Sherpa Nepal Benefit

Today was a big deal for me; presenting the Sherpa Adventure Gear Nepal Benefit at MountainFest - Tashi Sherpa, Neil Gresham, Heather Gulek, Kenton Cool &, well me.
We got off to the worst possible best start - the tech team couldn't get anything to work - so the crowd got 'treated' to 10 minutes of me doing anecdotes and standup - they were very kind.
When we finally got going all four speakers were so so inspirational - each with truly personal tales to tell of being in Nepal when the earthquake struck & the impact its had - Heather now sees her next mountain as building schools - Kenton says number 12 will mean more than all 11 before. Tashi was, well, for anyone who's ever met a true Sherpa you'll know, if you've not, well he was quietly confident, astoundingly modest and just true to values of community and service that everyone should hold dear. His desire to do right by those worse off than him was a genuine expression of knowing what the right thing to do is - I can honestly say it was a privilege to hear him speak, an honour to have the chance to talk with him afterwards. The event raised over £5k - but I spoke with at least a dozen people afterwards who had decided to hold their own events - as I said, truly inspirational.
Afterwards we retired to the bar....hence the very late blip ;-)