BOULDER, Colo. — It is a warm March afternoon in Boulder, and 58-year-old Andy Pemberton of Lafayette is climbing up Elephant Buttress with a backpack full of ropes, helmets, radios, and carabiners.
He’s getting used to how the gear will feel when he ships it more than 7,500 miles to Nepal and uses it to attempt to summit Mount Everest.
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“Part of me is like, wow, I'm leaving in 10 days,” Pemberton said. “And then the other’s like, 'Let's go. It's time to get there.'”
Pemberton will be climbing with 10 other expert mountaineers from around the world; only his purpose will be a little different than theirs as he is working to raise money to build homes for single Nepalese women and their children.
“It means a lot to me,” Pemberton said. “We build homes for women — underprivileged, disadvantaged women in Nepal. And recognizing my life and the gratitude I have for what I have, this is an opportunity to give back. So, the purpose has become really important to me.”
Pemberton first got the idea when he summited Ama Dablam in Nepal with his brother, Adam, and son, Jack, in 2022.
It was there, at 22,000 ft., that he looked over at Everest and thought what an adventure that would be.
The wheels didn’t start turning until he returned home and had a passing conversation with his homebuilder who told Andy about his Denver-based nonprofit, Nevis.
“Maybe Nevis found me,” Pemberton said. “It was an opportunity to do something important, and Everest became this evolving idea of, how do I build, create visibility for Nevis and tell a story in a very difficult fundraising environment.”
According to Pemberton, it takes $7,000 for Nevis to build a two-room home in Nepal. Through his fundraising efforts, Pemberton has been able to raise more than $55,000 as he attempts to summit Everest.
He set the fundraising goal at $100,000, so 14 new homes can be built, but as he began training for the climb, its purpose began to evolve as well.
Within the last five years, Pemberton has battled the throes of addiction and the grief that comes with a passing parent.
“[These hardships] come to bear, and you have a choice of decline, or a choice of ascent, and this idea that I've kind of grounded with is the second ascent,” Pemberton said. “It's just a parallel function of finding purpose in life. You know, whether it's later in life or whenever, and so it's something that means a lot to me.”
Pemberton will fly to Nepal on April 6 and climb to base camp with his wife and children. Then, they will come back to the United States while he ventures forward, spending the next month and a half making his way up to the summit.
He knows he will discover more about himself as he helps disadvantaged women and their children one step at a time.
“Whether it's my Everest or someone else's struggle, I think there are people who can learn and get inspired,” Pemberton said.
