Air disasters in Nepal have become so commonplace they only make fleeting headlines. &nbsp;
The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/final-moments-of-yt691">Yeti Airlines ATR-72 crash on 15 January</a> was the deadliest domestic air disaster in Nepal. Three helicopters have gone down since then, and the Manang Air tragedy on 11 July was the fourth.
The reasons are the same: a reckless disregard for safety, regulators not enforcing protocols, and lack of navigation aids.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-to-make-nepals-skies-safer">How to make Nepal's skies safer</a>, Kunda Dixit
Even at the best of times, Nepal’s terrain and weather make flying risky. But neglect, apathy and carelessness add to the danger.&nbsp;
Five members of a Mexican family on a sightseeing trip and their Nepali pilot were killed in Solu Khumbu on Tuesday. They had taken off from Surke, an alternative to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-than-luck-in-lukla">Lukla</a> in bad weather. Visibility was already marginal in the narrow Dudh Kosi gorge.
The chopper would have had to climb to 4,200m to clear Lamjura Pass which was covered in cloud. Nepal’s civil aviation regulations require pilots on mountain routes to always be on Visual Flight Rules (VFR).&nbsp;
A commission of inquiry has been formed, as happens after every crash. But we can already say that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/chopper-hits-mountain-near-everest">helicopter was not flying VFR</a>.&nbsp;
The helicopter that crashed was one of two bought brand new by Manang Air, it is designed for high altitude rescues. One of the same model landed on the summit of Mt Everest in 2005.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/crash-course">Crash course</a>, Kunda Dixit
Helicopters are inherently more tricky to fly because of vertical takeoff and landing in built-up areas or rugged terrain, and because they cannot glide in case of engine malfunction. The AS350 Ecureuil family of choppers has had 1,244 incidents since it went into operation in 1991, and there have been fatalities in many of them.
In Nepal alone, there have been at least 18 chopper crashes killing 98 people in the past 60 years (map). About half of them have been due to CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain) in which a helicopter impacts high terrain in poor visibility.&nbsp;
In fact, nearly all of the 73 air crashes in Nepal (of fixed wing and helicopters) in the past 70 years in which nearly 1,000 people have been killed, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/60-years-of-living-dangerously">have been classified as CFIT</a>. Most have occurred in the monsoon, or in seasons when mountains en route or on approach are covered by clouds.
The deadliest helicopter crash in Nepal was also a CFIT. Twenty-four passengers, including renowned conservationists were killed in 2006 when <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-nepal-s-conservation-heroes">a MI17 flew into a mountain above Ghunsa</a> in the monsoon. Nepal Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari and aviation entrepreneur Ang Tshiring Sherpa were among <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-last-journey">six killed in Taplejung in 2019</a> when their helicopter flew into a mountainside in a blizzard.
In the past 8 years alone, there have been seven chopper crashes, including three non-fatal ones on hospital helipads in Kathmandu.&nbsp;
Crashes like the one this week where foreigners are involved garner international headlines. It further damages Nepal's reputation and impacts on tourism, and therefore the economy.
Nepal is already on the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/eu-blacklist-limits-nepal-airlines-ferry-flights">European Union's safety list</a> because of repeated crashes in the past in which tourists have been killed. The EU has insisted that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) be unbundled with separate entities for regulatory and operational functions.&nbsp;
However, we are not sure that will necessarily <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19695">make flying safer</a> since the causes have more to do with lackadaisical mindsets and a fatalistic culture. Not much will change if the bureaucrats are the same. &nbsp;&nbsp;
VFR protocols by air traffic control and airlines should be enforced. Weather webcams must be installed along dangerous sections like Lamjura and the Kali Gandaki Valley near Jomsom. Pilots should ignore company or passenger pressure to fly in bad weather.
Cockpit hierarchy and complacency on the part of experienced pilots flying frequented routes are also factors. There is a tendency to underestimate enroute weather conditions, and over-reliance on terrain visualisation maps in aircraft with glass cockpits.&nbsp;
Given that we know why most crashes happen in Nepal, they should not happen. The important <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/business/taking-air-safety-seriously-in-nepal">rule for pilots in Nepal</a> must be: do not fly into clouds, they have rocks in them.

