Eight Mountains began because we knew there were women in Nepal who belonged at the front of the trail but were not always given the chance to stand there. We wanted to create that chance together, building a team where women could learn, lead and pass opportunities on to one another.
Over time, that purpose grew beyond our guides. We began looking more closely at who each trek could support, from local porters and teahouses to the villages along the way. In places like Gorkha and Ruma, a journey became the beginning of a relationship, and we kept returning.
Where we are
What we have built together
380+
Travellers Welcomed
Meaningful journeys through Nepal, guided with warmth, care and local knowledge.
1,100+
People Reached Through Community Projects
Through health, education, environmental and support projects in rural Nepal.
50+
Volunteers Involved
Sharing their time, knowledge and practical skills where they are needed most.
These figures cover our trekking journeys, health and education programmes, environmental activities and community-led projects since [STARTING YEAR]. Updated August 2026.
How it started
It began with women on the trail
For a long time, guiding in Nepal was not work women were expected to do. The jobs were there. The way in was not. We started 8Mountains so women could get in, stay in, and keep going.
Nobody here is simply handed a career. Our guides train together, share work, and look after the ones who have just started. First aid, safety, languages, leading a group well: that is the job, not something extra on top of it.
So they are building careers in the mountains, and handing on what they know to the women coming up behind them.
What we mean by it
Three things we hold to
Women who lead
We create opportunities for Nepali women to build lasting careers as trekking guides. Through first-aid training, communication sessions, practical experience and support from other women, every guide has space to learn, lead and grow.
Journeys that stay local
Our guides, porters and many of the people involved in our treks come from Nepal’s mountain communities. We work with locally owned teahouses, transport providers and suppliers so more of each journey’s value remains within Nepal.
Communities we grow with
Our relationships do not always end when the trek does. From health camps and educational spaces to environmental projects and winter support, we work alongside communities on practical needs identified locally.
On every trek
The people behind every journey matter
Every trek is shaped by the guides, porters, drivers and families who make it possible. We work locally and fairly, so each journey supports the people and places behind it.
Women leading the way
Nepali women building careers and guiding with knowledge, confidence and care.
Fair pay for every team member
Our team is paid fairly and treated with respect, with safe loads and proper equipment for porters.
Travel rooted in local culture
Local guides and family-run teahouses bring travellers closer to Nepal while encouraging respect for local customs.
Care for the trails we walk
We follow Leave No Trace principles, reduce waste and support environmental and community initiatives.
Beyond the trail
From one journey to a longer relationship
Our first free health camp was at Darbar Primary School in Gorkha, on 4 August 2024, with two doctors and two dentists. We arrived with a plan. We left having learned something more useful than the plan: listen first, then do one practical thing properly.
Later, one of our volunteers came across Ruma while travelling through Myagdi. The village stayed with her, and then with us. Partly the place itself, and how warmly the Magar families there met her. Partly because we could see things we might be able to work on together.
Featured
Our continuing relationship with Ruma
A remote Magar village at about 1,925 metres in the hills of Myagdi, beneath the greater Dhaulagiri region. What began as one visit is now the longest relationship we have.
- School-led plastic cleanup
- More than 200 locally woven bamboo waste baskets
- Smart community library
- Medical outreach and health-post support
- Winter clothing support
- Community hall and volunteering activities
Ruma
How Ruma became part of our story
The first impression was the landscape, the peaks behind it, and how warmly we were met. Alongside that, something harder to ignore: plastic waste through the village and along the trails around it.
Ruma already sits close to the routes into Dhaulagiri. If tourism was going to bring more people through this landscape, we felt it had to become part of protecting it. That visit was the start of everything that followed.
We began with environmental-awareness sessions: plastic pollution, separating household waste, protecting what was around them.
The villagers understood the problem perfectly well. Awareness on its own did not change habits built over a long time. Separating waste took extra effort, and there was no collection or recycling system to make that effort worth anything.
So we started with the children.
The cleanup that changed our direction
We worked with the local school on a village cleanup led by its students. Rather than another lesson, we made it a competition: the group collecting the most waste won useful prizes, sports equipment among them.
The bags we had carried from Pokhara filled fast. We had to ask the school and the villagers for more sacks to hold what the children brought in.
What mattered more was that they started looking at the village differently. Nobody had to tell them plastic was harmful any more. They could see what their own afternoon had changed.
What we do
Four things, built with the village
Waste, and what happens to it
Colour-coded bamboo baskets, made by local craftspeople, for separating organic, recyclable and non-biodegradable waste. Organic matter is composted and goes back to the farms. More than 200 baskets are now in place around the village and along the trails.
Pressing play loads the video from YouTube, which may set their cookies. Health, where there is none nearby
Our first camp was at Darbar Primary School in Gorkha on 4 August 2024, with two doctors and two dentists. In Ruma, medical volunteers from the Netherlands have since worked door to door alongside local health workers. The village health post serves settlements well beyond Ruma itself, and we have kept it supplied with equipment.
Pressing play loads the video from YouTube, which may set their cookies. Warm clothes before winter
Winters in the Myagdi hills are hard on children in houses with little heating. With Anki, one of our Dutch volunteers, we ran a clothing donation focused on the families the cold reaches first. A small programme, and the most immediate one we have done.
Pressing play loads the video from YouTube, which may set their cookies. The Ruma Smart Community Library
Built with Pien and Greet, two of our earliest Dutch volunteers. A computer, projector, speakers and printer, so lessons can be visual and practical rather than only spoken. It is meant for adults too: farming, waste, health, technology. And it belongs to the village, not to us.
Plastic is still our hardest problem. Carrying it to Pokhara means a long journey over partly off-road routes. That costs money, and it has an environmental price of its own. We looked at working with organisations that use plastic in road construction, but the distance made it unrealistic. We are now looking at reusing it in the village as benches or furniture. We would rather find something Ruma can maintain than import an idea that cannot survive us leaving.
Our approach
How we choose to work
- We listen before deciding what support is useful.
- We work with schools, health posts and community representatives.
- Medical volunteering is limited to appropriately qualified people.
- We prioritise practical, longer-term support over one-day appearances.
- We do not photograph or share people’s stories without care and permission.
- We are still learning, and we share what worked as well as what remains unresolved.
One of our guides
How a career in the mountains begins
“My love for the outdoors began during a hike to my home village as a child. That was the first time I truly felt connected to the natural world. From that moment on, nature became my healer, my teacher, and my greatest source of comfort.”
“My path to becoming a guide opened up when I learned about a training programme. I was working in marketing and promotions at the time, but my friend and I were so excited by the prospect of working outdoors that we joined immediately. During that course everything fell into place. I found my true calling. Guiding let me merge my passion for nature with the ability to support my family.”
Pratiksha Khanal · Senior Trek Leader
A beautiful journey should not only leave memories with the traveller. It should leave something good behind as well.
Take part
Be part of what comes next
Trek with us
Your journey supports women-led teams and locally rooted tourism.
Volunteer with us
Share relevant skills through programmes shaped around real community needs.
Work with us
Schools, health professionals, organisations and responsible travel partners can help develop longer-term projects.