Summiters
The Rolwaling Mountaineering School
March 24th - May 4th
During our time in the Valley, we will be accompanied by numerous staff members to facilitate your learning experience. Based upon an expected group size of 12, we will have two experienced Everest Summiters who were born and raised in the Rolwaling Valley. Not only have they participated in countless expeditions throughout the Himalayas, but they grew up in the valley and know it better than any outsider. They were crossing its passes and visiting its lakes before most of us ever dreamed of visiting Nepal. The two Summiters we expect to accompany us in 2003 are Dawa Chhiri and Tsering Dawa. (or Nima Dorje). They are a few of the younger members of the Everest Summiters Club, and organization made up of about thirty Rolwaling natives. These mountaineers will be responsible for most of the technical climbing training and in charge of our summit attempts.
Helping the Summiters with the school will be Pepper Etters, our American Field Manager. He is responsible for more of the theoretical training and logistics planning. Pepper comes from the Mountains of Colorado where he has spent a large part of his life working and playing among the giants. In addition to working as a Climbing Instructor and Backcountry Guide, Pepper has worked as a Raft Guide and is an avid Kayaker.
Rounding out our instructional team will be one additional support climber whose job it will be to assist our team in providing you with the best instruction possible. These four instructors give us a maximum student to instructor ratio of 3:1 allowing us to provide individualised attention and instruction.
Some of the most important members of are team, are the ones who often go unnoticed. In order for our expedition to be successful, we will enlist the services of numerous porters, cooks and kitchen staff. These individuals make our experience more enjoyable by helping with the less glamorous but necessary aspects of mountaineering such as hauling gear, cooking and cleaning. We hope to fill all of these positions with Rolwaling natives.