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Keeps happening

The Sherpa high altitude guides who take climbers to the tops of Himalayan peaks and glory have for decades been nameless and consigned to the shadows. They are also exposed to the most dangerous parts of mountains for the longest period -- as the tragic death of three guides on the Khumbu Icefall this month proved. Things were not much different back in the autumn of 1990 when Pasang Lhamu Sherpa attempted to climb Mt Everest. The French leader of the expedition she was with ordered her to go back down. He seemed to be worried Pasang would steal the thunder from his climbers.&nbsp; As it turned out, Christine Janine became the first French woman to climb the world’s highest peak as Pasang Lhamu looked on from a lower camp. She realised it was her identity as a Nepali Sherpa woman that prevented her from getting to the top too. This ordeal only made her more determined to become the first Nepali woman to conquer Chomolungma. Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest is an inspiring story of the ambition, dedication, and triumph of this amazing woman. In equal part, it is the retelling of a tragedy that transcends socio-cultural boundaries.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230422040440_a41b978e19c989753156c07a2cdebb4d5fcc2b3637e5143cdff192f4d8e1e6a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20230422040440_a41b978e19c989753156c07a2cdebb4d5fcc2b3637e5143cdff192f4d8e1e6a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="719" height="478" loading="lazy" alt="Nancy Svendsen, Ang Dorjee Sherpa, and Dawa Yangzum"> <figcaption>From left: Dawa Yangzum, Ang Dorjee Sherpa and Director Nancy Svendsen.</figcaption> </figure>  "Her incredible story moved me," says Nancy Svendsen, the director of the 72-minute documentary that premiered on 19 April, ahead of the 30th anniversary of Pasang Lhamu’s historic climb on 22 April 1993, and the 70th anniversary of the first climb on 29 May 1953.&nbsp; Svendsen was first introduced to Pasang Lhamu not as a Nepali national hero, but as the late sister of her brother-in-law, Ang Dorjee Sherpa. But the climber’s story resonated strongly with Svendsen who had worked in corporate America, a field traditionally dominated by men. "From that moment, I have been working to gather her archival footage and pictures. I started with very little. We had maybe a few home videos and scrapbooks of pictures her daughter gave me, and that was it," recalls Svendsen. Pasang Lhamu came from a deprived farming family so much of her climbs and expeditions were never filmed. But Pasang makes it work with press footage combined with contemporary photos to portray her life. Svendsen has also deployed clever edits and animation to show Pasang Lhamu’s last journey. The entire production took 10 years with Svendsen changing her career to become a first-time filmmaker to locate and interview the late mountaineer’s colleagues, including Pemba Norbu, the last person to see Pasang Lhamu alive. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/on-screen-mountains">On-screen mountains</a>, Sahina Shrestha  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230422040440_720c4705cb02a6e2881cc63ae2188da46c580cb200f2202977e3c8c5a6841163.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230422040440_720c4705cb02a6e2881cc63ae2188da46c580cb200f2202977e3c8c5a6841163" data-rendition-name="original" width="452" height="700" loading="lazy" alt="thumbnail_Pasang-Lhamu-Sherpa"> <figcaption>Pasang Lhamu Sherpa</figcaption> </figure>  "It seems much like everything even risk-taking is gendered," says Dawa Futi Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu's eldest daughter and president of the Pasang Lhamu Foundation and Nepal’s former ambassador to Spain. "For the longest time my mother was criticised for leaving her family and takings risks with her life even as she was doing it for her country and Nepali women." Pasang Lhamu, born the only daughter of a Sherpa mountaineer, was not allowed to go to school or mountaineering with her brothers like the majority of Nepali women of her time. She eloped, escaping an arranged marriage, with Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa and opened her own trekking company in Kathmandu. Mother to three, she was a homemaker determined to level the status of Nepali women to what Western women had at that time. It was not necessarily her mountaineering skill she wanted to prove. Her struggle is seen in the backdrop of Nepal's quest for democracy as she clashes with the prime minister, political parties, and Western mountaineers to fund her expeditions. As she embarks on her fourth and final mission to Everest, we can see how the subordinate status inflicted on her for being a woman, a Sherpa, and a Nepali led to decisions that proved to be fatal for her and her team in that 1993 expedition. Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest brings the real Pasang Lhamu Sherpa to life, beyond what little is depicted in school textbooks while also addressing controversies surrounding her final climb through first-hand accounts. It equally showcases her trailblazing character that led to national mourning after her demise. "Climbing Mt Everest as a Nepali woman then is harder than climbing 14 peaks now," notes Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, the first Nepali international mountain guide who was at the premiere of the film in Kathmandu this week. Dawa Yangzum Sherpa herself started her career by climbing the Pasang Lhamu Foundation walls, and says that a whole generation of Nepali women mountaineers has grown up inspired by the legacy of Pasang Lhamu. After Pasang Lhamu, 65 Nepali women have scaled Mt Everest. Winner of 14 international film awards, Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest honors the legendary climber while also delving into the realities of Sherpas, often sidelined in mountaineering films. Public screenings of the Nepali version will begin on 28 April and there are plans for shows in 15 locations in Kosi and Madhes provinces with donations raised during its Nepali premiere. House Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire and famed ophthalmologist Sanduk Ruit were among the attendees at the premiere where Ang Dorjee Sherpa said: "This documentary will encourage Nepali women to dream big and conquer their summits." Read Also: <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/women-take-over-the-%20mountains,1868" target="blank">After Everest and K2, Sherpa women set sights on Kanchenjunga</a>, Tsering Dolker Gurung <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/all-women-nepali-team-scale-k2,1557" target="blank">Ketis on K2</a>, Ayesha Shakya <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/k2-women-nepal,1610" target="blank">Conquering the world</a>, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/WOMEN-ON-TOP,236" target="blank">Women on top</a>, Tsering Dolker Gurung <div class="embed-block"><iframe id="aswift_0" name="aswift_0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" width="718" height="0" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" vspace="0" hspace="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" src="https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-6415359448570403&amp;output=html&amp;h=180&amp;slotname=1392833685&amp;adk=461865442&amp;adf=3145719360&amp;pi=t.ma~as.1392833685&amp;w=718&amp;fwrn=4&amp;lmt=1682131490&amp;rafmt=11&amp;format=718x180&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.nepalitimes.com%2Farticle%2FNepali-Times-Buzz%2Fnepali-mountaineer-breaking-barriers%2C2708&amp;wgl=1&amp;adsid=ChAI8OiIogYQ0pOKyM7hx5U3EjkA3d-9b1mqGISDvdad8KAx3AewqDjyt9En6FuVBwQ5_OqP8GNB75I6e4TO0kQbDFGrRvZVZo9DZfI&amp;uach=WyJtYWNPUyIsIjEzLjIuMSIsImFybSIsIiIsIjExMS4wLjU1NjMuNjQiLFtdLGZhbHNlLG51bGwsIjY0IixbWyJHb29nbGUgQ2hyb21lIiwiMTExLjAuNTU2My42NCJdLFsiTm90KEE6QnJhbmQiLCI4LjAuMC4wIl0sWyJDaHJvbWl1bSIsIjExMS4wLjU1NjMuNjQiXV0sZmFsc2Vd&amp;dt=1682131427262&amp;bpp=2&amp;bdt=367&amp;idt=788&amp;shv=r20230418&amp;mjsv=m202304130102&amp;ptt=9&amp;saldr=aa&amp;abxe=1&amp;cookie=ID%3Dc5b4cdb05cf8144d-229b93d9a5de0091%3AT%3D1680592509%3AS%3DALNI_Mamkt9UmuQGMOCGLpZz_oPKpUIwdw&amp;gpic=UID%3D00000bebd63f863d%3AT%3D1680592509%3ART%3D1682128380%3AS%3DALNI_Ma_YtFySMX09AOoZZN28vO0GUGzPA&amp;prev_fmts=0x0&amp;nras=1&amp;correlator=4350293643221&amp;frm=20&amp;pv=1&amp;ga_vid=2032045364.1680592509&amp;ga_sid=1682131428&amp;ga_hid=371399134&amp;ga_fc=1&amp;rplot=4&amp;u_tz=345&amp;u_his=1&amp;u_h=900&amp;u_w=1440&amp;u_ah=813&amp;u_aw=1440&amp;u_cd=30&amp;u_sd=2&amp;dmc=8&amp;adx=207&amp;ady=3244&amp;biw=1440&amp;bih=657&amp;scr_x=0&amp;scr_y=691&amp;eid=44759926%2C44759842%2C44759875%2C31073974%2C31074012%2C42531706&amp;oid=2&amp;pvsid=2703339081112636&amp;tmod=178841159&amp;uas=0&amp;nvt=1&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Fnepalitimes.com%2F&amp;fc=896&amp;brdim=0%2C25%2C0%2C25%2C1440%2C25%2C1440%2C793%2C1440%2C657&amp;vis=1&amp;rsz=%7C%7CEebr%7C&amp;abl=CS&amp;pfx=0&amp;fu=128&amp;bc=31&amp;jar=2023-04-22-02&amp;ifi=1&amp;uci=a!1&amp;btvi=1&amp;fsb=1&amp;xpc=4JnXA4eA5J&amp;p=https%3A//archive.nepalitimes.com&amp;dtd=63261" data-google-container-id="a!1" data-google-query-id="CKu69o-8vP4CFYgIXAodE-4JOg" data-load-complete="true" style="overflow: hidden; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; border: 0px; width: 718px; height: 0px;"></iframe></div>

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the film

