By Baytoram Ramharack
GUYANESE nature enthusiast, Brian Ramphal, has successfully trekked to the infamous Mount Everest base camp.

Ramphal is the co-founder and CEO of RBS TechCenter Inc., a technology-based company located in Station Street, Kitty.

He was a scout when he attended St. Stanislaus College in Guyana. Today, he is a successful technology entrepreneur and an avid outdoorsman. The nature enthusiast is well-known as a multi-year donor to the Berbice Cricket Board.

As an outdoorsman, Ramphal has hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, OMG trail to Kaieteur Falls, as well as the Mount Whitney and San Jacinto Mountains in California. These are all high-altitude locations.

His love for nature and willingness to challenge the natural world is energised by his genuine appreciation of the beauty nature has to offer, and the willingness to take on the challenges of nature to be able to explore its natural beauty.

Ramphal has lived by a simple motto, one which he never fails to relate to and encourages others to do: “Go outside and enjoy nature!”

He embarked on one of his most challenging nature trips last month – a trek to Everest Base Camp.

Hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, the Kaieteur Falls in Guyana, and Mount Whitney in California were in a sense a calculated preparation for his most challenging task yet. It was in preparation, he feels, for the massive trek he had undertaken in April 2023 with a few friends to reach Mount Everest Base Camp.

This idea, he recalls, was conceived by his friend, Udnauth (Sham) Mathura, who encouraged him to journey on this new, exciting, and challenging trek.

Ramphal hoped that from this trip, he would be able to better understand how climate change affects the roof of the world.

He said that trekking to the Everest Base Camp is an expensive venture, which might discourage others from taking on such a challenge.

A rough estimate of the cost is about US$25,000, which includes a mode of transportation and a round-trip flight from California, where he resides, to Kathmandu, Nepal.

The plan was to fly by helicopter from Kathmandu to Lukla and join the trek on foot from Lukla to Everest base camp. He and his team planned to return from Gorokshep to Kathmandu via helicopter.

The trek started from the town of Lukla, which is 2,860 meters above sea level in a temperate zone. It ended at Everest base camp, which stands 5,364 meters above sea level in a very cold mountainous zone.

Ramphal, according to available information, was the first Guyanese to accompany a team and the first Guyanese to trek to Everest base camp. His teammates included six persons altogether – two Guyanese, one local Nepalese guide, and two local Nepalese porters (Sherpa) to assist with their travelling gear.

The team encountered several adversities on their way to Everest, such as spending time in the tea houses with no heat in 30 degrees temperatures, having to adjust to special dietary meals, no hot water for showers, and one of Ramphal’s trekking partners experienced acute high altitude sickness. Nevertheless, he said that “the trek was thrilling, difficult, and an epic experience…and a thrill of a lifetime!”