Chronicling the Lives of Sherpas
A Conversation with Authors Pradeep Bashyal & Ankit Babu Adhikari
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Sherpas are the climbers’ guardians, in charge of time and space… A Sherpa is their eyes on the mountain and, depending on the need, Sherpas become the climbers’ weather experts, technicians and medics… and anything else needed for survival.
So writes Mr. Bashyal and Mr. Adhikari. In Sherpa; Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest, the reader becomes acquainted with the lives of the members of an incredible community, often mythologized by foreigners, and by Nepali people alike. With their achievements earning the limelight since the groundbreaking feat of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary, Sherpas have acquired an almost godlike status. Certain individuals helped bolster that perception, such as when Kami Rita Sherpa crested Mount Everest for the 28th time this year, or when Ang Rita Sherpa did so ten times without the life-sustaining supplemental oxygen nearly all other climbers—including Sherpas themselves—require.
Kami Rita Sherpa - photo provided by Kami Rita himself
Breaking records is not the only way Sherpas have established their reputations. Mingma David Sherpa famously rescued stranded climbers above 23,000 feet (7,000 meters) by performing a dangerous ‘long-line’ rescue, where he hung from a helicopter by a rope until touching down in the area where the victims lay. Many other Sherpas have been credited with their own daring rescues.
Pasang Lhamu Sherpa became a national hero in Nepal as the first woman to reach the summit, though she tragically died on the even more perilous descent. Still, a statue of her stands proudly near the magnificent Boudhanath Stupa, a testament to an achievement perhaps as widely vaunted as Tenzing Norgay’s own.
Boudhanath – photo by author
Mr. Bashyal and Mr. Adhikari graciously agreed to meet with me to discuss their book. Something mystical seemed at work, if one believes in such things, as the two authors’ success in producing this magnificent work depended, in part, on two people very dear to me. They describe one of them, Karen White, as their “guardian angel.” I can think of no more apt a moniker for Ms. White.
On my first arrival nearly a decade and a half ago, Kathmandu was a very different place. Tribhuvan International Airport felt like an airfield straight out of a bygone era, replete with rolling staircases situated to exit an awkwardly juxtaposed modern Airbus jet. In those days, rolling blackouts regularly thrust Kathmandu into darkness and, as I arrived very late at night, I experienced the inky blackness of a city that all but shut down after sunset.
Knowing nothing about the layout of the place or directions to my intended destination, and possessing zero understanding of the local language, I was entirely at the mercy of anyone capable of—and willing to—communicate with me. Through the fortune of finding one very helpful man, I reached Ms. White by phone who managed to convey to the taxi driver all the necessary instructions to arrive at the International Buddhist Academy, which she managed. Upon reaching the safety of that place, my fondness for her only grew as she introduced me to the culture of Nepal and the Tibetan monks with whom I would spend the next few months.
Incidentally, Ms. White also introduced me to my now dearest friend in Nepal, Khem Lakai. Mr. Lakai is the founder and CEO of the Global Academy of Tourism and Hospitality Education (GATE College) in Kathmandu, a premier institution for curating young people into a profession upon which Nepal’s economy heavily relies.
Over the subsequent years, Mr. Lakai and I have become fast friends—family, really—allowing me the opportunity to become something like an uncle to his children, a brother to his wife and family, and a sort of American ambassador to Nepal itself. Of no surprise to me or anyone who knows him, Mr. Lakai also played a pivotal role in the production of Sherpa, having provided the venue for many of the important conversations that became the narrative of the book. Indeed, Mr. Lakai facilitated my meeting with its authors that paved the way for this article.
Sherpa by Pradeep Bashyal & Ankit Babu Adhikari
What Sherpa intends to do is to both challenge and uphold the mythology of the Sherpas. Upholding the canon demands little effort, frankly, because the Sherpas perform near-miracles every climbing season on Everest. YouTube, websites, and social media regularly depict the awe-inspiring deeds involved with safely leading climbers up and down the mountain, from laying ladders across yawning crevasses, to untangling climbers knotted up in the sophisticated rope system put there by the Sherpas themselves.
