Fantastic people, great experience, very easy
My friend and I were recommended Sherpa climbing by someone who had used them previously. The whole experience from our end was very easy, we reached out to Phanden and let him know what we wanted to do. From there we sent a deposit, booked flights and everything was taken care of.
From the moment we landed at the airport and met Phanden, it could not have been easier. He took us to a nice local hotel that he had booked for us, and allowed us to settle in. We had a day of preparation for the Manaslu Circuit Trek in Kathmandu (all assisted and run by Phanden), and the day after we got in an arranged jeep and drove out to begin the hike.
Unfortunately, the day we were supposed to hike ended up being the day of the recent flood, and we had to get evacuated from Machhakhola. Throughout this, our guide Mingma and our porter Gyali were fantastic and we did not feel in any danger once. Phanden was liasing with them and organised an evacuation via helicopter faster than any other group. We flew back into Kathmandu and were disappointed that we were unable to do the Manaslu circuit, but Phanden had already made arrangements for us to do Annapurna base camp and we were off again the next day with no time wasted at all. Throughout the trek, Mingma and Gyali were amazing, we were looked after very well, shown great local spots, had the history and culture of Nepal explained and they were very accommodating for our lack of trekking experience. Both of us fell ill at various points on the trek, however were very well cared for and itinerary was adjusted on the fly.
Upon returning to Kathmandu we spent a day with Hari, a local tour guide. Hari was very friendly and had a lot of knowledge about all the places we visited, and gave us a great day of sightseeing and local cultural experiences.
Overall Phanden and the Sherpa climbing team gave us an amazing experience despite the circumstances of natural disasters and illness.
We will both be returning for another trek in the near future and this will definitely be through Sherpa Climbing, cannot recommend them highly enough!