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131116/637232639c7e80680e0c4891jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="998"/><figcaption>APasang Lama Sherpa with his donation box on the Everest Trail. All photos: DUSTYNEP</figcaption></figure>The name Sherpa has become synonymous all over the world with mountaineering guides, but here in the villages below Mt Everest Pasang Lama Sherpa is better known as someone who has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qYOUIhLFe0">dedicated his life</a> not for fixing ropes on Mt Everest, but for maintaining the walking trails.The 78-year-old Khumjung native is no engineer, but his lifelong work has made the Everest trail safer for thousands of trekkers and villagers below the world’s highest mountain.Pasang Lama is a familiar face as he sits by the trail every day with a blue box for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN9eIgssRcQ">donations from trekkers</a>, and a register to note down names and amounts. It is like a voluntary toll booth, and the money goes to the trail’s upkeep.People here affectionately call him Lama Seru, and the man with the wizened face and glasses, began his career in the trekking industry at age 18. He was appalled by the dismal condition of the trails, and was determined to make them less dangerous for porters like himself.He quit portering and in the 1960s started maintaining trails with his wife Lakpa Yangji around Dingboche village which is situated at an altitude of 4,410m. Eventually, he rallied a team to widen other paths along the steep slopes to connect villages in Upper Khumbu for the benefit of locals.As trekking and mountaineering took off, footfalls on the trails grew, and with it the need to maintain the and repair the dangerous sections. For Pasang Lama and his wife, the only reward is a sense of personal fulfillment that comes from providing a public service.“I have revived trails in two wards here,” says Pasang Lama with pride. “Everyone is happy to walk along these paths because we have cleared all the bushes and thorns.”After the Sagarmatha National Park was established in 1976, Pasang Lama worked with it to streamline the paths. Finally in 2012, the Himalayan Trust set up by Edmund Hillary, recognised the couple for their years of service to the community.The trail from Namche to Tengboche is now a wide two-way path easily navigable for trekkers and yak trains, despite dangerous cliff drops. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-trail-repaired-during-pandemic/">During the pandemic lockdown</a>, locals also laid down steps and railings along the steeper sections.For now, Pasang Lama sits by the trail with his donation box and a sign (right) that reads: ‘Dear visitors, this man Pasang Lama Sherpa has been doing social work to build, mend and maintain the main trail to Everest Base Camp with high spirit and solemn determination. Visitors are requested to make a small donation to support and encourage this devoted man to continue his sacred work, so that all the inhabitants and visitors in this area will be befitted on the days ahead.'<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131116/637232679c7e80680e0c4892jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125">North of the airfield at Lukla, most supplies reach the higher villages by porters carrying heavy loads, or on mule and yak trains. Namche is the largest town on the trekking route, but above the popular tourist hub there are only smaller seasonal settlements.There are plans to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-building-a-highway-to-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">extend the roadway</a> from Phaplu to Lukla, which is currently only accessible through the Tenzing-Hillary Airport or on foot. While there is some support for the road, others have argued that the road might disrupt the local environment if it connects the national park.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131116/6372326b9c7e80680e0c4893jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">The lack of a motorable road means that local people have to pay more for basic items. A Rs1,800 cooking gas cylinder in Kathmandu may <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-building-a-highway-to-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cost up to Rs15,000</a> in Upper Khumbu due to the additional transport cost. Helicopters can reach the higher villages above Namche, but that makes the items even costlier.In 2017, the construction of a new bridge over the Dudh Kosi River at Orlang Ghat raised hopes for easier vehicle access to the Solu Khumbu.The road is being extended to Chaurikharka, a village at 2,800m in altitude, near Lukla, and a day’s walk down from Namche. For now, most locals including Pasang Lama Sherpa are in favour of the better connectivity that the motorable road will bring, and he sometimes walks down to watch the excavators in action.He says, “With the new road, my family members from the city can visit me whenever they want.”

