Dr. Kami Temba

I had my primary schooling at Thami in one of the first primary schools set up by the Himalayan Trust. I then attended Khumjung school for class 5 to 7. Khumjung is 3 hours walk from Thami. My colleague and I shared a small room in Khumjung and we spent the first two years there. Since the life was so hard as we were only 12 years old and we had to do everything such as cooking, collecting firewood, carrying food from Thami etc by ourselves, we both felt two years in Khumjung was more than enough and decided to walk every day from Thami for the last one year. By then we both were 14 yrs old and walked 6 hours a day but enjoyed it more than our previous two years. We then received scholarships from the Himalayan Trust to complete our high school from Salleri.

After high school, I came home and worked one year in Thami school as a teacher and part time health worker in Thami health clinic. Then I worked the last 19 years (1977 to 1996) at Khunde hospital before I joined the Fiji School of Medicine in 1997. I graduated at the end of 2000 and came back to Nepal and started my internship in Patan Hospital in Kathmandu. It is a one and a half year's programme. In 2003 I became the Superintendent at Khunde Hospital. I am also very proud of the fact that my son has just been accepted as a student at the Nepal Medical School.

Apa Sherpa is the only man in history to reach the top of the world 15 times. As the world record holder of the most summits of Everest, Apa is widely recognized to be one of the greatest living mountaineers.

Ironically, summiting Everest was never a goal for Apa. At 12 years of age, he first began working as an expedition porter to earn money following the untimely death of his father. Leaders and trekkers alike immediately noticed the child who, despite his exceedingly small stature, carried loads greater than his own weight with strength, quickness and a wide smile.

Coming from Thame, the hometown of Everest legend Tenzing Norgay, it was almost inevitable that Apa would become a high altitude sherpa on Everest. He began carrying loads on Everest in 1988, but it wasn’t until May 10, 1990, that he reached the summit for the first time along with Rob Hall, Gary Ball, and Peter Hillary.

Since that memorable day, Apa has participated in 16 Everest expeditions and reach the summit 15 times. By adhering to a simple philosophy that “Everest will always be there,” Apa has led his teams to amazing success without loss of life. He is the recipient of three medals of commendation from the royal family of Nepal as well as being recognized by mountaineering associations around the world.

If Apa could have planned his life, differently, however, he says that he would gladly have given up the world record for a good education and a career as a medical doctor. That is why education for his own children and for other Thame children is his top priority.

Susan Purvis

Sue Purvis is a certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician, Lead Instructor with Wilderness Medical Associates, and owner of Crested Butte Outdoors.

Sue offers a unique and valuable perspective on the challenge of providing medical care in remote and extreme environments, and the ability to teach from a solid base of practical experience. She has worked and traveled around the world for over 20 years as both a wilderness medical instructor and exploration geologist. Her professional work has taken her to remote places such as Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, Antarctica, the Amazon, and the rugged mountains of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. She calls Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado at 9,500 feet above sea level her primary home. Sue is an avid mountain bike rider, backcountry skier and backpacker.  

In a career that began in 1985, Sue has served as an wilderness survival instructor, a professional geologist, ambulance EMT, professional ski patroller, and backcountry ski guide in Colorado.  Over the past 10 years she divides her time between assisting with orthopedic trauma and emergency medicine at an urgent care clinic at the Crested Butte Ski Area, and teaching wilderness medicine and SAR courses. 

Sue is a  member of Crested Butte Search and Rescue, Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado, and owns and handles a search dog named Tasha. She has been called to over 60 missions in the high country of Colorado with her search dog. 

In 1997, Sue founded the company Crested Butte Outdoors (CBO). To date her company had taught over one thousand students worldwide. CBO offers wilderness medical courses, wilderness search and rescue courses, and avalanche courses. She offers courses in Colorado, California, Utah, New Mexico, Africa, and Nepal.

Roger Kehr
Having been intensely involved in both the mountaineering and business world Roger now finds unique avenues to combine the two.  Founder of Utah’s “Backcountry Awareness Week”, "Snowbird Expeditions", “Snowbird University”, “Beacon and Eggs”, and the “South Jersey Surfrider Foundation”, Kehr looks for synergy in corporations and non-profit organizations involvement in outdoor adventures.  Kehr combines these experiences with certifications in mountain guiding, wilderness medicine, snowboard instruction, windsurfing instruction, avalanche awareness, cinematography, commercial still photography, IOR racing, amateur radio, and extreme altitude medical training in third world countries. Kehr's photo credits include full pages in Time Magazine, product photography for  major corporations, documentaries from 9,000 to 19,000 feet including the Powderkeg, shooting for PSIA, Snowbird, Tusker Trails in Tanzania, and an Independent surfing film "Shore Break".  Kehr's events have been featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines from The Salt Lake Tribune to Outside Magazine.