KATHMANDU —
Summiting the world’s 8,000m mountains is the ultimate bucket list dream for
ambitious climbers, a feat managed by fewer than 50 people, and Sanu Sherpa is
the first to do it twice.
اضافة اعلان
The Nepali climber’s summit of
Pakistan’s Gasherbrum
II (8,035m) last month completed his unprecedented double ascent of the
eight-thousanders — as the 14 peaks are collectively known.
As usual, he was guiding a paying customer — this
time a Japanese climber — to the top.
“What I have done is not something that is
impossible,” the 47-year-old told AFP. “I was just doing my job.”
Sherpa, who began working in mountaineering as a
porter and kitchen aid, climbed his first 8,000m peak in 2006 while guiding a
South Korean group to the summit of Cho Oyu.
“I felt like the Korean climbers would not be able
to summit the mountain, but I had to as I would not get work if I returned
unsuccessfully,” he said.
Death zone
Nepali guides — usually
ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest — are considered the backbone of
the climbing industry in the
Himalayas. They carry the majority of equipment
and food, fix ropes, and repair ladders.
It can be a perilous occupation. Altitudes above
8,000m are considered a “death zone”, where there is not enough oxygen in the
air to sustain human life for long periods.
On average, 14 people die every year on the eight
eight-thousanders in Nepal. About a third of deaths on Everest are Nepali
guides and porters, underscoring the risks they take to enable their clients’
dreams of reaching the world’s highest peaks.
“I have seen many dead bodies while going up or
descending the mountain,” said Sherpa.
“I am walking the same route or the same mountain,”
he added. “How would my family and children live if I met the same fate?”
Yak farmer
Sherpa grew up in
Sankhuwasabha district in eastern Nepal — an impoverished and remote rural area
that includes Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest mountain.
He was farming potatoes and corn, and grazing yaks
at the age of 30 — when many of his peers were making more money on the peaks.
“I used to ask myself, if those who could not even
carry as much as me were returning to the village after climbing mountains, why
couldn’t I?” he said.
He eventually decided to follow suit, hoping the
work would help him support his family of eight, and fulfil his dream of
“wearing mountain gear”.
He donned another climber’s hand-me-down boots for
his Cho Oyu summit, which paved his way to working as a guide on other
eight-thousanders.
By 2019, he had double summits on half of the 14
peaks, and a foreign climber suggested he try to complete the set.
Everest x 7
Long in the shadows as
supporters of their paying foreign customers — it costs more than $45,000 to
climb Everest — Nepali mountaineers are slowly being recognized in their own
right.
In recent years, several films have helped shine a
light on the key role of Nepali climbers, including “Sherpa” which was released
in 2015, and more recently “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible”.
Nepal’s culture
and tourism minister Jeevan Ram Shrestha said Sherpa’s double ascent record had
established him as “a source of inspiration for climbers around the world”.
Sherpa has climbed Everest seven times and has
triple ascents on another four of the 14 peaks.
Back in Kathmandu after last month’s record-setting
climb, he is preparing for a fourth summit of Manaslu, the world’s
eighth-highest mountain, with a client and is getting offers for other
expeditions.
“I can do triple ascents,” he said. “But, maybe that
depends also on luck.”
Sherpa says his family often tell him he has faced
enough challenges in the mountains and the time has come to hang up his boots.
“Sometimes I want to go and sometimes I don’t want
to,” he said.
“What to do except climbing? There is no other job.”
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