Author and mountaineer Jon Gangdal has spent several years in Nepal on expeditions and development work since his first climbing trip to Nepal in 1989. He became hooked on high mountains then, and has later climbed Mount Everest and four of the other fourteen mountains over 8,000 meters, most of them together with Sherpas from the Rolwaling valley below Nepal’s holiest mountain Gauri Shankar/Tseringma. At the beginning of the 2000s, the valley was in the process of being depopulated due to a lack of schools, health services, electricity, hotels and other infrastructure. Through the Rolwaling Foundation that Jon started, it was given new life. As an international board member of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) from 2010, he was also involved in developing the entire area around the sacred mountain. In 2025, the book GUILT & GLORY – Climbing with Sherpas was published by Vajra Publications in Kathmandu – a key work on Sherpa culture and the climbing industry in Nepal. Now Jon will also share his experiences with Impact Nepal, especially in preventive health work.