Challenging the myths, however, requires a more nuanced look at what being a Sherpa really means, a story told by the Sherpas themselves and so eloquently put to paper by Bashyal and Adhikari. The purpose is not, of course, to diminish any of the truly remarkable things these people do or have done, rather to put human faces and feelings to their preternatural feats. Confronting the planet’s greatest mountain presses one to the extreme, both physically and mentally. This lonely world holds little regard for the puny humans attempting to conquer it. And of anyone, the Sherpas know this best.
Mountaineers across the world attempt to summit Mount Everest because it poses a challenge like no other. Towering to a height above any other Earthly landmark, the peak is so imposing that even commercial aircraft do not fly over it. Covered in shifting glaciers topped with drifting snows, Everest batters its contenders with frigid temperatures and howling winds. Even at its calmest, gusts exceeding 150 mph (240 kph) will happily blow mountaineers off its sides, or freeze them to death in temperatures that plunge to 20 below zero or even colder.
Landslides and avalanches loom ever-present as the ancient glaciers shift their bulk, seemingly on a whim. Even the air itself plots its visitors’ demise. Deprived so much of oxygen—a product of the devastatingly low atmospheric pressure at those heights—it takes at least three breaths to ingest the equivalent amount one would inhale in a single breath at sea level. Most climbers confront these assaults only once in their lives, and many do not survive to ever do so again. For Sherpas, these comprise mere occupational hazards, to be met yearly as part of their seasonal employment.
This is not to say that the elements affect Sherpas any less. No, in fact the reality is quite the opposite. CNN estimates that of the lives Everest has claimed, roughly 1/3rd of them were Sherpas. Far too many told Bashyal and Adhikari harrowing tales of their own survival during which the luck ran out for members of their families or friends. As Mingma Sherpa described to them:
We had been trying to convince [his father, Ang Chhiring Sherpa] to stop going to the mountain as he was already old… About a month before the expedition season of 2014 began, he had promised me that it was going to be his last time… But that fateful year turned out to be the last one, once and for all. My father died doing what he loved the most.
In April 2014, Ang Chhiring Sherpa and 15 other Sherpas died on the mountain as a result of an avalanche at higher than 20,000 feet (6,096 meters), in one of the single deadliest incidents in the mountain’s history.
Likewise, Sherpas are not immune to fear, and arguably possess a healthier dose of it than most, having experienced the raw terror Everest has to offer on many occasions. Apa Sherpa, who has climbed Everest faster than any other person, summited it many times, and who is often referred to as “Super Sherpa,” showed no hesitation in describing his own fear. He said:
Who wouldn’t fear climbing the tallest mountain of the world? There are deep crevasses that can engulf you at a single wrong step. There are deadly avalanches on the way, which could fall and easily crush you to rubble in a matter of seconds. There are knife-edge ridges, where ropes are your sole lifeline. If you mistakenly untether yourself, or miss a track, you are gone. No matter how much oxygen you are on, you are not at 100 percent once you have plunged into the death zone.
In addition to the natural hazards, Sherpas face physiological ones just like any other climber. One of the most intriguing chapters in the book discusses whether Sherpas possess super-human abilities that allow them to traverse the mountain as they would a low-lying meadow or beach. Spoiler alert—they cannot. Except perhaps for the extremely rare outlier, people remain similarly constrained by the elements of biology and physics.
The human body is, however, remarkably adaptable, particularly to situations with which it is familiar. Bashyal and Adhikari discuss the efforts of scientists and medical doctors who put the assertions of supernatural ability to the test, and their experiments revealed a none-too-shocking result. Sherpas, like anyone, do feel the effects of high altitude. The difference, insofar as one exists, is that Sherpas who have visited those heights before have a body that is now effectively programed to adapt to the conditions rather quicker. The same result was found in non-Sherpas who had frequented higher altitudes. One could draw the comparison between them and professional scuba divers who can hold their breath for a putatively inordinate amount of time.
What ultimately sets Sherpas apart is that over the last half-century or so, guiding climbers to the top has become a way of life, a way to support their families, and a way to escape the crushing poverty many of them and their forefathers endured. Knowing full well the risks of working in such a hostile environment, Sherpas return year-after-year to manage the responsibilities the rest of life imposes upon them.
