Established in 2000, Freedom Adventures is a locally based company in Nepal with highly trained staff members in both mountaineering and adventure sports while promoting sustainable tourism.
We at Freedom Adventures are a dedicated team of guiding professionals who believe in excellent logistical preparation; keeping in mind the needs of our clients, the available local resource and most importantly our passion for the environment we work in.
Our treks and adventure trips are operated with highly trained mountain guides (both male and female) as well as adventure sports specialists. This offers our visitors thrilling adventures that are eco-friendly with quality service and safety given utmost priority.
Our aim is to offer expeditions, treks, mountain biking, wilderness journeys and volunteering opportunities in the Himalayas that guarantee personalized service to each client as per their interest. Because we believe in sustainable tourism, we offer our visitor environmentally sensitive travel. As a part of our commitment to sustainable practices we have established ‘The Eagle’s Nest Environment Centre where we conduct a variety of community-based projects.
Freedom Adventures is always looking out for new unexplored destinations which will not only offer an adventurous journey for clients but also will help the growth of a local economy.
Since we are a locally based company, travelling with us creates opportunities for genuine cultural exchange and deeper understanding. The mountains are our homes and being able to share the experience with fellow climbers and trekkers gives us immense joy.Whether you are just foraying into the boundaries of the great outdoors or are an experienced adventurer, we believe, you will find the quality service offered at Freedom Adventures will more than meet your expectations.
Management
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Jagan TimilsinaFounder Born and brought up in the picturesque village of Sarangkot, near Pokhara, one of the most popular tourist destination of Nepal, Jagan was introduced to the trekking culture from a young age. He forayed into the trekking world in 1998, the year which the Government of Nepal had declared to be ‘Visit Nepal Year.’ He started out as a porter and later joined Himalayan Encounters, a world renowned trekking company as a guide-cum-porter.With every trek, Jagan’s passion for mountains grew and eventually saw him focus on a career as a mountaineer. Since 2009, Jagan has climbed 14 snow peaks, including Mount Everest. If he is not busy climbing mountains, Jagan can be found working as an instructor for outdoor activities. |
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Mukti TimilsinaFounder From a young age, Mukti entered the trekking industry working for both local- and foreign-owned trekking companies as a porter. His work helped him gain a good understanding of the trekking business and led him to pursue his ambition of becoming a trekking guide. One of the things Mukti observed while working for trekking companies was the bad practice of trekking tours dumping rubbish in the mountains after every expedition. Since trekking companies mostly did not have guidelines for sustainable practice, trekking tours contributed to environmental pollution in the mountain. Mukti felt that this practice sent a wrong message about trekking in Nepal and decided to open a trekking company which practiced responsible and sustainable tourism. He along with his brother Jagan established Freedom Adventure Treks, an eco-friendly community-based trekking company which also runs the Eagle’s Nest Environment Centre. |
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Nico SmithDirector of Operations Nico was born and raised in central South Africa. He developed a great appreciation and love for the outdoors during family holidays to the mountainous regions of the Western Cape. After he qualified as a Chartered Accountant he moved to London in 2008, where he had the opportunity to work as a financial contractor for some of the best known companies in the UK, including Coca-Cola, Diageo and The Bank of England. This afforded him the opportunity to build a wide ranging skill set which will prove very useful in his involvement with Freedom Adventures. In 2015 Nico travelled to Nepal to complete the Everest Base Camp trek and immediately fell in love with the country. Of the over 40 countries he has travelled to, none compares with the beauty of Nepal. He realised that, with his knowledge of western business practices, he can make a positive contribution to the Nepalese Trekking Industry, and saw a good cultural fit with Freedom Adventures. Nico is responsible for the strategic management of all Freedom Adventures’ business operations, aimed at achieving a sustainable competitive advantage through the conception of an industry leading customer service model. |
Field
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Dawa SherpaHailing from the village of Pangboche situated at 4000m in the Everest region, Dawa has been surrounded by mountains his whole life. He grew up in an environment where everyone was indirectly or directly related to work in the mountains. With a monk father, responsible for conducting rituals at the Everest Base Camp, and a brother who is a climber, Dawa grew up to love mountains. Dawa attended the Hillary School at Khumjung, and later went to Kathmandu for his further studies. Soon after completing his studies, he followed in his brother’s footstep and started working as a guide. Dawa has climbed Camp 3 at Everest a couple of times as a high altitude porter. He has also scaled a few 6000m peaks. |
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Fura SherpaHaving spent his entire childhood with mountains in Phortse village, in the Everest region, Fura started climbing mountains from a young age. He grew up listening to his father’s mountaineering tales. Fura’s father who is an expert climber has scaled Everest 8 times, Cho Yo 15 times, and has conquered many other high mountains. At a very young age, Fura was able to go up to South Camp 4 two times; however, he was not allowed to climb further because of his young age. Till date, he has climbed many peaks above 6000m. Whenever Fura goes trekking with a group to the Everest Base Camp, he takes his group to his mother’s tea shop in his village, Phortse. That is one of his favorite moment of the trek. |
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Kamala PunKamala pun is a senior female trekking leader. At the time when girls were not given the freedom to pursue work that took them away from home, she decided to bring a new revolution in her village by working as a porter. Kamala was born in the beautiful village of Maygdi in the Annapurna region. Despite the challenges and disapproval from her family and village, she found herself an opportunity to get training in the trekking profession in Pokhara. Being a woman in a male-dominant profession, Kamala had to face many difficulties. But her hard-work and skills made her one of the first female trekking guides in Nepal. |
