Blog
Here you’ll find our blog posts, listed by main category. To receive posts by email as they appear, sign up for updates on the homepage!
The Himalayan Rescue Association and Musa Masala Present the Pocket-size, Wallet-friendly, Altitude Tips Card
Musa Masala is very excited to have created, along with the Himalayan Rescue Association, a new version of the altitude tips card that we have been providing to the HRA clinics since 2018.
Below you’ll find an introduction from Dr. Sanjiv Bhandari to the HRA, and from Dr. Nishant Joshi Njo, on how he came to work with the HRA. A special part of this is a great interview about working at Everest ER in 2024 — special for all you Everest fans. Jam Jam!
Nepali Climbers Compete in India
This is what success looks like: getting together with people who inspire you to create and overcome obstacles that lead to good for all. We’ve been able to experience this at Musa Masala many times, but our involvement with the Nepal indoor climbing community has been so rewarding and exciting that few things have given us more fun and incentive. This post is written by Tenzin Khando Tamang, a very gifted climber and writer!
Bucket List Adventure: Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (R3)
Have you been to the Grand Canyon? Well the name suits it. It’s big!!
Here is a great story about what some call "the great upside down mountain." You can walk down to the bottom pretty easily, but getting back up can be a different story. We are lucky to have Brian Roach, FNP-C here to tell us about his R3 adventure.
The Musa Masala Dental Camp, 2024
Almost six months ago, we held our third annual Free Dental Camp at the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital. The growth of these events has been so inspiring. We started out with one dentist. At this camp, we had six!
Not only is this so much better for the community, allowing for more patients to be seen with a much more time-friendly exam period, but it shows the love the Nepal dental community has for being involved in a project like this. It is not easy to leave your practice, take a 10-12 hour jeep ride to a remote hospital and treat a solid line of patients who are not familiar with dentistry for four to five days. We are so grateful and overjoyed with the results of this event.
Musa Masala Advanced Lead Climbing Competition
What a day! We really hope all the climbers had as much fun as we did at our Advanced Lead Competition at Kathmandu Sport Climbing Center on November 23rd.
Our goal with these competitions is simple: provide an opportunity for climbers to come together to test themselves and have a good time.
So many people helped to bring this competition together, let’s start with the organizers, Lakpa Sherpa and Wongchhu Peak Promotion. Our special thanks go out to Ang Diku Sherpa, who, with all her duties coordinating a full trekking season, put the entire program together and got everyone to the same place on the same page. Sangita Rai and Rajat Maharjan worked tirelessly to bring it all together.
Presenting Luckme Tamang, the 2024 Charlie Noxon Scholarship Recipient
2025 is here, so fast! Where did that last year go??? Well, we have an announcement to make about 2024, so let’s spin back the hand of time for a moment before we take off into 2025.
Each year, Musa Masala presents scholarships for students we feel represent the ideas and mission of our organization. Now we would like to present the recipient of the Charlie Noxon Scholarship for 2024, Luckme Tamang.
Lama Dai Walks to the Top of Everest!
On May 20th of this year, Rajesh Lama (Lama Dai), summited Mt. Everest. Okay, a few people do that every year — pretty cool, a major athletic and mental feat. But that’s just part of it…
On April 1st, Lama and his partner, Rachana Lama, left their home in Kathmandu and started walking to Mt. Everest. After doing the two passes trek, they reached Everest Base Camp. Then, after an acclimatization climb of Mt. Lobuche, he took a short rest before heading up Everest. Oh, and a stint as the event medic for an endurance race, too. So, a busy spring outing…
Tribute to Lhola, an Unforgettable Companion
LhoLa, the dog that started it all, our model for independence and excitement, has left us. First we send our biggest hugs and thoughts for such a huge loss to Dr. Luanne Freer, who was with LhoLa for over 15 years. We also send our best to Wes Johnson, Luanne’s partner, who has been by her side. We want to mention all of the friends and family who had the good fortune to spend time with LhoLa.
Everest ER interview! HRA doc Nishant Joshi Njo with Lama Dai
Here’s a double header video for you! Two stars of the mountain. One, Rajesh Lama, known as Lama Dai, walked from his home in Kathmandu up to the summit of Mt Everest. The other, Dr. Nishant Joshi Njo, is one of the doctors this season at Everest ER, the medical clinic at Everest Base Camp run by the Himalayan Rescue Association. On his way to the top of the world, Lama Dai strolled into the medical tent and sat down to talk about the purpose of Everest ER, the history of the HRA and you know, the weather, and whatever you talk about at 18,000 ft.
What's New with Musa: Fall, 2024
We are excited to announce our partnership with the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal, a renowned nonprofit organization founded in 1973. This collaboration will allow for a more seamless fundraising in the United States and bringing more education to mountain travelers. See our post about this new page for Musa Masala here.
The Himalayan Rescue Association and Musa Masala: Coming Together for Mountain Health and Safety
Musa Masala and the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) have gone into an agreement for fundraising and education! We got together at the Wilderness Medical (WMS) summer conference in Snowbird, Utah to celebrate our new partnership.
