Founder Gavin Bate has been climbing in Nepal for many years, including several expeditions on Mount Everest, and in 2000 he became friends with Babu Chiri Sherpa, at that time a famous Nepalese mountaineer who had made history by being the first person to sleep on the summit of Mt Everest.

Babu Chiri came from a village in the Solu Khumbu (lower Himalaya) called Khari Khola. As it happens this village has the highest number of Everest-summitting climbers in the world (currently 28). Babu had been putting some of his money from high-profile climbs into a school and clinic in Khari Khola. He and Gavin often talked of it because, as it happened, Gavin's trek leader Ang Chhongba Sherpa came from the next village along the valley, called Bumburi.

In 2001 Babu Chiri Sherpa tragically died on Everest. His death left a huge hole in the Nepalese mountaineering world, but also for the villages which had enjoyed his support. So Gavin went to the villages of Khari Khola, Bumburi and Bupsa (all in the same valley) and offered to take over this role.

The villagers believed that this offer represented the reincarnation of Babu Chiri, in the form of a Western climber! The main projects that they asked for were:
1) The renovation of a monastery in Bupsa and renovation of the school
2) The installation of a hydro-electric plant in Bumburi
3) Help with the pharmacy in the Khari Khola clinic.

Thus began a new phase in Gavin's life and in the remit of Moving Mountains. All these years later the entire profile of the region has changed. There is now power, education, income-generating businesses and a place of worship. During all of this time Gavin has relied on the help of Ang Chhongba Sherpa and the Nepalese climbers with whom he climbs the mountains of Nepal. Consistent assistance has given the villagers a future to be excited about.

In Kathmandu we are very much indebted to Ang Rita Sherpa who helps with overall organisation.
In Bupsa we owe a great deal to Geljun Sherpa who has managed this project excellently.
in Kathmandu we could not have built our Hydro Electric plant without Brijesh Mainali and his company MEC Consultancy.
In Bumburi we could not have achieved the level of success without Ang Chhongba Sherpa and his family who have devoted their efforts to the welfare of their village.

These projects are ongoing and we rely on volunteers to come out and help take part in them, as well as donate money for the materials. In this respect we especially thank Katie Brown (Trustee and expert in alternative energy resources), John Dowling and specific donations from Elli Pirkis, Clay Smith, Shay Hurley and a number of Gap clients of Adventure Alternative.

Moving Mountains is now also supporting a locally based charity called SETU ("bridge") which runs a halfway house for women coming out of prison, to give them vocational skills and help them bring up their children.

We also support a number of children in Sapta Gandaki school in Kathmandu, which is where Adventure Alternative clients can carry out a placement.

Villagers having a party (or puja) celebrating the monastery

We first started work in Bumburi by building a hydro-electric plant which took about a year. This was very successful and in the powerhouse we put two electric mills, one for grinding corn and one for making oil. We created a local users committee and sent several of the villagers to Kathmandu to receive training in use of the machinery.

Then we electrified all the houses in the village and put in light bulbs. The school also got some and almost immediately the academic performance improved.

Next we provided the houses in the village with improved cooking stoves with back boilers so that the villagers use less firewood and can get hot water as a by-product from their cooking. Immediately this made an impact on the amount of time spent collecting wood from the forests. This was important because deforestation is such an issue for these Himalayan villages. We also supplied electrical water heaters for cooking rice.

We then bought tea rollers and driers for the village and brought several people from the village to Kathmandu to meet with tea specialists who gave them a course in running a tea estate. Each villager gave a little of their land to growing tea and several people were put in charge of production. 'Mt Everest Tea from Bumburi' was born. Now the tea is grown, dried, cut and packaged in Bumburi and it has become a cottage industry.


The wealth and dynamic of the village has changed. Now the men have come back because there is money to be made. The tea and corn flour and oil is sold in the markets of Lukla and Namche Bazaar.

We are in the process of repairing some large water tanks above the village, and also clearing areas to grow grasses with which to feed the livestock. We are planning a nursery to replenish the lost forestland and finally we are putting in a computer at the little school so the children can learn. Moving Mountains is also sponsoring children from Bumburi to come to Kathmandu to study at the Sapta Gandaki School which is where Adventure Alternative also sends its volunteer teachers.

The computer achieves more than that. Many people in the mountains need Government forms to recieve anything from an ID card to registration at the local hospital. Normally they have to walk for many days to get these forms and they have to pay for them. This computer will have the forms preloaded and we will provide a printer. This facility in itself will become a business, as many people in the valley will come to Bumburi to buy the forms they need.

Once more people come to the village, there will be a need for shops, a small cafe and a lodge. Over time these facilities will combine to create a vibrant rural community. And all because the river runs through it.

Immense thanks to Chhongba Sherpa, whose lifestory is remarkable in itself. His persistence with creating the village user committee has made much of this possible. Chhongba walked to school in bare feet when he was twelve years old (it took him 8 days) and eventually became a qualified solicitor. He is still the only educated individual to come out of Bumburi and he is the village chief. He now lives part of his life in America with wife Lakhpa and Moving Mountains supports his children. Every year he returns and helps to run our projects, gradually seeing his beloved village become the wonderful place he always dreamt it would be.

Read the Bumburi 2nd phase report here.

And the original Bumburi HEP proposal by Katie Brown here.

This was a 350 year old wreck in a small village called Bupsa in the Solu Khumbu which used to be on the Everest Trail until the Maoist troubles recently. Now it has no tourist income and survives only on its own crops. Many of the men have left, leaving the women and children to do the work. During the Maoist fighting, the villages would frequently be visited by gun-toting rebels looking to sign up the children to 'the cause'. If the villagers refused then there would be severe retribution.

We built the monastery in the middle of all of this, and it took three years to complete in stages. The structure was renovated completely and replastered and repainted with the help of some Adventure Alternative gap clients.

In 2005 the final step was to purchase a Buddha (actually paid for by Pasang Tendi Sherpa who recently climbed Everest with Gavin in 2007) and deliver it to the monastery for the local Lama to bless and therefore open the building. After Gavin's solo climb of Everest in 2005, he rushed back to the village in time for the big opening.

Now the charity supports a teacher at the monastery and ten children who are currently learning to become lamas. Traditionally a family may promote one of their children to become a lama which bestows great honour upon that family.

Our next step is to provide continual funding to keep the monastery in good repair and to ensure the Lama Teacher is properly catered for.

Also in the village we have been funding the renovation of classrooms. The original structure was built by the Edmund Hillary Trust but they were now in great need of repair.

The Bupsa Monastery completed

We funded various deliveries of medicines to the clinic and attempted to provide assistance in the form of medical students and even the funding of a doctor. It was very hard to find a doctor who would want to work in a small village where there were Maoist problems, and we did not succeed in finding anyone.

Currently Khari Khola clinic now has a number of foreign supporters and we remain on hand to provide help when and where needed.

We supplied pharmaceutical goods to the clinic

Women queue for medical aid