Our extended family

I forgot to mention - on the way in and out to and from Ama Dablam my friend Tashi at Ama Dablam Lodge had mentioned that a friend of hers had lost her husband in the 2006 avalanche on Ama. Anyway I agreed to meet Sheeta Putti and she is just such a delightful lady. She has 3 children and the youngest is 4 - so has grown up without a father. The older 2 are 12 and 15 and are at boarding school in Kathmandu.

Anyway it turns out that the company that Mingma Nuru Sherpa had been working for gave a one off payment of Rs40,0000 (around £3,000) as compensation and she hasn't heard from them since. Mingma was obviously the wage earner and guess what, they don't have life assurance policies out there.

So the long and the short of it is that we are now sponsoring her 4 year old. It's pretty cool as I'd been racking my brain trying to think of a scheme or charity to get involved with - particularly something in The Khumbu. But everything is so well set up there already and I don't just want to end up giving a bunch of money to an organisation that is actually doing alright anyway.

Sheeta, Tashi and Tashi's sister.

So there you have it - some proceeds from all future Ama Dablam Expeditions will be going to help and support a family who have lost their husband and father. It so happens that Mingma was also a cousin and brother of Nyamgal and Germi who I have worked with many times on Ama. So it's quite poignant really.