Just recently my posts have strayed from the true aim of this website, and that is to make a positive change in the world; be it small or large I believe enriching or improving the lives of others is one of the most noble things we can achieve. Furthermore, I believe that as I sit here in a position of privilege through no other means than pure luck, it is my duty to my fellow sapiens to better distribute the bounties this world has to offer. This train of thought led me down a path of pondering that is somewhat contained within the paragraphs below.
Let’s face it, modern technology is great. From computers, TV’s, travel, and all of our other luxuries right down to having immediate access to as much water, food, clothing, and as much shelter as we require, we have become the masters of our existence; however, one thing that has been prominent throughout history is how this bountiful wealth has been divided up. We are born into either luxury or poverty by nothing more than mere chance, a cruel truth but with the right mindset one that can be used from a position of fortune to raise up our less fortunate brethren.
One poignant thought that returns to me time and time again is from my trip to basecamp, a young boy accompanied our party as a porter, his name escapes me (a scathing reflection of my aural and oral ability to pronounce Nepalese names) but we connected thanks to his ability to speak English (an amazing trait I am always in awe of being only monolingual) we spent a few nights over firelight discussing our differing lifestyles and our hopes and dreams for the future. Whereas my hopes and dreams were of grand travel excursions, meeting people from all walks of life, and accomplishing my lifetime achievement of climbing the seven summits, he held a humbler set of goals in his mind.
International Relations. 
Dawa the lead guide, from humble beginnings to a noble career.
He pushed me to tell stories of past adventures, of the lost city of Machu Picchu to the rolling savannah of Tanzania, however the stories he was most interested in were the ones from a less exotic locale, the coastline of the UK. It took me by surprise at first but the more we discussed it the clearer it became. He couldn’t conceive of the Ocean, he had spent the entirety of his 22 year existence trapped in a landlocked country high up above sea level. What I saw as a cheap day out or an easy weekend getaway was to him one of his biggest childhood dreams, I asked him why he/his family had never travelled to the coast as I knew they were not poverty stricken, his reply was that for many Nepalese people the issue came with visas, not only could most not hope of visiting the coast, but most also couldn’t even hope of leaving their country without a sponsor. This is where it first started to hit home about privilege.
Travel abroad is an annual occurrence for many of us, a passport, airfare, and visas are just formalities easily overcome when you are from a Western society. I am thankful for the opportunity to visit these amazing places and connect with these amazing people, but it opens your eyes to a previously unseen world that we are all quite happy to overlook in our blissful ignorance, I spoke to multiple others in our group and their goals were all (to many of us at least) what we would consider meagre. Our lead porter Chappel was learning languages in order to progress to be a full Himalayan Guide one day, he wanted textbooks to help the learning process. Another in the team had spent his entire life living in a rural village making a living with his wife as a porter and selling trinkets to passing tourists, he wanted to visit Kathmandu and some of the surrounding temples. A third member simply wanted to buy himself some new walking equipment.
Chappel and I celebrating a successful trek with a well earned beer or 4!
The three things mentioned above do not and would not cost the world to me and you, however to the men, women, and children of the region it would mean the world. As I sat on the plane back to Heathrow, I wished there were more I could have done to help these people who I had come to see as friends over the past 3 weeks, instead they will slide into ambiguity due to the fact I have no way of keeping in contact with them. It wasn’t until recently that I decided it was time to make a difference and that if I could help even one person from a less privileged background than me to achieve their dream, then it was my moral duty to see to it come to fruition. Hopefully for 2021 I will finally get to depart on my postponed 2020 trip to Russia and the Caucasus region, my aim in the months leading up to that is to get myself into a position where I can make a positive impact for some of the less fortunate I will undoubtedly cross paths with.
Leave me a comment with any heart-warming stories you may have from your travels, I’d love to hear how likeminded people are pushing for positive change within the community.
As always, thanks for reading my ramble. Sam.
7 Summit Stories 