The trail builder of Everest

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ec89c7e80680e0c24dfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2016" height="1512"/><figcaption>Bhesh Rag Dahal's soup with dried mushrooms he collected. Photo: THOMAS ROEHL</figcaption></figure>For 25 years, Ang Jangmu Sherpa collected mushrooms in forests near her lodge in Tengboche. Just one local mushroom, known locally as petak, provides enough for one meal.Bhesh Rag Dahal collects and dries mushrooms for the winter months in his restaurant in Tashingma. Since mushroom keep so well, he still has a store of mushroom that was not consumed when tourism collapsed during the pandemic.He can sell the mushroom in the market for Rs10,000 a kg. Otherwise, he gives them away as prized gifts to relatives and lamas at Tengboche and other monasteries.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ecc9c7e80680e0c24e0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1365"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In the Solu Khumbu district at the lap of Mt Everest, edible mushrooms are an integral part of diet and an immense, overlooked part of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology/">biodiversity of the Himalaya</a>.Now, a group of Nepali and American mycologists, who are scientists who study fungi, are identifying mushrooms on a first ever eco-tourism trek to Everest Base Camp.The three-week expedition that started out in mid-June out was organised by International Mountain Trekking (IMT), and included an international team from Nepal, US, and Mexico. Nepali mycologist and botanist Shiva Devkota and US mycologists Britt Bunyard and Thomas Roehl identified over 150 species of mushroom.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ecf9c7e80680e0c24e1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3840" height="2560"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Thousands of trekkers and mountaineers make the journey to Everest Base Camp annually, but few notice the hundreds of species of mushrooms growing alongside the trail.“I had always seen mushrooms, but I was always in too big a hurry,” says IMT’s Richard Silber who hopes <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/model-for-post-covid-ecotourism/">eco-tourism</a> treks will allow the Everest region to be recognised for its biodiversity and the rich fungi populations beyond its mountains.Silber worked with Devkota and Sonam Jangbu Sherpa also of IMT to construct the first ecological tourism trek of its kind. In addition to mycologists, citizen scientists with interest in mushrooms joined the trek, guided by Phu Chiri Sherpa and Tenzing Tashi Sherpa.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ed39c7e80680e0c24e2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="1600"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ed59c7e80680e0c24e3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="1600">“There is this amazing biodiversity in Nepal — uniquely true because of the extraordinary altitude gradient — within a short band the terrain goes from 6,000ft to the highest point on earth,” Silber says.The Solu Khumbu’s altitude variation creates the niches for hundreds of unique tree species, making it a rich environment for fungi to grow in relationship with the vegetation. Until now, the region’s mushrooms had never been systematically cataloged.Devkota holds a PhD in mushroom research and says: “To make conservation and management plans, first we should explore what kind of mushroom species we have. I realised there was a gap, and an opportunity.”Now there is a push for scientists all over to document things before the precious mushrooms are gone. Says Bunyard: “The forest here is covered with life, but this is one of the most understudied parts of the world. There are no books here, it’s kind of a black box.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ed99c7e80680e0c24e4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Fungi do not exist in isolation, but are critical to ecosystems. They enriched the diversity of life in the biosphere. “They are partners for pretty much all plants,” adds Bunyard.Mushrooms form immense underground networks with plant species, cycling nutrients, ensuring plant survival, and contributing to the carbon and phosphorus cycles.“If you killed all the fungi on the planet, all the trees would die. So fungi are basically responsible for the life of everyone on the surface of the world,” adds Thomas Roehl.When an environment is damaged by human activity, fungi can still thrive, and in some cases, help jumpstart new life. They also signify ecosystem health. Fungi can be used to indicate air pollution levels, as they struggle to survive in areas with heavy emissions.<h3>Mushrooms on Everest</h3>Even before entering Sagarmatha National Park, the expedition had already identified over 60 types of mushroom, including sightings of rarely viewed species.The team found Tremella salmonea, first described in 2019, and documented Amanita tullossiana, a new species found in 2019 in the Indian Himalaya.The researchers believe they identified Amanita innatifibrilla, a species with limited data and unknown range, but once documented in southern China. The team identified the highest mushroom ever found at an altitude at 5,193m.The researchers worked as they walked, identifying new mushrooms and explaining their discoveries to citizen-scientists.“This is unlike what you see in any academic institution,” explained Silber during the trek, describing the way the mycologists worked in the field. “They are drawn to the mushrooms like a magnet. They glom onto it. It’s inspiring, really, it’s cool as hell.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722edd9c7e80680e0c24e5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1066" height="1600"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ee09c7e80680e0c24e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In addition to adding to Nepal’s mushroom database, Silber hopes this mushroom-focused trek is a model for future ecological tourism. In other parts of Nepal, tourists join treks for bird, crocodile, or tiger watching, and the Everest region’s botany, geology, and biodiversity could offer similar opportunities for tourism during the climbing off-season.Bhumiraj Upadhyaya, Chief Conservation Officer at Sagarmatha National Park, has worked in the national park system for over 30 years, but this is the first mushroom-focused trek he has seen.