NOTE: If you are here just to donate immediately to the HapdZi Birthday Sam fundraiser, please click here to do so. Otherwise, please read below for more information. Thank you!

To say I loved my time in Nepal with Sam Heughan would be a gross understatement.

Part of it was seeing and exploring new terrain along the Mahakulung Muddhi-Kongmedingma Trail - it’s always an immense joy to go where few have gone before.

Part of it was pushing ourselves in the high country, over the Amphu Laptsa pass, and seeing for the first time the stunning, quiet, remote Hunku Valley.

Part of the joy was traveling this landscape with the amazing team we had, mostly hailing from rural, remote districts of eastern Nepal where dZi Foundation has worked for decades.

But, if I’m being honest, a massive part of the joy for me was being there with Sam, sharing the experience of Nepal with Sam. Perhaps, however, not for the reasons you’d expect.

It wasn’t his acting skill, although that is incredible. It wasn’t his fame, although that, too, is impressive. It wasn’t money or looks or panache or any of those superficial elements of Sam, of anyone.

Rather, it was personality. Nepal is a profoundly special place to me, and one which I do not like to share with just anyone because, well, I’m protective of it. I want the people I’m with to see the real Nepal, to enjoy the mountains and the landscape, but more importantly, to connect with the people, to get to know them beyond the spurious superficialities and see them as they truly are: people. People with hopes and dreams like yours and mine, with love and fear and tragedy like yours and mine, with parents and children and spouses and partners like yours and mine, with blood and brains and muscles and vision like yours and mine, with integrity and diligence and ethics and morals just like yours and mine.

And, I always want to share Nepal with people who will see, without judgment, that there is a fundamental difference, one that exists not by choice but by chance: vulnerability. By virtue of geography, by virtue of chance, Nepali people live in a world, a landscape - both physical and economic - imbued with far less opportunity and far greater risk than yours or mine. This is not an imperfection, but a stark reality, and recognition of it comes only through an open heart and mind coupled with deep compassion and empathy.

Sam has all of this, and showed it throughout our expedition, treating everyone he met not as a stranger, not as someone lesser, but as a brother, a sister, a member of his new, extended family. Everyone received his kind smile, his loving heart, his compassion, and his generosity.

Today, April 30th, is Sam’s 45th birthday, and on this day I’d like to recognize and celebrate him and the light he brings to so many. As you may know, his supporter and amazing person, Tash (Instagram and X/Twitter), started a fundraiser in honor of Sam, aiming to raise $29,035 (29,035 feet is the height of Mount Everest) for the dZi Foundation. The support has been incredible, with $17,913 raised thus far.

But, we’d like to raise more. So, in honor of Sam, and in support of the life-changing, community-changing, deeply impactful work of dZi, I am offering a challenge:

Over the next week of the challenge, I will match - dollar for dollar up to $6,000 - every donation that comes in to dZi to get us to the top. To get Sam to the top. And, most importantly, to get over 50,000 people dZi has partnered with to the top.

Now, those math whizzes amongst you may be saying: Wait, that’s too much. A $6,000 match equals a total of $12,000, which puts us over the goal of $29,035!

Indeed, it does. But, long ago, a hero of mine, Willi Unsoeld, said after completing one of the most impressive ascents of Everest ever: So you've climbed the highest mountain in the world. What's left? It's all downhill from there. You've got to set your sights on something higher than Everest.

So, together let’s wish a big Hap-dZi Birthday to Sam, let's climb onward, go a little bit further, and set our sights on something higher than Everest.