We actually got started at the HRA’s medical tent at Mount Everest, Everest ER, in 2016, during a WMS trek to Everest Base Camp in support of the clinic. Our co-founder, Dr. Tatiana Havryliuk, was one of the three doctors working for the spring climbing season. As we were sort of helping put up the tent, we talked about ways to help raise money to build the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital. That project became our book, Musa Masala: Mountain Girl of the Himalaya, and led us to where we are today.
Second Physician Team Visits the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital
We are back with a story of the second physician team to visit the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital with the University of Nevada Reno Wilderness Medicine Fellowship program started by Dr. Tony Islas. (We wrote about the first here.)
We are super happy to have an update by Dr. Bridget Martinez. She, along with Dr. Donald Harker, visited and worked at the hospital with our superstar leader of the hospital, Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung.
Here is Bridget’s tale of their journey and time at our most special place, the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital. You'll also hear a few thoughts from Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung, at the bottom.
Celebrating the Open Lead Climbing Competition at Kathmandu Sport Climbing Center, 2024
Musa Masala is so proud to have been a part of the March 9th Open Lead Climbing Championship at Kathmandu Sport Climbing Center. We co-sponsored the event with our friends at Wongchhu Peak Promotion. We did this for a very simple reason: to allow indoor climbers in Nepal to compete and challenge each other to grow the sport and community. This great group is wonderful at inspiring one another and we believe in supporting their dream of being able to one day represent Nepal internationally.
Acupuncture in the Wilderness: Q&A with Cami Hobbs
There’s nothing better than mixing your love of the outdoors with your profession. When it’s your job and it helps you to bring an added resource into a wilderness adventure, that’s pretty cool. Musa Masala welcomes our friend Cami Hobbs, MAOM,DAOM, Dipl. O.M. (NCCAOM), L.Ac.
We met Cami at the Wilderness Medical Society’s Winter Conference in Jackson Hole, where she did the awesome video with us (below) where she described her acupuncture influenced medical kit.
Musa Invites Climbers to Hattiban!
Following the Musa Masala Lead Climbing Competition at the Kathmandu Sport Climbing Center (KSCC - our post on the competition is coming soon!!), Musa Masala and Wongchhu Peak Promotion welcomed all the competitors and anyone from KSCC who wanted to come for a day of rock climbing at Hattiban, a local crag an hour outside of Kathmandu. Wongchhu Peak Promotion rented a bus and we picked most everyone up in front of the Nepali Ghar Hotel. We wrangled more along the way and some came later via scooter.
What's New with Musa! Spring 2024
We are starting a new feature on our website. We will post our quarterly newsletter here for everyone to see. We have been sending these out to our mailing list, but with all the rapid progress we want everyone to see how Musa Masala is moving, grooving and making it happen with awesome projects! We will also have all the old newsletters easily accessible so you can relive the good times.
Check out our spring newsletter below and please take the time to make a donation. We only move forward with the support of people like you. Jam Jam!!
Remembering David Breashears, American Himalayan climber and filmmaker
On March 15th, David Breashears, the pioneer American Himalayan climber and filmmaker, died at his home in Virginia. There are many great tributes available. Find Outside Magazine’s wonderful article, featuring Ang Phula Sherpa, here.
We want to say a few things from our Musa Masala family and friends who knew David well. He has been a help to Musa Masala since the beginning. He wrote a blurb for our book, Musa Masala: Mountain Girl of the Himalaya.
Helping Others, Fundraising to Create Opportunity for Nepal's Up-and-Coming Climbers
This is one of my favorite posts to put up. The reason? It’s simple. Good people doing good things to help good people. I couldn't have been more happy that Jocelyne Sze and Omar Saif agreed to tell us about their fundraiser to bring five climbers over from Nepal for a 10-day climbing training trip to Singapore.
We will let everyone tell their story, but just to take a second, all of us at Musa Masala would like to thank Jocelyne and Omar for making such a huge effort that brought so much joy and inspiration to not just the climbers, but everyone involved. We would like to thank everyone who donated, all the climbing gyms in Singapore and the families and friends who made this happen. To the climbers, Bikash, Swastika, Prena, Ronak, Sajan and Tenzin, we thank you for participating in this post and we hope your time in Singapore will always stay with you and inspire you with your climbing while giving back and helping others on the way. Jam Jam!!
Lead Climbing: The 2023 Musa Masala Indoor Competition
On November 6th, Musa Masala sponsored our second year of climbing indoor competitions in Kathmandu, Nepal at Crimpanzee Adventure Hub. Building off last year’s beginner top rope style event, we offered an intermediate level lead climbing event. Our goal is to encourage the growth of indoor climbing in Nepal while working with the existing climbing gyms to provide challenging competitions that will grow the sport, allowing for better climbers to be able to climb internationally to represent Nepal.