Narayan Baniya is missing. The August 26 glacial collapse in Nepal triggered catastrophic flooding that took hundreds of lives, including guides and porters who make trekking possible.

This newsletter is about what happens when things break, how we show up, and why asking for help matters. It features the Te Araroa story of stepping back on day 80, the context of Nepal's vulnerability, and how to support Narayan's family.

Narayan was a guide with Himalayan Recreation, reliable and warm and genuinely good at what he did. He was also a father, a husband, a son. The rituals have been completed. His family and friends are asking for support.

October treks to EBC and ABC are proceeding as scheduled, but the guides carrying your load are thinking about their country right now, and they deserve to be remembered and supported as real people with real lives beyond the trek.

Every morning, the sun rises over the sea. It comes up through the clouds in shades of gold and amber, silhouetting the forest in front of me. Some mornings it's pink. Some mornings it's fire. Some mornings the clouds are so thick I only know it's risen by the light that gradually finds its way through. I don't miss a morning.

This edition features practical advice for anyone dreaming of the Annapurna Base Camp Trek, a training guide for Great Walks season, both October Himalayan departures, and an update from Shambhala about work that's quietly reshaping what the forest is becoming.

Twin volcanic crater lakes, a ten metre waterfall, ancient kahikatea forest, and a mid-winter swim in Lake Ōkataina that nobody regretted. The July Reset and Recharge Walk delivered one of those days that stays with you, the kind where you arrive carrying the week and leave having quietly set it down somewhere between the trees.

This edition also tackles one of the questions I get asked most often: how do you actually get fit for hiking without turning your life upside down? Plus news from the August Reset and Recharge Walk at Pirongia Forest Park, and a small update from life at Shambhala where the solar is finally coming online.