Everest Mountaineer Melissa Arnot Seeks Support for Victims of Nepal Earthquake

After the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25th that has killed more than 8,500 people, Zamst sponsored Arnot seeks to raise funds for victims in need of food, shelter and education

Melissa Arnot, a U.S. mountaineer who has summited Mount Everest five times, was on a mission to become the first female to summit Everest without oxygen support, but her plans are thwarted due to a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on Saturday, April 25, 2015 and triggered a devastating avalanche, which claimed 19 lives.

Even before the earthquake hit, Arnot is no stranger to supporting workers and families in Nepal. In 2012, she and her partner, David Morton, incorporated The Juniper Fund to help provide support for expedition workers and their families affected in what they call “mountain based adventure tourism.” Often the guides lost to avalanche are the only income earners for their entire family. The Juniper Fund commits to providing families of deceased guides a living wage that will cover the Nepalese families’ need for food, rebuilding their homes and educating their children.

Already seeing support and donations for the earthquake victims, Arnot comments, “I want to thank you so much for your thoughts and continued support in this devastating time. I remain thankful that my team was safe and able to help in the aftermath of this tragedy.”

For those families affected by this recent tragedy, the Fund has committed to providing financial support for the next 5 years. Currently, The Juniper Fund is supporting 21 families and the increase in need will make it progressively difficult to promise support. In order to realistically meet the needs of every family affected by the Mount Everest tragedy, $200,000 needs to be raised.

Zamst, a global leader in high-performance sports prevention and protective equipment and one of Melissa’s sponsors will be teaming up via events and auctioned gear to help support victims and meet the Juniper Fund goal. “I am lucky enough to have the most supportive and generous sponsors which feel more like a family. Now is the time that I need your help…I know we can do it,” says Arnot.

All money donated to the Juniper Fund will go directly to Nepalese families in need of support. While some communities are organizing sponsored speaking events, auctions and fundraising dinners, even a small act such as posting on social media will help to raise awareness of the Juniper Fund’s mission. Individuals and organizations can make donations by going to http://www.thejuniperfund.org/donate/.

About the Juniper Fund

The Juniper Fund was started in 2012 by David Morton and Melissa Arnot in order to address an unmet obligation they witnessed through their work as guides in the world’s great mountains. The mountain climbing and expedition industry employs countless local staff and laborers in order to help support the adventures many travelers seek. The reality is that some of these workers are injured or killed in the course of this work. The Juniper Fund was born out of formalizing a commitment to understand and improve the aftermath of tragedies in the Himalayan expedition industry, or “mountain based adventure tourism.”