Pema Sherpa

Specialities

• High altitude trekking
• Acclimatisation planning
• Trail photography

About Pema Sherpa

Pema grew up in Namche, which means he was walking the Everest trail before he had any idea people flew across the world to do the same thing. He started as a porter at nineteen, took his guide licence four years later and has led the Base Camp route more than a hundred times since.

What travellers write to us about afterwards is rarely the view. It is that he noticed somebody was struggling two hours before they said anything, and quietly rearranged the day around it. He checks oxygen saturation every evening, he knows which lodge on each stage has the warmest dining room, and he will turn a group around without hesitation when the numbers say so.

Out of season he runs first aid refreshers for younger guides in Solukhumbu and takes photographs, which is why the groups he leads tend to come home with much better pictures than they expected.

Strengths

• Altitude judgement Daily oximeter checks, and the confidence to call a descent early rather than late.
• Knows the light He will get you to Kala Patthar at the right hour, not just at some hour.
• Lodge knowledge Fourteen years of knowing which tea house on each stage actually heats the room.

Routes led

• Everest Base Camp
• Gokyo Lakes
• Three Passes
• Everest View trek

Training and certification

• Nepal Tourism Board trekking guide licence
• Wilderness first aid, refreshed annually
• High altitude illness recognition and management
• Basic rope and glacier travel for the Cho La crossing

What travellers say

He turned our nephew back at Dingboche for one day and the boy summited Kala Patthar two days later. That decision made the trip. Rakesh and Meera, Lucknow

Twelve days and he never once made us feel rushed or babysat. The photographs he took of our group are framed at home. Sophie L., Melbourne