How Much Can He Carry?   Or When will they ever learn?

There are no wheels in the Sherpa's world, unless of course he is in Kathmandu. On his home turf in Solu or Khumbu the only things that go round are prayer wheels, rosaries and possibly gossip. The rest gets transported on the Sherpa's back, and it has always been so. Over grassy knoll or across rocky col and snow bound pass he has forever carried his life and livelihood on his back. Does that make him a beast of his own burden? I think not; for he must surely have gladly carried his dreams and aspirations too, not to speak of his fortunes.

But then, about a hundred years ago, he got hit by a veritable deluge of foreigners with colonial aspirations. This was the tide in the affairs of the Sherpa which he took at the flood that led him to his fortune.

This journey from being high altitude beasts of burden to high altitude barons of business was long and hard and at the cost of life and limb. In the well-oiled wheels, of the multi-million dollar Himalayan mountaineering industry, the Sherpa is the cog. The very fact that, with his tenacity and work ethic, he has attained this position of appreciation and respect, possibly justifies his de-facto ownership of some of the highest and coveted pieces of real estate in the world. From being in the foot-notes he is now in the foot-lights, the also-ran is now the protagonist in the narrative.

Those interested in the thrilling, though often tragic, story of this paradigm shift, can do no better than to read Alpine Rising by Bernadette McDonald, The Sherpa Trail by Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsaver and Everest Inc. by Will Cockrell.

To quote anthropologist Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, "… the story should be about the existence of multiple stories, and about bringing them to light…". These stories have painted an abiding and overarching narrative of the Sherpa, albeit a positive one. An open hearted enthusiasm is usually elicited at the mention of the Sherpa. More often then not everyone loves and trusts him, even unto their lives. Everyone wants his personal collectible Sherpa. The mountaineer, understandably, because familiarity has bred mutual respect and dependability. Even Bonington had his Pertemba. But now even the client wants one too, for he wants to bask in the reflected glory of one far superior.

Pertemba Sherpa with Sir Chris Bonington | Photo Courtesy: Chris Bonington

Though it has now been a hundred years, still, once the "client" Sahib (white, black, brown or yellow) reaches Base Camp, his climb, nay his very existence, depends on how much the Sherpa can carry. The Sherpa has again reverted back to being a beast of burden, carrying not only the wherewithal of the climb but also the dreams, hopes and vaunted aspirations of his client.

Dusty sepia stories from once-upon-a-time may put things in perspective when we focus on the present.

Nanga Parbat, 1934. Leader Willi Merkl with Sherpas Gaylay and Ang Tshering are retreating from high camp. The lower camps en route are all deserted and empty of provisions. Merkl gives up. Ang Tshering goes down alone in search of help and crawls down to base, the last man down from Nanga; spends a year in hospital and loses all his toes. Gaylay could have gone down too. But he does not abandon his leader. The next expedition in 1938 finds him and Merkl, frozen, next to each other.

Nanga Parbat, 1934. Ang Tshering, second from left - "Last man down from Nanga"; a picture of pain and suffering | Photo Courtesy: Via br.de

Nanga Parbat, 1934. Pasang Kikuli (center) being helped down by Sherpas | Photo Courtesy: Via livejournal.com

Nanga Parbat, 1934. Frostbitten Pasang Kikuli, second from left with others frostbitten sherpas | Photo Courtesy: Via livejournal.com

K2, 1939. Leader Fritz Weissner. Late in this unsuccessful expedition, Dudley Wolfe was abandoned alone high up in Camp VII. The Sahibs could not muster and mount a rescue team. So Sherpas Pasang Kikuli, Pasang Kitar, Phinzo and Tshering Norbu go up to rescue Wolfe. They reach Camp VII in record time to find Wolfe alive. But after a few days Norbu comes down alone. The rest disappear.

Annapurna, 1950. The eponymous Maurice Herzog expedition. How many of you, dear reader, can remember Sherpa Ajeeba, Ang Tshering's brother, who literally carried the frost bitten Herzog down from the snows on his back.

Annapurna, 1950. Ajeeba carries Maurice Herzog | Photo Courtesy: Taken from the book titled "Life and Death on Mt. Everest - Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering" by Sherry B. Ortner

Everest, 1952. The nearly there Swiss expedition. The leader and Swiss guide Raymond Lambert had this to say about Sherpa Tenzing, "Quite simply, I must say that I, the guide, have the confused impression, for once, of being the 'client'… this curious feeling comes over me: am I the client?... Is Tenzing the guide?.. Or the opposite. I don't know, but the impression is new".

Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay | Photo Courtesy: Via infosperber.ch

Fast forward to the present.

Everest, 2024. Kenyan client Cheruiyot Kirui attempts to summit without supplementary oxygen with guide Nawang Sherpa. At 8800 mts. he stops, unable to carry on. Nawang radios down to his Base Camp manager Dorchi Sherpa at 0807 hours, "client unwell". Dorchi advises, "put him on oxygen and begin descent". Nawang pleads repeatedly, Kirui refuses, becoming angry. For the next three hours, approximately, Nawang tries to persuade Kirui but fails. The delay proves fatal. Kirui dies, Nawang disappears.

Two precious lives lost.

On this tragedy, the legendary Sanu Sherpa said to Tulsi Rauniyar of the BBC, "I don't think Nawang was being reckless or foolish. He was being exactly what we've all been trained to be, responsible to the end. The tragedy isn't just that he died, but that dying was the most professionally appropriate choice he could make."

Nawang Sherpa | Photo Courtesy: @chrisclimbs2022

Everest, 2025. Indian Client Subrata Ghosh dies near the Hillary Step on his way down from the summit. His guide, probably Paljen Sherpa, tries to rescue him, fails and comes down alone to summit camp.

A precious life lost, a precious life survived.

If you have tears for Ghosh and his family and friends, spare a thought too for Paljen. He will now have to live with the fact that he had to leave behind a fellow man to an inevitable icy death. Will he come to terms with it and carry on with another client on another climb?

Should he have done a Gaylay or a Pasang Kikuli? Or may be an Ajeeba? Are we subconsciously asking, 'how much can he carry"? He was not only carrying his client's breath-of-life oxygen cylinders, but also his client's quasi-qualified aspirations. Do we expect him to carry more?

This is not the first, and possibly will not be the last, Indian client to die in the Nepal Himalayas. Nonetheless one cannot be immune to and be blasé about these tragedies of recurring deaths, howsoever inevitable and futile they may be. For in the final analysis, it comes down to not just spending a princely sum, even borrowed, over a summit selfie and a certificate, but also at the cost of lives in their prime, which leave families destitute in more ways than one.

Everest, 2023. Sherpa evacuating sick client on his back | Photo Courtesy: Screenshot taken from the video of David Snow

Everest, 2023. Sherpa evacuating sick client on his back | Photo Courtesy: Screenshot taken from the video of David Snow

Every year, as the winter melts away and spring clatters in with carabiners and crampons, it would be prudent to remind our vaunted high altitude aspirations that it was never about 'how much can he carry', but rather it has always been 'how much can I carry'. For, fate forbid, the roles may some day be reversed. Will the client's back then be strong enough to carry out a rescue or his conscience bear the guilt of a death if he fails.

After all, if risk is synonymous with adventure, then so is self-sufficiency.