Most companies don't have any idea who they're hiring to carry your gear. And this can lead to problems when porters are being paid poorly. We're proud that much of our Nepali staff are more like family to us than mere employees. We're even helping many of them put their children through school. Our staff members, in turn, are incredibly dedicated. We are constantly amazed at the lengths they'll go to in order to make out clients happy.

For more information, or to book your very own EMS adventure, call our travel guru Becky Harrison at
888-755-8735
or e-mail her at becky@emstrek.com.

Call 888-755-8735 / Contact Us