Education Elevated organised a fundraising trek to Chyangba Village and Pikey Peak, a mountain in the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal. It was open to people who wanted to walk in Nepal and wanted the walking to pay for something, and the funds raised went to the maintenance and development of the girls’ hostel.
The route leaves Kathmandu by road and comes back by air. In between it stops in Chyangba, then climbs out of the village to Pikey Basecamp and works north through Jasmane Bhanjyang, Thupten Chholing Monastery, Yak Kharka and Saharsbeni to Dudhkunda, before dropping to Ringmo and driving on to Phaplu for the flight home.
Why the walking is the fundraising
Education Elevated raises money by climbing. Each trekker takes on individual sponsors who pledge against every vertical foot of elevation gained, and a single expedition gains thousands of them. The name of the organisation is a description of the method rather than a slogan.
That is why the profile of a route matters to the fundraising and not only to the people walking it. The climb out of Chyangba to Pikey Basecamp, the pull from the monastery up to Yak Kharka, the long day on to Saharsbeni and the early start for Dudhkunda are all elevation that somebody at home has pledged against.
The projects Education Elevated supports are funded by individual and company sponsors, and all funds raised are applied to the designated education campaign. A pledge made against a climb goes to the line it was given for, and on this trek that line was the hostel.
The trek was described as challenging and rewarding, through landscapes and traditional villages, with views of the Himalaya from the route, Everest among them. None of that is the reason it exists. It exists because a school and a hostel in one village have a running cost, and somebody has to carry it.
Kathmandu, and the road out
Day one is arrival in Kathmandu and a transfer to the hotel. Day two is the city: Boudhanath, Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath, with a guide, transport and the entrance tickets arranged.
Day three is the drive to Chyangba, eight to ten hours on the road. From that point the group is camping, and stays camping until the last night before the flight.
The drive is not incidental. It is the plainest measure of where the village sits: far enough from the capital that a full day in a vehicle is the shortest way in, and far enough from anything else that a child living on the wrong side of the hill cannot get to school and back between breakfast and dark.
Three days in the village
Days four, five and six are spent volunteering at the school and in the village, with the camp on the school premises. Three days out of the whole itinerary are spent standing still.
Chyangba Village is in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal, in the Everest region. It is where Pemba Dorjee Sherpa grew up, and it has been the single focus of Education Elevated since 2008. The school there is the Wongchu Biswa Darshan Lower Secondary School, rebuilt in 2016 to withstand the next earthquake, still the only earthquake resistant school in the region, and it takes 56 children through primary school every year.
Alongside the school is the hostel. Girls who live too far from Chyangba to walk in and out each day board there for the ten month school year, and it costs their families nothing. Twenty of them board.
The village part of the trip is not a detour from the walking. It is the only part of the route where the trekkers meet the thing their sponsors are paying for, and it is where a team that walked back in found the school and the hostel in use.
The primary school in Chyangba was the first thing Education Elevated ever supported. The trek that started it was a month long, beginning at Lukla Airport and concluding in the village, and everything since has come back to the same place. Every itinerary since has routed through it, and stopped.
Camping on the school grounds for three nights is a different arrangement from a lodge in a trekking village. It puts the group inside the place it is raising money for, in the middle of a school week, with the children walking past the tents.
Chyangba to Pikey Basecamp, and north
Day seven is the climb out of the village to Pikey Basecamp at 2,700 metres, or 8,856 feet, five to six hours of walking.
Day eight goes to Jasmane Bhanjyang at 3,549 metres, or 11,643 feet, and on to Taktor, another five to six hours. Day nine drops from Taktor to Thupten Chholing Monastery at 2,920 metres, or 9,577 feet, again five to six hours.
Day ten climbs from the monastery to Yak Kharka at 3,700 metres, or 12,136 feet, four to five hours. Day eleven is the long one: Yak Kharka to Saharsbeni at 3,835 metres, or 12,578 feet, seven to eight hours.
Day twelve is an early morning hike up to Dudhkunda and back down to Saharsbeni, five to six hours. It is the only day on the schedule that starts and finishes in the same camp.
Every one of those days is a tent at the end of it, with the kitchen staff and the porters moving the camp along the route.
Three days of the itinerary are spent standing still, at the school and in the village.
Ringmo, Phaplu and the flight back
Day thirteen walks from Saharsbeni down to Ringmo at 2,720 metres, or 8,923 feet, four to five hours, and then drives on to Phaplu at 2,469 metres, or 8,098 feet. Phaplu is a lodge rather than a tent, which is the first roof since the village.