“Almost all the tourists come here just to see mountains,” says Upadhyaya. “There is so much more here than just the mountains.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ee39c7e80680e0c24e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1066" height="1600"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>He explains that major research gaps still remain for snow leopards, musk deer, and pollution nearby the Gokyo lakes.Scientific research in the region, however, is limited, due to irregular flights, high costs, and poor road conditions. Researchers are far more likely to go to the more accessible Annapurna or Chitwan regions.Solu Khumbu’s residents could benefit from more extensive mushroom knowledge. People have lived in the Khumbu before the establishment of the national park, so unlike visitors, local communities do not need park permission to forage for mushrooms.In fact, local mushroom species offer a source of protein and fiber during winter months, where fresh vegetables are unavailable.“Here they do not have sufficient vegetables and have to depend on planes and jeeps to bring vegetables from Kathmandu. Having knowledge of mushrooms might be helpful for the people for food source and security,” he adds.Locals grow their own mushrooms, or more often forage in nearby forests. Mushrooms can be dried, stored, and rehydrated for future use, which benefits the lodges who are overwhelmed with tourists in the spring and fall.Further scientific analysis of the region’s mushrooms could benefit those that rely on the food group. “Perhaps in the future, more people can know about edible mushrooms,” Jangbu Sherpa says. “During the winter there are no vegetables, so we can collect and dry them for the winter.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413114/63722ee69c7e80680e0c24e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Another mushroom tour is already being planned for 2023, and Silber hopes that scientific activity in the Solu Khumbu can become accessible and community-based.“Of course it is hard to do science in remote areas. If you want to get up here and do this kind of work, it's a big and an important commitment,” he says.For future projects and research, IMT hopes to work with local populations, including building a science center with a donated house in Phortse. The main goal of research is to help local communities benefit from the knowledge.“We know through history that western scientists come in, do their work, and leave,” says Silber. “They do not engage or train locals, that’s not part of the research protocol. And it is a big missed opportunity in any community.”Alok Tuladhar and Shiva Devkota helped with this report.<h3>Shrooms can kill</h3>The work of a mycologist is critical in establishing mushrooms that are highly poisonous. Every year, dozens of Nepalis, mainly children and from poorer families, die from eating toxic mushrooms because the edible and poisonous varieties look the same.“Most of the people living near the forest, or low income people who depend more on the forest, are the ones getting poisoned,” explains mycologist Shiva Devkota.Mushrooms, which grow out of the ground only for up to three months in a year in the forest, are discovered, they are collected and shared with family and neighbours. If one of them happens to be toxic, it can kill an entire household or impact the whole community.In 2019, six people in the same family died in Palpa from toxic mushrooms. In 2016, eight people died in Panchthar district from eating poisonous mushrooms.Devkota was leading a mushroom expedition to the Everest region last month when he got news of 19 mushroom-related casualties from Butwal. Most mushroom illnesses and deaths, however, are unreported as they occur in remote rural areas.“There has previously been a communication gap, but now we know that mushroom poisonings are happening, and we hear about the deaths,” adds Devkota.In the Everest region, most toxic mushrooms are found below Lukla and the ones at higher altitudes are generally safe.“Just like there are no poisonous snakes the higher you go, there are no poisonous mushrooms here,” says Ang Jangmu Sherpa who has a lodge in Tengboche.The differences between an edible and deadly mushroom may be imperceptible. “If you don’t know what you are doing, stay away from amonita," says American researcher Britt Bunyard. Amonita has an iconic white cap, red dots, and veil.In 2021, Devkota and the Himalayan Climate and Science Institute partnered to create educational material for villagers, government agencies and clinics in Gandaki Province when mushroom foraging was more common during the pandemic.In the Khumbu, mushroom poisoning is not so serious. Locals only collect ones that they know are safe, and even then slice it to see if it has a green or purplish tint, indicating toxins.“Nepalis have been using mushrooms for a long time for medicinal purposes and for food. They are closely attached with folklore and taboos,” says Devkota who wants to step up awareness so more Nepalis can rely on this important and easily-stored food source.Sarah WatsonRead more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-farmer-refuses-to-bury-head-in-sand/">Nepal farmer refuses to bury head in sand</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel

Mushroom trekking in the Himalaya

