Our team
The people you will actually walk with
Everyone here is from Nepal, and most of us are from the hills we guide in. The person who plans your trip is never more than a phone call from the person who leads it.
Who we are
A small office in Pokhara, and a wider family of guides, porters and hosts along the trail.
Bishnu Gurung
Founder and lead guide
Grew up in Ghandruk and has walked the Annapurna mid-hills since he was old enough to carry a load. Started EEM in 2013 after twelve years guiding for other people, mostly because he was tired of watching the money leave the valley.
Sarita Thapa
Community partnerships
Negotiates every route with the village development committees that host it — the nightly rate, the weekly cap, which families are on rotation. If a village asks us to stop for a season, she is the person they call.
Kamal Bhattarai
Operations
Books the flights, tracks the weather, and decides which of the two are happening. Has turned a group around a day early more than once and has never been wrong about it.
Mina Rai
Sharing Seeds coordinator
Runs the coffee, the hives, the women’s co-operative and the kitchen gardens on the Sarangkot ridge, and keeps the books that show what each of them paid out this year.
How we look after our guides and porters
A good trip depends on the people carrying it. These are the standards we keep for them.
Licensed and trained
Every guide holds a government trekking licence and keeps first-aid and altitude training up to date.
Paid fairly, all year
Fair wages, paid on time, with work planned across the seasons rather than only at the peak.
Loads with limits
Porter loads are capped, and every porter is insured and properly equipped for the altitude.
Growing from within
Porters who want to become guides get the training, and a way to get there.
Questions for the team?
Ask us anything about a route, a village or the people who will be walking beside you.