Day fourteen is the flight from Phaplu back to Kathmandu, thirty minutes in the air. The road in took between eight and ten hours.
Two nights in a Kathmandu hotel are booked at each end of the trek, on a double occupancy basis and with breakfast, and the airport transfers are arranged at both ends.
Who walks with the team
The trek is led by experienced guides who know the terrain and the local customs, and support staff go along to carry equipment and to help where help is needed. A trekking guide, kitchen staff and porters travel with the group.
The salary and the insurance of the Nepali staff are covered by the trip, along with the transport from Kathmandu to the village, the flight from Phaplu, and the accommodation, tents and meals on the camping days.
What a trekker brings is their own personal trekking equipment, their Nepal visa and personal expenses, their own medical and evacuation insurance, drinks on the trek, meals in Kathmandu other than the welcome and farewell dinners, and tips for the guide and the porters.
It is a camping trek with a full staff rather than a lodge to lodge walk, which is what makes the three days in Chyangba possible at all. The camp goes up on the school grounds and the group stays put.
Where the money went
The funds raised on the trek were directed to the maintenance and development of the girls’ hostel: improving the facilities and the services for the girls who live there, and supporting the education and empowerment programmes that go with it.
That is a running cost, not a building fund. A school year in Chyangba costs $22,200. It pays the teachers, buys the uniforms and the supplies, and keeps twenty beds made for the ten month school year.
Part of that list exists because nothing else covers it. Nepali students need English to reach better jobs and higher wages, and the government will not pay salaries for English teachers. That salary has to come from somewhere, and in Chyangba it comes from the mountain.
Students in Nepal are also required by law to have a school uniform, and often the only barrier between a child and their education is that their parents cannot afford the school mandated attire. A uniform is a small amount of money that decides whether a child attends.
What has happened since
A team walked back into the village and saw the school and the hostel in use, which is the plainest report anyone can bring back.
The dormitory just below the school campus was finished in February 2026. Twenty girls sleep in it, each with her own bed and bedding, a study room, a shared dining area and running water, for the ten month school year and at no cost to their families.
The next expedition leaves on 20 September 2026 for Chyangba Village and Pikey Peak, the same two names on the same map. Every vertical foot it gains is backed by individual sponsors, and the school year it pays for comes round again ten months later. The next expedition is open now.
Questions
To Chyangba Village and Pikey Peak, in the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal. The route leaves Kathmandu by road, stops in Chyangba, then climbs to Pikey Basecamp and works north through Jasmane Bhanjyang, Thupten Chholing Monastery, Yak Kharka and Saharsbeni to Dudhkunda, before dropping to Ringmo and Phaplu for the flight back.
Three days are spent volunteering at the school and in the village, with the camp on the school premises. The school is the Wongchu Biswa Darshan Lower Secondary School, and the girls' hostel stands alongside it.
Saharsbeni, at 3,835 metres or 12,578 feet, is the highest camp on the itinerary. Jasmane Bhanjyang is 3,549 metres and Yak Kharka is 3,700 metres. Pikey Basecamp, the first camp out of the village, is 2,700 metres.
Seven to eight hours, from Yak Kharka to Saharsbeni. Most other walking days are four to six hours, and the drive from Kathmandu to Chyangba takes eight to ten.
Experienced guides who know the terrain and the local customs lead it, and support staff carry equipment. A trekking guide, kitchen staff and porters travel with the group, and their salary and insurance are covered by the trip.
To the maintenance and development of the girls' hostel, which includes improving facilities and services for the girls who live there and supporting education and empowerment programmes. Every dollar raised is applied to the campaign it was raised for.
A team leaves on 20 September 2026 for Chyangba Village and Pikey Peak. Every vertical foot it gains is backed by individual sponsors.
More from the trail
A flood update from Western Colorado Friends of the Himalayas
Kelvin Kent's update on the August 26 flood, from Western Colorado Friends of the Himalayas.
Twenty beds, and a room that stays warm
Six months from cleared ground to a finished dormitory, told through the photographs sent back from the village.
A concert benefiting the children of Chyangba Village
An evening of music in Colorado that funded a year of the school's operating costs.
Give
The walking is finished. The school year is not.
Teachers, uniforms, supplies and twenty made beds are what the money reaches once the tents come down.