There comes a moment when the strength of the human spirit truly shines, and nowhere is this more evident than in the extraordinary Sherpa community. Together, we trek through tales of bravery and resilience as these remarkable individuals guide climbers to remarkable heights, embodying the term 'Sherpa power.' Our journey begins with a profound account of empowerment, as those with physical challenges find joy in ice climbing at Everest Base Camp, a testament to the Sherpas' unwavering support and the transformative nature of unseen aid.
Risk and reward go hand in hand in the high-altitude drama of the Himalayas, a truth I've come to know intimately through my personal experiences. We delve into the heart-stopping reality of avalanches, including the devastating 2014 Everest disaster and its impact on the tight-knit Sherpa community. Their unyielding spirit not only sustains them in their homeland but also transcends continents, as revealed in the story of aiding a friend's journey from the mountainous terrains of Nepal to the bustling streets of New York.
Closing our expedition, we reflect on the enduring bonds formed through shared trials and the profound impact of kindness. By highlighting 'Make Others Greater,' a charity committed to the health, safety, and education of Nepal's youth, we see firsthand how a modest contribution can be the seed for a future of hope and change. Stay tuned for insights on how you can join this mission and make a tangible difference in the world, one small act at a time.
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There comes a moment when the strength of the human spirit truly shines, and nowhere is this more evident than in the extraordinary Sherpa community. Together, we trek through tales of bravery and resilience as these remarkable individuals guide climbers to remarkable heights, embodying the term 'Sherpa power.' Our journey begins with a profound account of empowerment, as those with physical challenges find joy in ice climbing at Everest Base Camp, a testament to the Sherpas' unwavering support and the transformative nature of unseen aid.
Risk and reward go hand in hand in the high-altitude drama of the Himalayas, a truth I've come to know intimately through my personal experiences. We delve into the heart-stopping reality of avalanches, including the devastating 2014 Everest disaster and its impact on the tight-knit Sherpa community. Their unyielding spirit not only sustains them in their homeland but also transcends continents, as revealed in the story of aiding a friend's journey from the mountainous terrains of Nepal to the bustling streets of New York.
Closing our expedition, we reflect on the enduring bonds formed through shared trials and the profound impact of kindness. By highlighting 'Make Others Greater,' a charity committed to the health, safety, and education of Nepal's youth, we see firsthand how a modest contribution can be the seed for a future of hope and change. Stay tuned for insights on how you can join this mission and make a tangible difference in the world, one small act at a time.
***
Engage, Share, and Connect!
Spread the Word: Valuable insights are best when shared. Share this episode with peers who may benefit from it if you find it insightful.
Your Feedback Matters: How did this episode resonate with you? Share your thoughts, insights, or questions. Your engagement enriches our community.
Collaborate with The Disruptor and connect with John Kundtz.
Quick Connect Call:Dive deeper into the discussion. Book a 15-minute chat with John Kundtz -> Schedule here. Stay Updated: Don't miss out on further insights. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and our Blog
When you can be part of somebody's desire to try something new or succeed or become happier or achieve something they didn't think they could do before without them knowing about that, that to me is a gift.
John Kundtz:
You were talking about this Sherpas that worked with you. I think one of the things you mentioned is you started to allude to the power of the Sherpas and how it's clearly impacted me. I've kept in touch with these guys and I'll get another story on the Abilance in a second, but let's spend some time on the Sherpas, because they're just incredible people there's not a week that goes by that I'm not speaking to some Sherpa somewhere.
Gary Guller:
But of course I stay in touch with Nima because he looks after some of the operational stuff for the foundation in Nepal. I don't know if you, in the very early days, when I started to learn about Sherpa people, I was like where's this word Sherpa from? Where's the Sherpa come from? I don't even know this word. I mean, I've heard of Sherpa but you never hear it. A lot of people don't realize Sherpa actually comes from a Tibetan word which means which is Sharwa, and Shar in Tibetan is East and Wa is something from the East, and all the Sherpa came from Eastern Tibet. English people, westerners, had a problem pronouncing Sherwa and it turned into Sherpa. I just love sharing that story with folks, especially those out there who never realized, like where does that name come from, sherpa?
