Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa| The man behind the magic

Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa, born and brought up in Solukhumbu, was inspired by his father Phurba Gyalzen Sherpa who worked in the travel and trekking industry since the 1970s. From a young age he saw foreigners coming to explore Nepal and also heard of many casualties due to natural calamities while trying to scale the great Himalayas. He was deeply affected by the news of people getting hurt, or losing their life in the process of discovering Nepal and themselves. Hence he felt, there could be a lot more precautions taken in raising awareness and improving readiness for all travellers in case of disaster.

He initially started off as a guide in the industry, but by the time he was in his early 20s he started his own travel company-Sherpa Swiss Adventures. He had the opportunity to go to Switzerland in 1989 for training in rescue and medevacs and casevacs, and came back to Nepal empowered with his new training and with a passion to make a difference in how people experienced the mountainous terrains. When he started Sherpa Swiss Adventure, many alpinists started reaching out to him, as they learnt of his 9 month training and experience working with Air Glacier in Switzerland.

Due to his passion to improve the conditions in the trekking and mountaineering business, he worked on educating all staff and the local community on how to minimize disaster and how to respond during an emergency. He is also a pioneer in bringing the concept of roof-top helipad to hospitals, which has now been replicated across several medical institutions.