Valley man raises money for sherpas displaced by earthquake

The clean-up continues in Nepal after two major earthquakes hit the region.

More than 8,000 people were killed, and tens of thousands were hurt when the quakes struck in April and May.

Thousands lost their homes, and some are still too scared to go back indoors.

Others have no place to call home.

A valley man reached the summit of Mount Everest in 2013, he became close friends with his guide or "sherpa" on that risky journey.

Now that man and his son are going to great lengths to rebuild the sherpa's home, and his village.

When Dave Mauro climbed Mt. Everest in 2013, he bonded with his sherpa named Mingma.

"Mingma and I, we were a team, so if one of us was climbing, the other was with him, usually roped to him," said Dave Mauro.

Dave found our shortly after April's earthquake that Mingma and his family survived, but their small village was devastated.

"Their home, and many others were quite easily destroyed by the order of earthquake they experienced," said Mauro.

Dave started a GoFundMe.com page to rebuild Mingma's home, it raised over $8,000 in 20 days.

Dave's son Trevor, who just graduated architecture school, made a risky flight into Nepal as an aid worker. He met up with Mingma and the two hiked 18 miles in one day, 13,000 feet up, to Mingma's village of Phortsie.

"He's cooking right along, and he's smiling in all the pictures, so he must be feeling ok, and he's smiling in all the pictures so he must be feeling ok," said Mauro.

Trevor is working with villagers to find out how best to rebuild the sherpa's homes using the limited material they have available. Dave says they'll return to Nepal in October to start the rebuilding process.

"Over the 9 days of work they'll earn enough money to feed their family for about half a year, which is going to get them through winter, that is important, they desperately need that money right now," said Mauro.

The village is 100 miles from the nearest road, so anything they cannot find or create has to be flown into a lower airstrip and then taken 20 miles by yak train up to his village.