Gary Guller:
But something that was incredible and an incredible experience, and you brought it up earlier, john, that when we arrived to base camp with this team, I mean that was one of the most wonderful days of my life. I mean by far up there for sure. I mean you see the smiles, the completion, the laughter. These people have been told no, most of their life, most of them either from birth or from after their injury. No, no, no, no, no. And now they're on their base camp at 17,500 plus feet right. So I called down on the sat phone to my Russian friend. He flies his big MI-17 helicopters and I wanted him to bring the helicopter up the next morning very close to base camp, because we had to get back down to catch them and do this. Phase of expedition was over and I hung up the sat phone. Nima Dower Sherpa jumps into my tent and he's like, oh my God, I've got this great idea. Hey, before we all get to the helicopter tomorrow, why don't we all go ice climbing?
John Kundtz:
Yeah, I'm on the ice flying right.
Jan Almasy:
Yeah.
Gary Guller:
And I remember looking at Nima and I said, nima, can't we be happy with the success we just achieved? Why do we need to go ice?
John Kundtz:
climbing tomorrow.
Gary Guller:
And that's when I knew he got it. I mean, nima came from a village who's the poorest family in the village. His father, dower, is a very young man. He carried like 40 kilos of salt from Tibet to the Indian border and I mean he was known as the dirty boy in the village and that's when I knew he got it. He said, geer, look how far we've come, look how far we've come. I can set up some safety line on this ice wall 100 feet from here. Let's at least give it a shot, let's give it a try, and I walk everybody up the next morning. He's down at the bottom of the kumar ice wall. He sets the safety line up on this I don't know 40, 50 foot ice track wall.
Gary Guller:
And every single member of the expedition finally got over to the bottom of this ice wall and made it up to the very, very top. And if you're wondering, well, how the guys and the girls do it, they're in the wheelchair. The guys that had enough strength in their arms just pulled themselves up the face up the safety line. And the ones that didn't, they just sort of made the movement. They wanted to give it a try and it was like.
Gary Guller:
This is what I sort of call a strip of power and it was like, oh, my strip of friends and even other members of the team got around the person and assisted them. I mean it was like top of the world teamwork and not being corny with that expression, but assisted them in a way that they almost didn't even realize that people were giving them the extra help. And when you become a natural extension to somebody's I think you said at the very start of the conversation, jan, that when you can be part of Somebody's desire to try something new or succeed or become happier or achieve something they didn't think they could do before without them knowing about that, that to me is a gift.
Jan Almasy:
That ripple effect has to be absolutely insane. I mean, like you said, I actually was just talking to my little brother last night because I'm working on a book and me, gary, you and I may need to talk about co-writing a chapter in this thing because it's going to be called permission to dream 10 keys to unlocking your true self. I'm going to pull up this picture that, talking about the smiles and just helping out. This is not the ice fall, but for people to get kind of an idea, we've got lines pulling up, people literally just willing to try to enable that dream it happens.
John Kundtz:
So in the movie this is the guy that's climbing up the ice fall. So if you ever have a chance to go, watch the movie. This is the scene where he is. This is the scene where he is climbing up the mountain or up the trail, but on the ice fall, or on the ice he's being pulled up by the Sherpas. The look on his face is unbelievable because he is realizing that, like you said, people have told him forever you can't do this, you can't do this. And then, of a sudden, he's at 17,000 feet ice climbing in a wheelchair. Think about that.
Jan Almasy:
That's like when you're having a bad day.
Jan Almasy:
Living your life in a way and Gary is just embodying this principle to the utmost degree right, and living your life in a way where, if you can become a positive ripple in another person's life, right, and I'm huge on this. The reason why I'm calling it permission to dream is I'm saying the dreaming takes practice and it takes a mentor to kind of allow you to show you how high a dream can actually be and still be achievable. I think we're in this weird place in the world where we've set too many high bars when you should have really set a top bar. You just set your low bar, set your minimum standard of excellence, and then don't even worry about how high you can go, because you might end up at 17,000 feet, you don't know. And taking that person who has not believed in themselves to 17,000 feet just allows that entire network that person interacts with and now have permission to dream.