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Jeremy GanslerBorn in Newton, Massachusetts, USA, in 1993, Jeremy’s fascination with the outdoors started from an early age, when his parents took him downhill skiing. For some duration, he lived in the suburbs in Boston, which was far from any mountains worth talking about, his father took him to the Neshoba valley every week to master the basics of skiing. By thirteen, Jeremy’s hobby grew into a full-blown obsession and it took him to Rockies, Utah first, then British Columbia. Seeing the majestic mountains made him realize that his life was to work in high places. Jeremy took a year of college and took courses for climbing and an array of other skills, earning a Wilderness First Responder certificate. During the break year, he traveled to Nepal to volunteer and to see the Himalayas. Currently, Jeremy is studying at the University of Vermont, majoring in Environmental Science. |
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Fule ChaudharyGrowing up in the lowland jungles of Terai, Fule developed an interest in birds and wildlife from a very young age. As a young child, Fule would spend hours in the forest area bird-watching, and studying their behavior. After leaving school, his ornithological expertise and enthusiasm towards the subject gained him a job as a full time naturalist at the Royal Chitwan National Park. His deep interest in birds, coupled with a substantial knowledge about them has established him as an expert birdwatcher in Nepal. Fule has covered all the lowland areas to highland areas for birdwatching. He has also been a part of the grassland bird watching research programme for mist-netting and data collection. |
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Tsering Namgel SherpaThe only dream Tsering had as a child was to climb mountains. He was born in the Pangboche village in the Solukhumbu district, which is at a height of 4000m. Growing up in a village, where most of the people worked in the trekking industry, Tsering was inspired by the stories of the climbers from his village, included people who have climbed Everest more than once. The young boy too dreamt of scaling the highest peaks in the world, and dreamt of sharing his mountaineering stories, just like his elders did over tea. Till date, Tsering has already conquered some of the highest peaks in the Himalayan range. He has climbed Everest 3 times, and has also climbed Puttha Himchuli, Iceland Peak, Lobuche Peak, Pokalde Peak, Mera Peak, and Ama Dablam. He is one of the youngest climbers of Nepal. |
EXPERIENCED TEAM
The team at Freedom Adventure Treks led by Jagan Timilsina is highly trained and experienced in mountaineering as well as outdoor activities. All our team members believe in the concept of promoting Eco-friendly and sustainable.
BESPOKE ADVENTURES
Freedom Adventure Treks is a locally owned company that believes in promoting community-based sustainable and Eco-friendly tourism. Our team believes in providing valuable and rewarding experience to our clients in the villages and routes we pass through.
LOCAL IMMERSION
Learn about and live the local culture of the places that we pass through in the Himalayas. Experiencing centuries-old traditions in isolated parts of the Himalayas will be one to savour!
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
At Freedom Adventures, we believe that true freedom comes about from good health, education and opportunity for all. We have been actively promoting outdoor leadership to the less deserved youth of Nepal.
My name is Jagan Nath Timilsina. I was born in a village called Sarangkot near the lakeside city of Pokhara, the most famous tourist destination in Nepal. I was brought up with six sisters and one brother in a simple farming family. I studied up to the primary level at my village government school while helping my parents on the farm before and after school. There was no school in our village for further study, so I had to walk for 2 hours in the morning to go to school in Pokhara and another 2 hrs to return home in the evening. Life was very hard while growing up. We had a big family so it was very difficult for my parents to fulfil even our basic needs.
In 1998, the government celebrated ‘Visit Nepal Year’. There was a big movement of tourists to Nepal, especially Pokhara. Because of my family problems I could not continue my study. To help support my family I started working as a freelance trekking porter and did that for the next four years. During that time the political situation was unstable due to the Civil War, so it was difficult to find enough work. In 2002, I joined Himalayan Encounters, a world renowned trekking company and worked with them as a guide cum porter for the next couple of years. During that time, I learned a lot more about tourism and got the required training which helped me get my guide license. As a Himalayan Encounter’s representative, I started leading groups for different overseas companies like Intrepid, The Adventure Company and Discovery Adventure etc.
Slowly, I started enjoying my work and adventure became my passion. When I used to take groups to the mountains, I would often dream of scaling a high mountain. Finally, I made up my mind to climb them and managed to get mountaineering training which is quite expensive in Nepal. Since 2009, I have climbed 14 snow peaks including Mt Everest. Besides climbing mountains, I am also involved in cycling, rafting, kayaking, cannoning, rock climbing, and paragliding. After gaining experience of all these adventures activities, I have now gotten the chance to work as an instructor for outdoor adventures. I have visited Tibet, India, and Bhutan for trekking and climbing. I have also been involved in European trekking when I trekked the Alps of Germany and Austria. I also got an opportunity to climb Ben Nevis, Scotland.
During the time I was training to climb mountains, I got married. I am now blessed with two lovely children – a son and a daughter. Now, one of the main goals in my life is to provide for my two children, to give them a better lifestyle, and better education. I also want to give back to the industry that has given me all these wonderful opportunities. I wanted to contribute to the tourism industry by establishing my own adventure company.( and with the help of my older brother was able to do so).
I am driven to seek out new adventures in previously unexplored regions of Nepal. In this way, adventurous tourists get to experience unknown parts of Nepal and the local people can benefit from the tourism flow to their region, helping the growth of the local economy.