2017 Everest Expedition — Meet the Team

We know many of you are fol­low­ing along and shar­ing in the excite­ment of our 2017 Ever­est Expe­di­tion, so we’d like to intro­duce the team and give you some behind-the-scenes of this year’s adventure.

Five accom­plished climbers con­sti­tute our team, along with guides Oswal­do Friere (“Ossy”), and Jacob Schmitz. We’ve joined forces with Moun­tain Trip, our long-time part­ners on Denali, and we have the best pos­si­ble com­bi­na­tion of a small climb­ing team plus exten­sive sup­port and expe­ri­ence behind them.

The 2017 Ever­est Expe­di­tion team at Ever­est View Hotel in Nam­che Bazaar. Left to right: Expe­di­tion Guide Ossy Freire, Chris Jen­ta, Ter­ry Kel­erer, Jay Mar­tin, Ivan Wade­man (top), Chris Hill, Expe­di­tion Guide Jacob Schmitz. Jacob Schmitz photo

Of course, a major com­po­nent of any expe­di­tion’s suc­cess on Ever­est is the Sher­pa team, who are respon­si­ble for mak­ing sure every­thing is set and com­fort­able for the climbers. Our Sher­pa climbers have been the same core staff for many years, and most come from the vil­lage of Kuri­ma in the Solukhum­bu. It’s hard to over­es­ti­mate the amount of hard work these guys are doing right now, in antic­i­pa­tion of the climbers’ arrival.

Climb­ing Sher­pa team:

• DaOngch­hu Sherpa
• Tarke Sher­pa
• Tawa Chhiri Sherpa
• Pem Ngi­ma Sherpa
• Ngatem­ba Sherpa
• Nyamgel Sher­pa
• Ming­mar Sherpa
• Kaji Sher­pa
• Ten­di Sherpa
• Kar­ma Sherpa

We have an addi­tion­al group of folks in charge of logis­tics and sup­port, includ­ing man­age­ment, resup­ply, and cook­ing for every­one at Base Camp and Camp 2.

Sup­port and kitchen staff:

• Sar­ki Sher­pa (Head Chef and Staff Manager)
• Min­du Sherpa
• Lhak­pa Tenzi
• Ang Dawa Sherpa
• Sarke Sher­pa
• Dagel­je Sher­pa (Camp 2 Lead Cook)
• Ming­mar Sherpa
• Ngawang Goden
• Dawa Gel­jen Sher­pa (Sir­dar and Base Camp Logis­tics Manager)

This exten­sive list should give you an idea of the mag­ni­tude of effort involved to sum­mit Ever­est. In addi­tion to the indi­vid­ual effort by each of our climbers, we are awed by the plan­ning, hard work, and expe­ri­ence of all our Sher­pa climbers and staff.