Jan Almasy:
That's your giving people permission to dream and that is just John. Every single guess that you've brought on here is below my mind. But as much as this is like a perfect way to start out 2021, perfectly to start out of Monday, I mean I'm ready to go like kill all of these expel sheets, spreadsheets that I need to do today. I am just beyond myself, like Gary. Thank you so much for coming.
John Kundtz:
That was the hope here. I said we all need a little motivation after last year's disruptive year. I've got a picture up on my screen so, as I mentioned earlier, I want to come back to the sort of another story and I promise there's a segue and it's interesting, I hope, to the other one of your other works, sherpa, stu. So, as I mentioned earlier, we trekked up to Montepachuri Base Camp in an update in a perna in February of 2004. Then our way back down from Montepachuri Base Camp to Dublin, where we were, I think, either sleeping or having tea or lunch or something, we were coming back down and, as the trail that we had just crossed over, not 24 to 36 hours earlier, was totally gone and wiped out by an avalanche, and I'm talking about a path of snow that was probably 50 to 100 yards long and of course, upwards and downwards in the mountain was just nothing but this rock and ice snow. And, like I said, if I could figure out how to show, I got a great picture of it, sort of in perspective of our team. But this was the only back to Sherpa's. This was the only time that I saw Lopsa and Sherpa actually visibly worried. Nothing phased him during the whole trip, not taking a sort of old, cranky old man up to the top of Base Camp. But this, I mean, he saw this and he all of a sudden got ultra serious and said, because it was the only way we could get right, we had to go across the path or the trail that was no longer there. So we had to scurry across this 50 to 100 yard avalanche and had no idea if that avalanche had come five minutes ago or, but we certainly knew it had just come within 24 hours. So we scurry across that avalanche and that really opened my eyes up to the avalanche experience in that you described that actually sort of segues into April 18, 2014.
John Kundtz:
I was actually in New York City on business and I woke up that morning. You know that's. That was the tragic avalanche on the ice fall that killed 16 Sherpas and, as I mentioned earlier, you know the guys we were with their day job, if you will, was Everest, not the Annapurna Circuit, and so three of the Sherpas were up there at somewhere at Everest, based in Camp One, I didn't know. Fortunately, none of them were injured or hurt. Now I realized after watching Sherpa stew that there's this very large community of Sherpas in New York and obviously one of them for a while was Dewa Sherpa and I just thought give a little bit of I'm curious on sort of the why and the how and what there. That actually looks just like the one we had, although that's-.
Gary Guller:
Yeah, that's the Cumbul Ice Wall there. It's very hard to actually picture in your so if you look at the bottom of that picture, it's gonna take you probably six to eight hours to get to about the mid-range and there could be a thousand people in that ice wall, right, that could be, let's say, 250 people in that ice wall. You would find it very difficult to pick them out. It's just the scale, as you know, the Himalayan, the scam, and until you see them for the first time, right, because El of the Himalaya is just what always just takes my breath and my heart away. But, yeah, thanks for bringing it. There's thousands and thousands of Sherpas in-.
John Kundtz:
I had no idea until I watched the segment on where they were, you know, in their I don't know. We call it a temple or their place of worship, grieving, if you will, for their community of the people that were, you know, died in the ice wall.
Gary Guller:
Yeah, I mean it was a big loss. I mean it's a huge loss, I mean because as they all are somewhat connected and most every Sherpa knows the other Sherpa in some way maybe not directly but indirectly right, but I mean it was obviously it was a very sad time and I think the history and I think it just sort of shined, you know, the focus on just how dangerous and difficult when things are going well they're going super good for everyone. But things when they turn bad, they can have devastating effects. But you know the Sherpa, they have a wonderful way of bouncing back and trying to make even the very worst situations okay with it. You know we've all lost Sherpas in the mountains or on expeditions before for a variety of reasons, and you know it's hard, it's always hard, but you know it takes one trip. Maybe one day, john, we'll head up to Queens and I'll give you an evening with Kippa or with Nemo or Lakpo or somebody, and just bring your big boy pants on, because they like to sometimes drink a lot of light beer.
