Reaching the summit to help the people of Nepal

The Himalayan Trust’s Summit Challenge has wrapped up for 2020 with 220 challengers who walked, hiked, biked and climbed the 8,848m height of Mt Everest in the month of March. Together they raised over $36,800 to help deliver education, healthcare and safe drinking water to the people of the remote and mountainous Solukhumbu District, also known as the Everest region. Thank you to everyone who took part and donated!

A hearty congratulations and an enormous thank you to our top fundraiser, Marcus Simons, who raised an incredible $1,642. Not only did he blow us away with his fundraising efforts, he also far exceeded the physical target, climbing 12,540m – that’s close to one and a half Everests!

A special mention must also go to our youngest challenger, six-year-old Jason, who raised $793. According to his parents, Jason recently became fascinated by Sir Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, and wanted to learn more about Nepal and Mt Everest. So his family took on the Summit Challenge as a learning opportunity for Jason and a way for him to connect with his heroes. As a six-year-old, Jason wasn’t quite ready to climb Everest, so together with his family he set a goal to walk the 8,848m distance during March. They smashed their target, reaching an impressive 20,560m. That’s a big distance for little legs!

We also want to express our gratitude to our challengers for completing the Summit Challenge under more difficult conditions than usual as COVID-19 spread across the world. Many people had planned to complete the challenge on hikes that they could no longer do because of lockdown restrictions, so instead finished off in their own neighbourhoods. One of our participants Renée, who lives in Italy, told us in early March she had to switch from elevation to distance around her apartment, as the country locked down after becoming one of the worst-hit areas. We can’t thank you all enough for persevering as the challenge got unexpectedly tougher, you truly embodied the spirit of Sir Ed in your efforts.

Thank you once again to everyone who took part and supported the challengers with donations. We look forward to seeing you again for the Summit Challenge 2021!