Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest
By Pradeep Bashyal and Ankit Babu Adhikari
Cassell, UK
ISBN: 978-1788403337
Pages: 320pp.

When New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay successfully summited the world’s highest mountain in 1953, it not only brought fame to the two individuals, but also brought to light a community of people who — although they had been providing services to mountaineers for long — were still relatively unknown to the wider world.

Sherpas constitute about 150,000 people living between the mountains of eastern and central Nepal, predominantly in the Khumbu region along the foothills of several peaks, including Everest.

In their new book Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest, writer, social scientist and musician Ankit Babu Adhikari, and BBC journalist Pradeep Bashyal — both based in Kathmandu, Nepal — trace the stories of these people, especially those who scaled Everest either alone or while guiding foreign climbers.

For a long time, Sherpas led a quiet life, struggling to ensure they had enough food for survival. Other amenities, such as education and health, were never a priority. In the early days of mountain tourism, they worked as porters, carrying oxygen and supplies to higher camps, cooks, trainers training the foreign climbers, technicians, weather experts, safety personnel, medics and rescuers.

A new book traces the stories of the Sherpas in Nepal, who have been providing invaluable assistance to international mountaineers for long, but have never really received the same sort of acclaim

Packing in plenty of information about what goes on behind the scenes of a summiting expedition, Bashyal and Adhikari’s book gives credit where it is due. Foreign climbers are usually the ones showered with acknowledgement and laurels, but it is the Sherpa porters and guides who take the preliminary risks, running ahead to set up the ropes and ladders and ensuring the safety of their clients.

In fact, Hillary and Norgay’s climb was the first expedition where a Sherpa was considered an equal, and not just a skilled porter.

Since then, Sherpas have created several mountaineering records of their own: Lakpa Rita has summited the highest peaks in all seven continents; Kami Rita climbed Everest 26 times; Pemba Dorje is the fastest climber and Tashi Lakpa is the youngest person to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen. There are a number of other records set by Sherpas fired with the passion to climb.

However, most Sherpas climb not out of passion, but necessity. The climbing season lasts around two months and the extremely dangerous job earns them a meagre $3,000-4,000, which must last the whole year. Many people the authors speak to say they would prefer an alternative livelihood, but it’s a rare Sherpa who has that choice. The frigid, rocky mountainscape simply does not offer any options.

Consider Purba Tashi, who has summited Everest 21 times, yet has also had to endure “cold nights… with no electricity, little fire for heat, limited warm clothes and only potatoes to eat.”

The history and development of social services and infrastructure in Nepal are threaded through Bashyal and Adhikari’s book, so that readers are aware of prevailing situations, but not distracted by boring details. This gives readers adequate context in which to situate the lives of Sherpas and the struggles they face.

For centuries, Sherpas navigated the deadly mountains to trade salt for grain. The authors write: “Nobody can better understand the Sherpa’s desperation in climbing the mountains than the first generation Sherpas, who started climbing simply with the hope of receiving some decent food to lessen their hunger, warm clothing offered by the foreigners during expeditions, and a little money to sustain their families.”

After the success of the 1953 climb, scaling Everest became a goal for many mountaineers, but only one expedition per season, per route was allowed. This meant only a handful of Sherpas could grasp the opportunity to make some money.

In the 1990s, Nepal adopted a more liberal economic policy and opened up to foreign tourists. The freedom given to the mountaineering industry to explore its potential fully became a key turning point for the mountain dwellers’ livelihoods and, as a result of years of gradual development, Sherpas have now set up properly organised and managed expedition companies, staffed by well-trained guides.

The entrepreneurial spirit is not limited to Sherpa men. The women, alongside their traditional duties of looking after their families, run hotels, eateries and lodges for the tourists. They also climb mountains as part of expeditions and have summited peaks, in defiance of several social restrictions, to become icons in their own right.

Pasang Lhamu, the first Sherpa woman to climb Everest, is regarded by many as “an icon equally as significant as Tenzing Norgay, if not more”, while Furdiki Sherpa and Nima Doma summited Everest as a tribute to their husbands, who died on the mountain.

As well as stories of survival, endeavour and glory at the roof of the world, the book gives a peek into the Sherpas’ culture and beliefs. An interesting practice is naming babies for the day on which they are born, so a child born on Thursday will be named Purba, one born on Saturday will be called Pemba, and so on.

Education does not appear to feature on the community’s list of priorities and village schools are nothing to write home about. The Khumjung Edmund Hillary School enrols about 350 students from classes one to 10. Vacations are spent grazing the family’s few cattle in high altitude pastures. Future prospects are limited; one can either become a mountain guide, or work as a labourer in nearby cities.

Sherpas revere the mountains as the home of the gods. The Nepali name for Mount Everest is ‘Sagarmatha’, which translates to ‘head of the earth, touching the heavens’. On the Tibetan side of the border, it is named after the Sherpas’ mother goddess, Chomolungama.

The people mostly practise Tibetan Buddhism and avoid any activities they fear might anger the gods, such as smoking and drinking, littering, cutting down trees and killing animals. They believe any disasters — such as the avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas on April 18, 2014 — are the gods’ way of showing anger.

But accidents and disasters are an unavoidable part of mountaineering. It is generally thought that climbing is hard and the descent is easy, but coming down a mountain is not without risks.

According to online record compilation site The Himalayan Database, as quoted in the book, “305 people have died on Everest between 1924 and December 2021, with the death rate standing at 3.5 percent. Combining all deaths in the ‘death zone’ or below, 28 percent perished during descent.”

In view of the feats Sherpas have achieved, many consider them real-life superheroes and they are renowned for their hardiness, expertise and experience. It is believed that their climbing ability is partly because of a genetic adaptation to living in high altitudes. Curiosity about this has led to experiments conducted to “explore and examine the Sherpas’ strength and resilience in the mountains.”

The authors also highlight the myriad eco-challenges that have resulted from the boom in mountain tourism, such as melting glaciers, gigantic heaps of garbage and the increasing number of dead bodies. One of the most majestic places on Earth is at risk of irreparable damage, but efforts are being made to “return the value of the mountains and, hence, appease the gods.” All climbers are now mandated by the government of Nepal to bring back not only their own trash, but an additional eight kilogrammes of waste left behind by climbers of years past.

The effects of global warming and climate change are also evident. Findings by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development — a Kathmandu-based research organisation — show that the Khumbu glacier is retreating at an alarming rate of 20 metres every year.

According to a report commissioned by the National Geographic Society in association with watchmakers Rolex, around 50 metres of ice has disappeared from the South Col Glacier over the last 25-30 years. Quoting this report, the authors write: “As the glaciers in the Himalayas melt there is the issue … [of] an increase of the pollutants which human activity has deposited over hundreds of years, impacting the water quality and the ecosystem downstream.”

With the changes in the mountains becoming visible, it is hoped that there will be alternate routes and means to climb them. And Sherpas will lead the way, as they have been doing since centuries.

The reviewer is a freelance journalist and tweets @naqviriz

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 8th, 2023