– Himalaya Earthquake 2015 – The April 2015 Himalaya earthquake killed 8,962 people and injured 21,952 across the countries of Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 8.1. At that time I was at 4000 m in a monastery up in the mountains. I ran out while the ceiling was falling down. The whole ground was shaking and it took a few seconds before I realized what it was. I mean, I have vertical walls of ice to climb, high-altitude to deal with, extreme cold, and hard winds. I just thought that was enough, an earthquake was not on my schedule. This was another reminder that you can never plan for everything. You have to be flexible to adjust to the most unlikely situations. I was in the middle of an expedition to an unclimbed peak on the border of TibetTibet, the plan was to climb Tenzing Peak and Hillary Peak – both 7900+ meters so after the earthquake, the mountains were very unstable so I decided to stay to help out with the work after the earthquake. One week turn to four months can I work together with the Sherpas, Nepali and Tibetans to to restore the villages, schools monasteries, and private homes up at 12,000 feet. I was impressed of how well the local community worked together to build up the villages. I was also surprised and disappointed over how bad international organizations and government work together to help the individuals above the clouds. Today has been 10 years since that earthquake, but what’s not mentioned as how many small earthquakes we experienced daily for many months. Earthquakes that woke up in the middle of the night and that made us walking on eggshells every day with a question; is this and you big one? Kathmandu and the villages in the Everest region are now back to normal again. I would like to thank everyone who helped to raise money and to support us during this time. Because of you, there are new schools, monasteries, and homes. Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something #johanernst #johanernstadventures