John Kundtz:
Yeah, I noticed that I'll fit right in.
Gary Guller:
But yeah, I mean they. You know I feel very fortunate, you know, back in the mid 90s, you know, I mean I got, you know Kippa Sherpa, you know, his first visa, you know, into the US and since then his wife now has permanent residence. His daughter is over here, she's married, she's an officer in the Air Force, his other daughter is here finishing university and you know, to go and watch them grow up and mature and become, you know, just good human beings in the world, I mean that was just a blessing. And to go back to Queens and the stories are there. You sit on the floor, share stories.
Gary Guller:
These people I've known for what? 20 years plus, and that's like it just. I mean you can hopefully see it by face, it just it makes me happy. And every time I even FaceTime or WhatsApp or Skype you know NEMA, or it could be any hundreds, sure, but when I get off the phone, you know what I always feel freaking better about myself. I feel good. They have a way of making you feel good and I tell you, if I can pass that energy on Once a day somewhere in my life, then you know that's okay and that's something, john, you would attest to the sure, if I have a wonderful way of even if you're going slow, you're about to get sick or you're having a bad day, they could just make you feel that it's okay to have a bad day too sometimes.
John Kundtz:
Yeah, so this is a picture of the Avalanche so you can get a perspective. There's a couple of our, my fellow truckers and where, if you sort of make a path from the people across that Avalanche, where we've got to get across that thing somehow because the trail is no longer there.
John Kundtz:
So I mean, this is just again back to your point. You just don't realize the size and, like I said, it was the only time we entrusted lots on our lives. Right, he means the whole trip. People, my wife thought we were out of our minds, right, and she's like you got to be out of your board. You're 55 years old, you're gonna go for two. We I've never taken a two-week vacation in my life. Right, I mean it was like, and I in, you're on the other side of the world. There's. No, there's actually these well better communications and I anticipated, but this was an example of us. So I hopefully we can go a little longer, because I got a couple more things I want to talk about and then you started and looting on it and you sort of like they make you feel good and so talk about making you feel good.
John Kundtz:
I wanted, I don't want to stop. I want to make sure we talk about your, your 501 C3. You're not for profit. Make others greater. My experience and we talked a little bit about it, but, right, we sort of alluded to the difference between Sherpas and porters and others. I mean, when I was there, our porter, like our Sherpas were our guides, but our porters were the guys that carried all our gear, and I think we paid those guys five dollars a day, plus three meals, and they were lying down the street in Pancara to join us. So I mean, this was a good gig for them. And so what my point is is that a small amount of money goes an enormous amount of oh way a long way to do good in Nepal in particular, and so you started this make others greater charity, and I just I want to give a shout out and young, I'm hoping we can put a link in the show notes so that if anybody wants to donate, they have an opportunity.
John Kundtz:
But, but, you know, tell us a little bit about what you're doing, because it's phenomenal. From my research.
Gary Guller:
Yeah, I mean, like you know what you said, john. You know we, you know we're a very small nonprofit. You know, probably not. I think last year 99.8 or 99%, that's say, of every dollar we received, went direct to source right. The other two or three percent is what. I'm not even hosting fees. I thought my me and my wife take care of that kind of cost. You know separately and probably you know. But you have to obviously have some bank fees etc when you start wiring money or moving money from place to place. We deal in 20s, hundreds and on occasion you know thousands.
Gary Guller:
But you know we just sent a shipment to the village in Nepal. Just actually it should be arriving here the next few days. That you know for $600,. You know I'm buying thousands of Band-Aids. You know hundreds of compression straps. You know Four or five sets of crushes. You know five, four or five medical kits place in certain areas around the villages. So if something was to happen, you know they could least administer some basic first aid before getting them to a health post.
Gary Guller:
And that's kind of what we try to do. I mean Nima now in his village and I was just in his village a year and a half ago. I mean, at one point he was the poorest, dirtiest Sherpa boy there and now he has built school and we Supply that school with supplies and books and he's basically sort of the mayor of that village, you know, with a huge Focus on education and health and safety. And I kind of just said, hey, let's take this to another level, nima, and maybe see if we can kind of expedite and Improve to maybe some other surrounding villages. And that's kind of how the whole idea started.
