In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Nepal government closed this spring's mountaineering & trekking season. This immediately wiped-out the income of Sherpas, guides, porters, cooks and all those who work in the mountains of Nepal. Please help us now to support them and their families.
Any donation you are able to make via our GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-sherpas/) will go to "Sherpa Aid" from where it will be sent to Nepal and distributed to those most in need.
To help, Everest climber and chronicler, Alan Arnette is doing a "Virtual Everest 2020 Coverage" (visit: http://www.alanarnette.com/) which we are supporting across social media. Starting on 2 April, Alan plans to do a daily blog based on his own Himalayan experiences; two expeditions to Lhotse plus four to Everest featuring his summit in 2011.
Looking to the future, you can provide long-term support to Himalayan communities by climbing or trekking in Nepal as soon as this crisis has passed and we're all able to travel once more.
Our aim and focus is to ensure that Jagged Globe will be the same with the same people working for us after the crisis as they were before, whether they work in the UK or overseas.
Comments
Aren't these sherpas your employees? Shouldn't you be looking out for them yourselves rather than starting a crowdfunding campaign?
Your comment is so idiotic I don't even know where to start with responding.
I am now annoyed with both your comment and also that it has forced me to write an angry response (which I hate doing). All in not a great way to start the day.
And in reply to the OP. Good luck with the crowdfunding and I also hope JG (and all the other similar companies) gets through this ok. I know that being a guiding/trekking/mountaineering company is tough at the best of times. I have certainly benefited from and very much enjoyed your trips and courses over the years.
Good luck to a great bunch of people.
Why shouldn't they show a bit of financial responsibility for the people without whom their business would be completely impossible? There is precedent for this situation - the season was effectively cancelled in 2015 as well. What did Jagged Globe and the rest of the industry do then to look after their workers? Genuinely asking because I don't pretend to be an expert in this field, I'm neither a mountain professional nor have I been on a guided expedition like the ones Jagged Globe offer. I'd just have presumed that given the inherently unstable nature of their business year to year that they would have some sort of contingencies in place. I don't think its controversial to suggest that businesses should make an effort to protect their workers through this crisis, particularly when said businesses wouldn't exist without those workers.
My wording was a bit extreme so apologies for that.
In response, JG have an excellent reputation for supporting the locals that support their trips across the globe. They ensure they pay fairly and have done a lot during difficult times in the past to support local workers. I suspect this is not the case for a lot of similar operators.
Why do you think they will not be supporting their sherpas at the moment? They have set up a crowdfunding campaign to support a charity that supports sherpas most in need. They are looking to support the sherpa community in general and not just the relatively few individuals they work with. I think this is commendable.
More broadly, I suspect JG will be struggling themselves over this period. Companies like JG run on extremely tight margins, I believe in some cases even running trips at a loss. I am sure their business model is based on subcontracting for the vast majority of their work (they will have very few of their own employees). It would be unrealistic for them to build up a contingency to support what will be many hundreds of people across the world that support their trips. These people will be self-employed or working for local companies. Even major international companies are laying off or furloughing large numbers of their staff, let alone some small company like JG.
I do not work for JG but have used them in the past.