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Posts Tagged ‘Mt Everest’

Teenage Sherpa Points to a New Path

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 18, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Nima Rinji Sherpa.
This sherpa “aims to inspire more young people to break away from the Sherpa tradition of serving only as helpers on expeditions,” says the Monitor.

It reassures me about the world when I see young people deciding on new paths and leading the way. In today’s story, we learn about a young Nepalese sherpa who wants to help young people like him to start climbing on their own terms.

Reporting from Kathmandu, the Christian Science Monitor‘s Aakash Hassan, writes, “On a bright afternoon, Nima Rinji Sherpa’s stroll down a crowded Kathmandu street is frequently interrupted by people coming to greet him. Some give him a warm pat on the back. As he joins friends for lunch at a pizzeria, its owner rushes to embrace him, gushing, ‘You are making us proud, Nima.’ …

“In October 2024, at age 18, he became the youngest person to summit the world’s 14 mountains higher than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). Apart from Nepal, these mountains are in Pakistan, China, and India. 

“Mr. Rinji hails from a family of Sherpas, an ethnic Tibetan tribe living in Nepal whose people are pioneers in mountaineering. For generations, they have been highly sought-after guides and porters for international clients making the world’s most difficult climbs. …

“He is seen as a trailblazer who is pursuing climbing as a professional mountaineering athlete and who aims to inspire more young people to break away from the Sherpa tradition of serving only as helpers on expeditions. …

“Mr. Rinji’s father, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, has summited Mount Everest nine times; at age 19, he became the youngest person to summit Everest without additional oxygen. …

“Mr. Rinji nevertheless showed no interest in climbing in his early teenage days. But in 2020, during the lockdown imposed for the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed an interest in photography and eventually followed his father up mountains with the hope of capturing scenic photos and videos. 

“On the first trek, Mr. Rinji says, he surprised his father by matching his pace and kept following him in the coming weeks on more trails, awestruck by the ‘beautiful and overwhelming’ mountains. Soon, Mr. Rinji was part of his father’s training sessions for professional climbers and was determined to summit the Himalayas. 

“In September 2022, a few months after Mr. Rinji turned 16 – Nepal’s legal age for climbing – he was part of an expedition to Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest mountain at 8,163 meters. There Mr. Rinji had firsthand experience of the challenges climbers face and of how tirelessly Sherpas work for their clients.

“Out of 500 people who were at the base camp preparing to summit that season, he says, only about 100 achieved the feat. Twenty people were caught in avalanches and had to be rescued. …

“ ‘I think I was one of the last people to summit. Then it clicked,’ he says with a smile and some pride showing on his face. 

“After that, he kept summiting one after another ‘eight-thousanders.’ …

“It was during his 14-peaks expedition spread over the span of two years that Mr. Rinji realized the extraordinary, underrecognized work of Sherpas. …

” ‘It’s our duty to vocalize ourselves, to take credit for who we are.’ 

“Making his own case as an example, he says he didn’t receive support from any major sponsors for his 14-peaks expedition and had to rely on the resources of his family. …

“Mr. Rinji has been meeting with young Sherpas who work as guides – or aspire to be guides – to motivate them to see themselves as athletes. He visits schools, addresses public events, and posts on social media about the need for young Nepalese to be ‘leaders’ in climbing. 

“With the help of his father’s expedition company, he provides free courses, or charges a nominal fee, to train young people who want to become athletes. …

“Mr. Lakpa is proud of his son not only for what he has achieved but also because ‘he is working for himself.’ 

“Lakpa Temba, a Sherpa who works for an expedition company in Kathmandu, says Mr. Rinji is broadening the employment horizons for Sherpas. ‘Nima is showing us a middle path,’ he says, ‘where you are climbing mountains for yourself, on your own terms.’ 

“Veteran Sherpas also believe that having more people from Nepal become athletes in climbing will bring new attention and opportunities for Sherpas. And it could attract more people to Nepal, a poor country that relies on tourism.”

More at the Monitor, here.

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Bomb Victim Tames Mt. Everest

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Shanta Nepali.
He lost his legs in Afghanistan, went on to summit Everest.

Today’s story reminds me that people can overcome almost anything if it’s important to them — and if they believe they can.

Bryan Pietsch has the story at the Washington Post.

“Hari Budha Magar was born in the foothills of the Himalayas. Growing up in Nepal, surrounded by the mountains and seeing Mount Everest constantly in textbooks and local media, he thought about climbing it someday.

“But school kept him busy, and then at 19, he left his country to join a Gurkha unit in the British army. He saw and skied through mountain ranges around the world on his missions and travels, but he was still ‘thinking about Everest all the time,’ he said in an interview.

“Those bucket-list plans to climb the world’s tallest peak were complicated by an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010 that left Budha Magar with above-the-knee amputations on both of his legs. But after years of preparation — and delays due to the coronavirus pandemic and a rule that sought to keep people with certain physical disabilities off the mountain — Budha Magar made history [in May] by becoming the first above-the-knee double amputee to summit the 29,000-foot peak. …

“Budha Magar was part of a 12-person team led by Krishna Thapa, another Gurkha veteran. The pair served together in the army for three years and were reunited in 2016 as Thapa was planning an Everest expedition.

“ ‘What do you think? I’ve got no legs,’ Thapa recalled Budha Magar asking him. ‘Do you think it is possible I could climb Everest?’

“ ‘We can only try,’ Thapa replied.

“After acclimating to the elevation and the snowy, windy environment at base camp, the team intended to start the journey to the summit on April 17 — exactly 13 years after the explosion in Afghanistan that took Budha Magar’s legs — but poor weather delayed them for weeks. This year’s conditions were especially difficult, Thapa said. …

“Unpredictable wind — despite access to three separate weather forecasting tools — and conditions such as slushy snow [proved] challenging. ‘The snow was soft,’ Budha Magar said, ‘and I didn’t have knees to lift up.’

“Budha Magar said there were times when he wanted to give up, and Thapa said there were a couple of moments when he thought they wouldn’t be able to move forward. But they persisted.

“ ‘Hari kept surprising me,’ Thapa said.

“They summited about 3:10 p.m. [May 19], spending only a few minutes at the peak due to harsh conditions. At the summit, Budha Magar said his tears — happy ones — froze on his cheek. Some on the team had to fetch more oxygen on the descent, and Budha Magar was so exhausted that he slid down on his rear end for part of it. …

“Budha Magar, who lives in Canterbury, England, said his 10-year-old son was especially worried about him attempting the climb. ‘I promised myself, “I’ll come back for you. I’m not going to go die up there,” ‘ he said. …

“Many Nepalese believe that people with disabilities were sinners in their past lives, Budha Magar said.

“ ‘I wanted to show that disabled people can have a happy, successful and meaningful life,’ he said. ‘Our disability might be our weakness, but we can do many other things.’ ”

More at the Post, here.

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