Born in Nepal but educated in the best schools in India and then Yale University in America, Kesang returned home in 2006 to continue with the family business, STS, an adventure travel company. She has followed in the footsteps of her father, Mr. Kaldhen Sherpa, who founded STS in 1971, also after returning home from travelling to over 35 countries. Kesang herself is an experienced world traveler having backpacked through Western and Eastern Europe, South America, India, Bhutan, Tibet and of course, Nepal!
Kesang believes in the Buddhist principle of Karma – essentially, “What Goes around Comes Around” Had her father not been sent to school by a well-meaning adventurer, the Late Great Sir Edmund Hillary, she feels she would not have enjoyed the opportunities she has today. “This is why for me the very essence of philanthropic travel is so fundamental to everything I do. Sir Hillary gave my father a helping hand when he needed it most and now it’s my turn to do the same for those who need help in my region.”
Kesang has been involved with charities and voluntary work since she was a teenager in Kathmandu, supporting awareness/educational programs for street children (rag pickers), sex workers and micro finance for women. Today she supports a range of grassroots local charities in Nepal. Her specific interest is to promote education and health for children, women and the disadvantaged, and to support environmentalism and sustainable tourism.
Challenges she has taken up herself include the Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek, Annapurna Circuit crossing the Thorung La Pass (5416 m), Camping Trek into the remote Mustang Region bordering with Tibet, Paragliding and Helicopter Rescue. Apart from her native mother tongues, she is well versed in English, Nepali, Hindi, Spanish, and speaks some Czech and Mandarin (Chinese).
More About Kesang - http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2008_01/where.html
Dan was born in Gloucestershire, UK where he grew up with a love for the Great Outdoors. This passion saw him through his degree in Environmental Science and Professional Guiding and 4 years service in the British Army Reserves as an Adventurous Training Instructor (ATI).
Dan first came to Nepal in 1997 at the young age of 17 to teach English. During his ten month stay, he worked at a small school in the outer suburbs of Kathmandu and he freelanced as a guide inside the Kanchenjunga National Park located in the far east of Nepal. Here, he climbed to 7000 m on the third highest mountain in the world, the impressive Mt. Kanchenjunga (8598m). Since then he has never really left Nepal, returning no fewer than 32 times! He has a Nepali name (Dhan Bahadur Uphadaya) and has an adopted Nepali family.
In Nepal, he found the perfect combination of some of the World’s best locations for extreme sports and a mind-boggling diversity in geography, culture and wildlife. A topic of particular interest to him is environmental and cultural sustainability through tourism in Nepal. Over the last three years he has developed an expertise in high mountain sustainable development resource technology. Aside from charities helping women and children in Nepal, Dan particularly supports grassroots charities promoting environmental responsibility and Youth Leadership Training.
Challenges he has taken up himself include climbing Nepal’s 6000 m peaks – Mera, Lobuje East and Island Peak, riding a camel across India, living in the Garwhali Jungles tracking elephants and international mountain bike races in Nepal’s challenging mountain terrain, to name a few. Dan continues to guide internationally in the United States, France and the UK during the Nepal monsoon “off-season”. He has traveled extensively all over Nepal, India, Sikkim and Tibet. Dan joined STS in January 2008.
Dan speaks good Nepali, Hindi, Garwhali and French and some Japanese and German.