Gary Guller:
We had always privately supported, I mean my very dear friends and my family, a number of children, but, like I said, a little bit of money goes a super long way and pretty much every last penny we source in country. You know I can buy probably 100 times more pencils in Kathmandu for the cost, you know, here in the US and that's where you can start shipping things. So but it's really good. You know it's again, it's small. We're happy, we're changing. Our focus is health, safety and, you know, education, primarily for the young people. There are folks out there in the world and I couldn't make me feel better and the people that get behind me know that somebody is going to have a better day because of it. You know, in a very remote area. That's awesome.
John Kundtz:
I mean the bottom line is $2550, $100. You might as well put a couple of zeros on it here in the United States. I mean, it's just incredible how much $25 will do in Nepal, as you said. I just wanted to give a shout out to that because it is to me. It's, you know, part of what I do and the reason I'm the whole destructor mantra is sort of to help give back to the community after a long, tenuous, illustrious, I guess career here. I knew I'd take an hour talking about Nepal because I could talk for days about it and climbing. But you've also done, as I mentioned earlier, you've done some other really cool stuff which we maybe have another session on or have a sidebar on. But you know, you've done these grueling mirathons and you've done you're an Iron man triathlete. You've obviously shown the world that you can, you know, basically do anything when you put your mind to it.
Jan Almasy:
And so you know, jan, we didn't get to some of those, but it's all part of your story, the story, if you will From the very beginning of the episode right, I'm just a student of the art, of the story right and the story of Lyon, the archetype, how to paint yourself as the hero and a vision you know, really bringing that to life and how it affects people via that positive ripple. And so this entire time it's been beautiful because the overarching concept is your dream is possible regardless of obstacle, right? So Gary went through these different stages of what he believed his dream was capable of. And then, with each accomplishment, we'll say, or with each end of a goal, that dream was able to take a next step up. Right, it was able to make it to the next camp, we'll say it started in an abyss. And I think that's what a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of times your dream manifests itself in an abyss at some point in your life, and the dream is not the automatic rise to the summit, but the blessing of being able to visualize the journey from point A to point B.
Jan Almasy:
And so you start to run into these obstacles. You, Gary's people, are saying that it's not possible to climb with one arm or it's not possible to lead this group of people up there. It's impossible to do this, it's impossible to do that. But then you start walking and you just keep going and it's an accumulation of well, we accomplished that and the next thing is screw it, let's go to the next level. Let's go to the next level. You know the Sherpa comes in and you don't even necessarily believe it's possible. But then you get other people that start to believe in your momentum more than you do and they're unlocking new pieces of yourself that you have permission to access now. And it's this giant group effort to Gary's point that starts to motivate each other. And then, john, to your point, you walk up on this path that you're banking on. You're like okay, my dream is possible, I'm gonna head this direction, I know exactly where I need to go.
Jan Almasy:
And you get there in a freaking avalanche, covered it up, and you're like shit. Well, now I don't know if I can make it across, but what I love when you guys started talking about the Sherpa mentality it's what really punched me in the face is that this overarching episode is just you look at that avalanche and the majority of people would say I Need a helicopter to come pull me out. You know, or I quit. I was relying on that path to be there. My dream is now impossible, but the Sherpa is like all right time to get serious and get all our way across, because that's just how you need to get it done.
Jan Almasy:
So, regardless of whether the path that you thought was there, they actually exist, or if it's completely destroyed, there's still a pathway to accomplishing what you set out to accomplish if you choose to see it as an opportunity. And this entire episode is just Absolutely phenomenal because, when it comes to allowing people to have the permission to seek greatness in themselves, that is what this all really comes down to for me. So I'm just absolutely Mind-blown. This is a beautiful episode. It's gonna impact a lot of people.
