My Story

Hi All,

Exodus has been taking travelers, trekkers and climbers to Nepal since the mid-1970s and I visited for the first time in 1979. Since then I have returned many times and have made several lifelong Nepali friends. Exodus, with some incredibly generous support from many Exodus customers, was able to help the country pick itself up following the devastating earthquake in 2015. Unfortunately, Nepal is now in need of help again.

As you will be aware, Nepal is economically heavily reliant on tourism. Over the last 40 years tourist numbers have grown from a trickle of overlanders, hippies, mountaineers and trekkers to become Nepal’s largest industry with tourist arrivals numbering approximately 1.2 million in 2019. The biggest numbers naturally come from Nepal’s two giant neighbors India and China, but in terms of “western” tourists the USA and UK make up the next two places. With the onset of the Pandemic this level of tourism has understandably completely collapsed. Although many countries around the world have suffered terribly in terms of deaths and illness Nepal has had the added issue of its major industry collapsing and many thousands of people left with no income and therefore little food. This situation has now become critical with many guides, porters, restaurant and hotel staff left destitute.I, along with some Exodus colleagues and friends will be trying to raise money by attempting to climb the equivalent height of Everest (Sagarmatha or Chomolungma) which is now calculated at 8849m. Not being able to get to Nepal we will be substituting Meldon Hill in Dartmoor National Park UK. Now obviously it is a mere minnow in comparison to Everest, which means we will have to climb Meldon 40 times to reach this goal which should take us 4 days! We are hoping to start this “climb” on Thursday the 1st July and all being well finishing on Sunday 4th.

The ravages brought on by the pandemic are stretching the hospitals and healthcare services in Nepal to the limit and beyond. Although it is more difficult for us to help with the serious cases of Coronavirus, we can help those who have worked with Exodus locally and lost their jobs and therefore their ability to feed their families and obtain basic health and hygiene essentials.

So if you can, please help us to help Nepal. Just £25 allows us to provide a family with food and health essentials for 1 month.

Peter Burrell (Chairman of the Exodus Foundation)