Mera Peak challenge
Our volunteers are amazing – they literally climbed a mountain for us!
Read about how our fantastic volunteers, Mike and Dan, travelled with a team of friends to Nepal and trekked for 12 days, climbing 6,497m to reach the summit of Mera Peak.
Meet the incredible team who embarked upon this magnificent challenge!
Mike, Dan, Mitch, Mark, Helen, Mike and Kev
Mike, how did you have the idea to organise the trek and raise funds for LLS and the Nepali orphanage?
Mera Peak was a progressive objective that evolved over the years of taking groups mountain climbing in the UK, North Africa, and Europe. Achieving summits as a group had given members of the team a flavour for high-altitude mountaineering and the ambition to tackle a Himalayan peak. I have been involved in mountaineering for several years, with a particular interest in Alpine climbing that involves climbing routes with all the equipment you need in one push. I was initially attracted to Mera Peak to help others achieve their goals as well as my own objective – to attempt a ski descent.
The group has a history of being involved within charitable fundraising and normally raises money when undertaking some of their more adventurous trips. In supporting LLS and the children’s orphanage, we aimed to invest in the future of children in the UK and to give something back to the community in Nepal, which we all feel strongly about.
Wow that is incredible - what a way for all of you to achieve your personal goals! What training did you have to do to be able to pull this off and how long did the trip take to organise?
Summitting a 6,500m mountain starts 12- 18 months before ever stepping foot on the ground. Firstly, you must convince someone else it’s a good idea or its going to be a lonely experience! As a group of friends, despite having exceptionally high IQs, we all tend to think these ideas sound great in the pub. Then we realise, when we undertake them, that not washing for 10 days doesn’t smell as good as it sounded! However, although the general consensus is that this was a great experience never to be relived, most of us have the memory of a goldfish and we all signed up to the next trip within 24 hours of finishing. I’m not joking – we’re are all heading to the High Tatras in Poland and Chamonix in 2025 to get 4 members of the group to the summit of Mont Blanc in preparation for the next big objective, Kazakhstan in 2026!
This is fantastic - we can’t believe the next trip is in the planning stages already! How did you find the trek conditions? What were your highs and lows on the trip?
Nepal works on a different time zone to the UK so, if you’re 1 hour late, don’t worry you’ll still most likely be on time! Despite most of the group being keen to test their shiny watches for talk of “what altitude are we at” or “how much further to the next checkpoint”, their gadgets were about as accurate as the Nepalese time. Most evenings were spent playing dominos or cards and staring at a tube of pringles (cost £10) which, being on a diet of lentils and rice twice a day, became irresistible after day 7.
The weather must have been cold because our resident Northerner Mark had his summit jacket on from day 3 but, then again, he didn’t bring his thickest jacket. Nor did Zane enjoy a warm night’s sleep when he rented a sleeping bag that had less insulation in it than Rab C Nesbitt’s vest. We did have lots of tea to drink which kept us warm and made us all feel very British, until it came to forming queues, which rattled Mike B who possesses an unbreakable spirit, until someone walks in front of him when he’s been waiting 20 minutes. Queueing isn’t a thing in some places!
No matter where we found ourselves, Dan always had Wifi and, what we initially thought was frostbite on his index finger, turned out to be where he was permanently plugged into the charging point. No lasting damage to his finger, but it did lead to him to dress like a monk for a few days. He has since recovered and is back in his surgical scrubs for work. Helen did have to endure the company of 7 grown up men for 21 days and was glad when she came across the odd animal on the trail to have a decent conversation with. Unfortunately, Mitch spent the first half of the trip under the weather and the second half decontaminating his clothes after a rather unpleasant period of sickness.
This may all sound terrible, but it is the memories of adversity, adventure, and the company of friends to share it with that make some of the less favourable moments become the focus of our tales when we get a chance to recall them (usually back in the pub). Already you can see the pattern emerging for how the next adventure begins!
Absolutely - you have certainly all made lifelong memories. We can’t imagine you’ll ever run out of stories to tell! Can you tell us more about the orphanage you visited?
Sertshang Children’s Home has been established since 2002, helping over 100 children with 23 children between 9 and 18 currently being cared for in the home. Kunkep, who was previously a resident at the home and is now forging a career in medicine, is a great ambassador for the home. He was looked after in his tenure by Methok, who still looks after the children within the home, and it is clear the children are thriving under their tutelage.
The children that we spoke to when delivering a CPR session all told us of their ambitions to become engineers, accountants, and doctors. There Is a real sense of family within the home and the development of sustainability not only in the children’s ambitions, but in the opening of a coffee shop (that would rival your local Starbucks!) to create independence for the children who work there and the long-term future of the home.
How do you and the team feel now you are home?
A true testament to the fortitude of two of our team members were the challenges of managing type 1 diabetes at altitude and the remote nature of the trek. The true limits of human endeavour should never be underestimated. The experience of summiting some of the worlds remote and high destinations is incredibly ephemeral. You spend 12-18 months planning, 6 months training, 12 days climbing, to stand on the summit for 10-15 minutes for the breath-taking views and solitude. An experience we shall all remember, but Poland and the High Tatras are calling and so the next experience commences as quickly as the previous one ends.
Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints, climb as high as you dare dream!
These are beautiful last words Mike – thank you.
We’d like to give a huge THANK YOU to Mike, Dan and the rest of the team for literally climbing a mountain for us and the Nepali orphanage and raising a whopping £8,700! We are so humbled and grateful to you all for choosing us as one of your causes and we look forward to hearing about your next endeavour!
Every £5 raised for Little LifeSavers charity helps us teach another child how to save a life.
Little LifeSavers teaches Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills and CPR to children from ages 9 – 13 within school in term-time. There is no fee for the training. However, if your school would like to fundraise for our charity, then this would be gratefully received.
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