In years past, working as a porter or guide presented an extraordinary opportunity in a land with few. With their problems—nay, their existence—unknown to the rest of the world, Sherpas leapt at the chance to perform and perfect a task uniquely available to them. Today it remains a decent-paying job for many, though as the body count rises younger generations seem loath to sign up.
As Kami Rita told me in my interview with him (linked below), younger members of the Sherpa community are seeing more opportunities in other occupations, ones that do not involve the physical rigors or mental terrors that come with working on the mountain. Still, for the stalwarts who persist, Everest continues to present them a curious path. As the authors explain it, Sherpas “partake in someone else’s dreams of standing on the roof of the world, driven by the hopes and prospects of pursuing a better life for their [own] families.”
Whether Sherpas continue the tradition so associated with their identities or not, and whether they pass it along to their progeny who are increasingly tempted by safer fields of work, they cannot stop the winds of change on the mountain itself. With the advent of climate change, the Himalayas face a remaking that will render them strangers to even the most experienced Sherpas. As warming temperatures expedite ice melt in the mountains, glaciers are enduring “dynamic” destabilization in a way not seen in human history.
Between 1970 and 2000, 9% of the ice in the Himalayas disappeared. Current trends indicate that the Himalayan glacial total could reduce by 80% by the end of the century—and that is if climatic conditions do not significantly worsen before then. Dr. Paul Mayewski told the authors that after examining ice cores on Everest, “all of a sudden, 2,000 years of ice was missing from as high as 26,313 feet (8,020 meters).” This has contributed to the rising threat of avalanches as snow packs shift, melt, and thin. At the same time, weather anomalies occur more frequently as the previously ‘normal’ patterns give way to new, understudied phenomena. This year, temperatures dipped well below the norm, plunging as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit/Celsius, nearly 20 degrees colder than usual.
As Everest will forever (in human time, anyway) stand above the world around it, people will still want to climb it. About this Dr. Mayewski said, “All we can predict is that there will be changes in the ways of climbing, simply because the mountains will no longer be the same.” Humans will, in his view, adapt to the circumstances, employing new equipment or setting up camp in new locations. As places like the Khumbu Icefall become more precarious, mountaineers will seek other paths up.
Nevertheless, throughout all of Everest’s climbing history, Sherpas led the way and Dr. Mayewski sees no reason for that to change now. After all, “nobody else knows their place better than them.” This is among the reasons why people like Kami Rita continue to advocate for Sherpas to receive the proper recognition and compensation for the risks they take, and the rewards the mountain denies so many of them and their families.
I want to thank Authors Pradeep Bashyal and Ankit Babu Adhikari for having dinner with me over which we discussed the book, and the extraordinary efforts they undertook to write it. The Himalayan Mountains are an exquisite place with which I am becoming slowly more familiar. Seeing this majestic landscape and speaking to those who call it home has been an experience few that I know will ever enjoy. Less so will they comprehend the honor and wonder it bestows upon me every moment I lay eyes on those glorious peaks or hear the stories of their citizens and chroniclers. Buy and read the book, you will not regret it.
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I am a Certified Forensic Computer Examiner, Certified Crime Analyst, Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified Financial Crimes Investigator with a Juris Doctor and a master’s degree in history. I spent 10 years working in the New York State Division of Criminal Justice as Senior Analyst and Investigator. Today, I teach Cybersecurity, Ethical Hacking, Digital Forensics, and Financial Crime Prevention and Investigation. I was a firefighter before I joined law enforcement and now I currently run a non-profit that uses mobile applications and other technologies to create Early Alert Systems for natural disasters for people living in remote or poor areas.
Find more about me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Mastodon. Or visit my non-profit’s page here.
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To read about my interview with the renowned Kami Rita Sherpa or to learn about the effects climate change is having upon Nepal, see below. Beneath that is an article featuring the remarkable efforts toward sustainability at the Global Academy of Tourism and Hospitality Education (mentioned above). Thanks for reading!