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412118/637221b09c7e80680e0c02ccjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1682" height="1158"/><figcaption>Photos: LITTLEBIG</figcaption></figure>A painting of Mt Everest could have only been unveiled on Everest Day 29 May at the iconic <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-himalayan-high/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hotel Everest View</a> in Syangboche.The triptych by British visual artist Sacha Jafri shows the panorama of a discoloured mountain range, the black of the rocks seeping into the fluid snow, against a sky progressively deeper the higher it goes.Below are reddish-brown hills gathered for a conference of sorts, their heads ever so slightly bent as if they are listening and thinking. At the centre lies a pool of water so blue it seems to be collecting the whole sky above.The painting appears as an almost abstract expression of the mountain rather than its reflection. It is Jafri's subconscious journey to the Himalaya, and there can be found immediately something childlike, innocence without pretense - a theme recurrent in his other artworks as well.The Everest painting is one of 50 Jafri is creating for <a href="https://www.theartmaze.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Art Maze project</a> in partnership with UNESCO, and commemorates the 50th anniversary of the UNESCO <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/">Convention concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage</a> signed on 16 November 1972. The Convention then came into force on 17 December three years later.“This comes at a time in the world, with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/here-today-gone-tomorrow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>, the pandemic, the geopolitical flux, to reflect on the next 50 years and ask ourselves what we truly value as individual, societies and countries, and what should be passed down to the future generations,” says UNESCO Representative to Nepal Michael Croft.As such, the UNESCO’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/next50/">The Next 50 campaign</a> forms the foundation for the Art Maze, and 34 of the paintings of World Heritage Sites, including the Acropolis in Greece, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Hyrcanian Forests in Iran, the Saint-Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the Pyramids of Egypt, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/telling-the-story-of-buddhas-lumbini/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lumbini in Nepal</a> have been completed.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412118/637221b39c7e80680e0c02cdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1313" height="1969"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The paintings are characterised by their unique assortment of colours, which is reminiscent of lively crayons from childhood. Textbook realism has no place in these canvases, as the paintings are stripped to their essence.“We over analyse, become pompous and over-intellectualise art,” Jafri explains. “But all art, at the end of the day, is rubbish and superb.”This apparent contradiction finds reconciliation in the artist’s intent with which they create. “And I think if you focus on your intentions, then everything you create will be perfect,” Jafri adds.There is a sublime simplicity to Jafri’s method and work, enabling viewers to be more conscious in their world, their lives, and be open to love and compassion.The Art Maze curated by Marcus Schaefer is a 12x12m steel labyrinth gallery with Jafri’s paintings, giving visitors the opportunity to choose which path to take and create an experience where “the journey is the destination”.For over 25 years, Jafri’s work has been about reconnecting with the soul of the earth. His Journey of Humanity (2020) is dubbed the world’s largest and took him a year to create during the pandemic.That is the process of being an artist, Jafri believes – a journey where things continue to evolve, and one eventually creates something. “It is not about the moment of creation,” he adds. “It is the journey that has allowed it.”Journey of Humanity is a striking play of bold, vibrant colours, incorporating artworks by children from 140 countries, and spread over 1,700 square metres – roughly the size of two football pitches – and it’s aim as profound as its span: to raise around $11 million – it ended up raising $62 million – to help children across the world in need of education, health care and digital connectivity.The idea behind the painting was re-connectivity, which then expanded into the Art Maze. When Schaefer approached him with the concept, Jafri found it resonated with his own. Jafri then thought perhaps the project would be even more poignant if it was about the World Heritage Sites.The Maze was then launched on 23 March at the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Helipad in Dubai with 30 works, and will be travelling around the world with plans for a Nepal stopover next year.“I thought if I represent these World Heritage sites in an art maze we could reconnect humanity to our natural and cultural heritage, to our ancestral past, to the custodians of our cultures, and we could start communicating again on a deeper level,” Jafri says.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412118/637221b79c7e80680e0c02cejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1979" height="763"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The Maze and the Next 50 campaign also come at a time when Nepal is changing rapidly, trying to balance development with nature. Everest itself continues to be affected by the climate crisis and mass mountaineering.At the unveiling, Bishnu Rokaya of the Sagarmatha National Park said: “While Mt Everest and the park are already well-known, the painting will help us reach even more people, share our stories, and promote tourism and conservation efforts.”According to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/leverage-lumbinis-soft-power/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael Croft</a>, the campaign and Art Maze represent a strategic exercise to work with youths and Indigenous communities, not just in Nepal but around the world, to have discussions on sustainable living, successfully adapting to climate change, and hopefully push back against environmental degradation.“Nepal is an intensely diverse country and people with different identities and languages and experiences are able to identify themselves as Nepali, and that gives hope. If all this can exist and work, it is a positive story for the world,” remarks Croft.Raza Beig, executive advisor to ArtFi Chairman of BoredPuma has bought the Everest painting and plans to house its three panels in a museum and share it with the world. The profits from the sale of Jafri’s paintings will help communities living in the Heritage Sites they represent.His son Aly wrote to Nepali Times: “We feel Mt Everest and Sagarmatha National Park to be one of the most spiritual places on our planet, and now we get to look at it every day and share it with the world.”

