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It’s bring-the-kids-hope-to-work moment. But the father’s will is not to inspire.
Kami Rita Sherpa, the famous Nepalese mountain guide who holds the record for the most ascents of Mount Everest, brought her son, Lakpa Tenzing, 24, to the foot of the magnificent summit in late 2021 and told us that it was almost there. he had to think about coming.
“It’s a struggle, look at me,” Mr. Sherpa recalled telling his son there. “I don’t see a future.”
This is an increasingly common sentiment in a trade that is often passed down through generations, as the risk-to-reward calculation for more Sherpa families argues against leaving the mountain.
The dangers of guiding climbers to the world’s highest peak, with the possibility of falls, avalanches and extreme weather, are obvious. Nearly a third of the 315 deaths recorded on Everest over the past century were Sherpa guides, according to the Himalayan Database, a mountain record-keeping body. Just last month, three Sherpas were killed when they were hit by an ice column on a glacier near the mountain’s base camp.
The payment is also modest for all but those who make it to the elite club and are decorated with guides, after years of grueling climbs and proven success. An early-career Sherpa made about $4,000, minus the cost of organizing equipment, for a one-season Everest expedition, which was the bulk of his annual income.
But what forced Sherpa to leave the industry, and to discourage his children from taking up, is the little security offered. If the guide becomes disabled or dies, there is little safety net for his family – insurance payments are limited, and the government welfare funds promised to Sherpa guides have not been fulfilled.
Some of those who leave the mountains go abroad, a common path to better job prospects in one of Asia’s poorest countries. Others have found any work they can do in Nepal.
“I would not recommend my children to go to the mountains and continue the work of a mountain guide with the same risk,” said Kaji Sherpa, who quit in 2016 after eight years as a Sherpa guide and became a security guard for a local hydropower project. .
Mr. Sherpa survived one of Everest’s worst disasters, when an avalanche in 2014 killed 16 Sherpas. Many mountain guides are hoping that the tragedy will spell disaster for the industry, prompting new safety measures and life insurance offerings.
After the disaster, the Sherpas threatened to cancel the Everest expedition, which brings millions of dollars a year to Nepal. The government then announced a welfare fund for climbing guides, but, according to government officials and expedition leaders, it was never activated.
The changes made by the expedition operators also do not bring security. When the insurance policies are good, they give the families of Sherpas only about $11,000 in the event of death and about $3,000 in the case of injuries. They also provided a bond of approximately $5,000 to cover the cost of rescue operations in the event of an accident.
To organize an expedition on Nepal’s peaks above 20,000 feet – climbing is allowed at 414 – the industry needs at least 4,000 Sherpas acclimatized to the altitude, according to Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, founder of 14 Peaks Expedition, a mountaineering company. In addition, tens of thousands of porters are needed to carry loads to the base.
There is no real data on trends in Sherpa employment. But there are signs of strain among Sherpa guides and expedition support workers.
In an effort to create more job opportunities in the mountains, the Nepalese government recently issued a rule requiring equipment to be taken by porters and yaks from Syangboche, the site of the closest airport to Everest, at 12,467 feet, to base camp, at 17,500 feet.
But the government was forced to reverse the decision after expedition operators complained that there were not enough porters and yaks. In March, just weeks before the start of the season, officials ordered that helicopters be allowed to bring cargo to the base.
When the Sherpas left the mountain, the expedition organizers said they had noticed a pattern.
Sherpa guides, known for their endurance at high altitudes and in extreme climates, mostly come from ethnic communities living near the mountains of Nepal. Sherpas from the Khumbu region, seen as pioneers in mountaineering, are dwindling in number. The Sherpa of Rolwaling, who started later, began to transition to another way of life. And the Sherpas from the Kanchenjunga and Makalu regions walked into the void.
Some people leave to study and work in the capital, Kathmandu, or abroad. Thousands have moved to the United States, Europe and Australia. Some of them have gotten jobs in climbing, while others have taken gigs or other jobs.
“They didn’t go back to the mountains or go back to their villages,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, the organizer of the expedition. “So you don’t find many Sherpas in the Khumbu. There are many in Colorado, New York, Austria, Switzerland.
Among those who have left the mountain is Apa Sherpa, the famous guide who held the record for most summits of Everest until Kami Rita Sherpa broke it in 2018.
Apa Sherpa, who is now 63 years old, moved to Utah in 2006 and lives there with his family.
“It’s all for education,” Tenzing Sherpa, Apa Sherpa’s eldest son and an accountant at a biotech company, said by phone. “My father and mother had no education, so they worked hard in the mountains.”
For Kami Rita Sherpa, the decision to prevent her son from following her to Everest stems from her difficult journey.
Despite being in the elite echelon of Sherpas – he has scaled Everest 26 times – his income barely covers the expenses of his family of four. He lives in a rented apartment in Kathmandu.
Every spring, when Mr. Sherpa leads the next expedition to Everest, his family holds their breath.
“I pray day and night and light a candle at the Boudhanath stupa for his well-being when he is away from home,” said his wife, Lakpa Jangmu, referring to the Buddhist temple in Kathmandu. “The only sigh of relief when I saw him come through that door.”
Mr. Sherpa said he will continue to work in the mountains for the rest of his career.
“If I lead an expedition team, scores of Sherpas ask for jobs as porters,” he said, adding that he brings the country thousands of dollars. “I’ll keep working for at least a few more years.”
But she and her husband have made another path for their children.
His son, Pasang, 21, is in the final semester of the bachelor’s program in information technology.
Lakpa, his 24-year-old son, is finishing his degree in tourism management.
“I know about the legacy he holds,” Lakpa said of his father. “I plan to become a landscape photographer – that will bring me closer to the mountains, but from a distance.”
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