Da Chokpi Sherpa

Trekking Guide

With six younger sisters to look after, Da Chokpi grew-up with considerable responsibility.  Her father had been a trekking and mountaineering guide for most of his life, which provided enough income to send Da Chokpi to high school- a rarity in Sibuje Village where Da Chokpi grew-up.  In her early-twenties, Da Chokpi decided she wanted to become a trekking guide.  This is an unusual profession for Sherpa women, but Da Chokpi had seen how this had allowed her father to provide for the family, and Da Chokpi wanted to contribute in a similar way.  With the help of Higher Path Treks and Expeditions and Karma Project, Da Chokpi was given English language training, guide training, and employed as a trekking guide.

Karma Geljen Sherpa

Director of Nepal Operations, Trekking & Mountain Guide

Karma has more days guiding in the mountains than most guides expect to have in their lifetime.  A resident of Sibuje Village, Karma began working as a porter in his teens before becoming an assistant guide, lead guide, expedition organizer, and company owner.  Karma has guided many of the 8,000 meter peaks of Nepal, including Mt. Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Manalsu, and the difficult Dhauligiri.  He has also guided technical high elevation climbs like AmaDablam, and numerous six and seven-thousand meter peaks.  Karma has worked as a guide in Nepal, Tibet, and Japan, and has Advanced Level training through the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) and Nepal Mountaineering Instructors’ Association (NMIA).  He has also participated in high elevation rescue operations throughout Nepal.  Karma is the owner of Higher Path Treks and Expeditions, a business that was started with the help of Karma Project in 2013.  Karma is the cofounder of Karma Project, and the organization bears his name.

Glen Young

Director of US Operations, Trekking & Mountain Guide

Glen has guided in fourteen countries on five continents and across the United States including Alaska and Hawaii.  He has also worked in many branches of the guiding profession, having guided extended paddling trips, backpacking trips, mountaineering expeditions, mountain biking trips, rock climbing, ice climbing, study abroad programs, environmental education programs, and outdoor programs for at-risk youth.  It was his love of mountains and culture that first brought him to Nepal in 2008, and he has returned almost every year since to guide 6,000 meter peaks and visit his friend Karma Sherpa and Karma’s family in Sibuje Village.  Glen founded Karma Project with Karma Sherpa in 2011, and pours his time and energy into helping mountain tourism workers create a better quality of life for themselves, their families, and their communities.  Glen has completed advanced level courses through the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) in the rock guide and alpine guide tracks.  He is pursuing IFMGA status, which is an internationally recognized level of training for mountain guides.  Glen is a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) Mountain and Rock Instructor, Leave No Trace Master Educator, Wilderness First Responder, and holds professional level avalanche certification.

Mick Pearson

Trekking & Mountain Guide

Mick Pearson is a professional mountain guide, guide company owner, and guide trainer all rolled into one.  His years of experience working with and providing training for industry leaders like Outward Bound, NOLS, and Mountain Madness fueled his desire to create a guide company that would help others grow not only in their outdoor skills, but also in their relationships with each other.  Mick founded Seattle-based Kaf Adventures in 2006, through which he has traveled across the country and around the world guiding rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, and backpacking.  Mick is an American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) certified Rock Guide and Alpine Guide.  These certifications represent many years of hard work and dedication, and are the highest level of qualification achievable in each of these disciplines in the United States.  Mick is also an Instructor Team Member for the AMGA and an AMGA Single Pitch Instructor (SPI) course provider.  When not running Kaf Adventures or guiding in the mountains, Mick can be found creating electronic music and making people dance, laugh, and wonder when he sleeps.

Kami Sherpa

Head Cook

The most in-demand cook in the Khumbu, Kami has been a mainstay of high elevation trekking and climbing trips for more than twenty years.  His fun-loving personality has been described as one part mystic, one part leprechaun.  He is frequently found playing jokes on unsuspecting staff members who have as much fun eating his food as being on the receiving end of his antics.  Kami has worked on large commercial Everest expeditions but prefers to spend his time working on Karma Project trips.  He is from Sibuje Village, and attended cooking and guide school in Kathmandu.

Phuri Geljen Sherpa

Trekking & Mountain Guide

Phuri is a resident of Sibuje Village in the eastern Everest Region of Nepal (Solukhumbu, Wakau 4).  He has been working in the mountains of Nepal since he was a boy, and has been a high elevation mountain guide for more than 15 years.  Phuri has guided many 8,000 meter peaks, including Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Everest, which he has guided multiple times from both the north and south.

Ang Pasang Sherpa

Trekking & Mountain Guide

Pasang Sherpa is well-known throughout Everest Region for his upbeat attitude and ability at altitude.  Pasang has been guiding mountains for more than two decades, with experience guiding Mt. Everest from the north and south, Sishapagma, AmaDablam, Lhotse, Baruntse, and dozens of 6,000 meter peaks.  He has Advanced Level certification under the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), as well as training through the Nepal Mountaineering Instructors’ Association (NMIA).

Pasang Sherpa

Trekking & Mountain Guide

Pasang is one of the happiest people you are likely to meet in the mountains.  An expert guide on Nepal’s 6,000 meter Peaks, Pasang has been working in mountain tourism for over two decades to support his family of five children.  Although Pasang has only completed third-grade (this was the highest level of education available in Sibuje Village where Pasang is from), trekkers are always impressed by Pasang’s wit, charm, and intelligence.  He is renowned for his strength in the mountains, and many trekkers and climbers have been astonished by his ability to charge up mountains while carrying a load in order to establish advanced camps.

Joachim (Joe) Meyer

Web & IT Guru

Joachim, who is better known as “Joe”, is originally from Germany and moved to the United States in 2008.  In the same year he revisited Yosemite National Park, where his love for climbing and remote places began years before.  Joe became an active volunteer for the park, serving as a group leader for projects and climbing in various places around the United States in his spare time.  Professionally, Joe was a contractor for IT companies in Germany and the United States before pursuing a PhD through which he studied mountain snowpack formation and water content.  Joe volunteers his time by working on Karma Project’s website and offering IT advice.  Without him, you wouldn’t be reading this.