February 28th
Nawang flies back to Nepal tomorrow from San Francisco. He will be busy back in Kathmandu preparing for the rest of the team to arrive there on March 17th.

February 25th
Nawang flies to Colorado to visit Jangbu Sherpa and Steve Sheridan, his friend who connected Nawang with Walter Racette and arranged for his first prosthetic leg back in 2000. While in Colorado, Nawang will shop for equipment and be interviewed by the press.

February 20th
Nawang flew from Minnesota to San Francisco for a series of festivities and meetings before he returns to Nepal. His good friend Jangbu Sherpa flew in from Colorado to be with him in the San Francisco area for the next few days. Today they attended a celebration and Tibetan puja ceremony (shown at right) at the AMB headquarters in San Francisco. Among attendees at that event was Walter Racette, Prosthetist/Orthotist at the Department of Orthopedics, University of California at San Francisco Medical School. Walter fitted Nawang Sherpa with his first prosthetic leg in May 2000.

Tomorrow Nawang and Jangbu will join other Sherpa friends in the Sonoma Valley wine country north of San Francisco for traditional Lhosar (Sherpa New Year) festivities.

February 13rd
Nawang is in the US! He arrived in Duluth, Minnesota on February 9th courtesy of The High Exposure Foundation, founded by the late Ed Hommer.

This is the most important part of Nawang's preparation to climb Mt. Everest. He will start testing the various new prosthetic legs designed for him by his friend and prosthetist, Tom Halvorson. They are currently considering what will be the most lightweight and efficient systems to use as Nawang climbs higher and higher up Mt. Everest. This weekend Nawang will get a chance to "field test" these leg systems by joining his friends and sponsors from Granite Gear for some ice climbing in the area.

February

This month Nawang travels from Nepal to Minnesota for a "fine-tuning" of his prosthetic leg (Feb. 9-19), then flies to San Francisco for a traditional Puja Ceremony and celebration at AMB Property Corporation offices on February 20th. He will return to Nepal on February 24th.

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Tom and Nawang pose outside the headquarters of expedition sponsor AMB Property Corporation, on the waterfront of San Francisco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expedition Update

Nawang visits the U.S. to prepare for the expedition

Nawang and Jangbu are childhood friends from the same village area of the Solukhumu region of Nepal.They both have pursued careers in high altitude climbing, and enjoy the chance to catch up on news from their families and friends when they see each other in the US.

Arjia Rinpoche from the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom performed a special puja ceremony at the beautiful headquarters of AMB to bless the expedition and its team members.

Walter Racette from UCSF, who provided Nawang with his first prosthetic leg in 2001 was on hand to celebrate and wish the team good luck..

 Nawang testing ice gear and his new leg near Duluth, Minnesota USA

 

 

Tam Halvorson, Nawang, and John Cron take a break during the ice climbing session. Tom has served as Nawang's prosthetist/orthotist for the past two years. John works for our wonderful expedition sponsor, Granite Gear.

Through The High Exposure Foundation, established by the late Ed Hommer, they have provided Nawang with the chance to come to the US for state-of-the-art prosthetic equipment that will allow him not only to climb Mt. Everest, but to continue to pursue his career as a climbing guide.