John Kundtz:
This is I knew this would be fun. Actually one, one, one, one sort of Point to jump on top of that comment, especially for us eight, for your apex chasers, right? So chasing the apex makes it sound like you're trying to get to the summit. What I always tell people in this avalanche story Is sort of a good example of that. We had already been to our summit Montipaturi Base Camp and then ultimately to Annapurna Base Camp. Once you get to the top, you get to the summit, you're essentially halfway done. You got to figure out how to come back down, and a whole lot of people Don't make it down, right, they make it up. And then they Say something happens. I think I'm say it's harder to get down than it is to get up. So when you're chasing that apex or you're trying to get that summit, don't forget you still got to come back down so you can come at the next time so that you can give back, except a little bit up, a little bit down.
Jan Almasy:
You know it's never really a true up. I love that, I absolutely love that idea. Right, just a little up, little down, and that's. And that's people say falling in love with the process. They say a whole bunch of different ways to try to explain what that feels like, but it's generally what I've really realized is the whole reason why I push myself so hard to Go out and seek achievement or to push people or do motivational speaking is not because I want any of it for myself. Right is because if I go out and I accomplish this, I'm a Kind of validating myself and giving myself permission First do the next goal. But then there's a ton of other people that are watching what we do and say, okay, now I have permission to seek this next goal because this has been accomplished, and it's that, I think, is a big internal Motivated for me is not to chase success so much for personal gain, but to showcase what's possible to people. That's what I love about this entire episode.
John Kundtz:
So right are any parting thoughts or stories, or and we'll have a little parting ceremony here in a second.
Gary Guller:
But right, lee. I mean that was a nice wrap up from you. Yawn for sure. You know, and it's funny how we're on very similar pages and you use the phrase the permission to dream. You know, not tend to use the phrase sometimes. We have to give ourselves the permission also to dream and also to succeed.
Gary Guller:
Hmm right, and you know, and all that note, you know, I just want to say it's been a real privilege and thanks for inviting me and Starting off my week on this very high note and hopefully, you know, god willing, this is gonna be a good week. And yeah, I don't know if we're gonna share that last little video just to remind us what is. Yeah, you know, together We'll do that.
John Kundtz:
But before we do that, if we were in person, I would have the opportunity to present you with a ceremonial scarf, which is very customary and Nepal when you are leaving, and it's a symbol of thank you and Good luck and safety and stuff. So I took the liberty and I sent both of you a Scarf. So here's my scarf. So we're gonna have a virtual sort of scarf. So what I'm gonna do, gary, is I'm gonna Pretend to virtually hand you this scarf and you can put it on and we'll wrap this show up. So here you go, pal. So you probably give us a little more background on these scarves, but this is actually the one I got in Nepal and the ones that you have are ones that I I've bought and I give out to my friends. But it's sort of a way you, like I said, when you start to leave, you get on the airplane or you leave the base camp or whatever, a lot of times you're presented with these ceremonial scarves. So I just wanted to say mama's day and Tashi, delka or Deca.
Gary Guller:
They say that right, oh, but I should have a touchy.
John Kundtz:
They say that's a day, night.
Gary Guller:
Yes, I think I was talking to you about this, john, the other day. You know or, but you know it. Sometimes it doesn't matter if it's pronounced correctly or incorrect correctly, but if you even try to say it and you mean it from your heart, then people hear it from their heart and you know. On that note, Thank you for the cat, that it will be put in a very special place in my house, that I can assure you.
John Kundtz:
We got another short video, sort of, to wrap this whole thing up and give you a little extra shot of enthusiasm to go Tackle your week and we got a new month and hopefully again.
Jan Almasy:
Thank, you very a lot of new good content to come out, so we'll show this video and then we're just gonna leave it at that. This episode has taken care of itself. Pay attention to the next time we put some stuff out. If you're not subscribed already, if you're watching this on YouTube, click the little bell for the notifications. Click subscribe so you can see other things. Look for the show notes That'll be posted later today along with Gary's podcast episode on the apex podcast about a week from now. All of the resources to the foundation, the other video clips and YouTube links will be contained in those show notes. So make sure you pay attention to those if you want to learn more about Gary. And so let's go ahead and send ourselves out.