Ashish Dhakal

Everest's natural heritage on canvas

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/6372213a9c7e80680e0c02a6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4000" height="2252"/><figcaption>Photo: EELUM DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Everest Base Camp sits on a glacier that is melting and on the move. It is now <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">50m lower than in 1953</a> when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary were here on their way to climb the world’s highest mountain for the first time. Climbers have even reported pools of water on rocks on the South Col at 8,000m.Global warming is heating up the planet, but scientists say the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">temperature in the Himalaya is rising</a> twice as fast as the global average. The debris-covered Khumbu Glacier has unusual ice sculptures: arches, pinnacles and an enormous black rock sitting on top of an ice column 5m high.But it is all here today, gone tomorrow. Carved by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-is-a-disaster-in-the-nepal-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>, the columns melt and arches collapse. Base Camp travels slowly southwards on the moving ice, paths between expedition tents disappear during the night as the glacier grunts and growls in its sleep like a gigantic reptile.New surprise: a river now runs through camp. It freezes at night and by the time the sun comes up from behind the West Shoulder every morning, it is a fast-flowing gurgling brook.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-base-camp-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Letters from Base Camp 2</a>, Eelum DixitOne climber said he wept when he saw that the stream actually originates in the Khumbu Icefall. We wonder how long it will take for the icefall to turn into a waterfall. All this is happening right around us, and because of us.“This glacial stream is getting bigger and bigger every year, its flow is alarming,” says Khim Lal Gautam, a civil servant and surveyor who has climbed Mt Everest twice, the last time in 2019 as part of the team that measured the true height of the summit at 8848.86m.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">overcrowded Base Camp</a> with all its kitchen tents, gas cookers and waste is making things worse, and Gautam says it should be moved beyond the glacier to Kala Pattar. “Imagine how much damage we are doing to the glacier just by being here,” he adds.https://youtu.be/iMKRC7oZhpYSpring climbing on Mt Everest has ended, and it has been a season of new records. Unusually long weather windows and above average temperatures meant that a record 650 people out of the more than 800 permits issued got to the top.But no matter how many clients and guides summit the mountain, there is one glaring thing that hits everyone at Base Camp as the sun comes up: the mountains are changing, and change is accelerating.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-everest-base-camp-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Letters from Base Camp 1</a>, Eelum DixitIt is not difficult to calculate the carbon footprint of a large Everest expedition staying for two months at Base Camp. The livelihoods of expedition guides and  porters are important, but we have to ask what those summit photographs cost the planet. What of all those helicopter ferry flights, the LPG cylinders in the kitchen tents?The translucent seracs on Nuptse glow blue as the sun climbs higher, layers of ice that have accumulated over centuries being drawn down by gravity to the glacier below. Besides the spring thaw that melts winter snow, it is now also this permanent ice that is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rapidly turning into water</a>.Most of the melting is due to global warming, but the ice is melting faster because it is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19368" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">covered in soot and dust particles</a> from pollution brought up by wind from the south. What remains of the Lobuje Glacier is dirty ice.Many had hoped that the three month climbing season would allow the mountain to recuperate during the rest of the year. But the damage is more and more severe every year, so the Himalaya needs a break.

Here today, gone tomorrow

<figure><img width="1137" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111128/6372191d9c7e80680e0baa81jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>All photos: EELUM DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Everest Base Camp is ever-changing. The weather, the comings and goings, new world records — and the ice beneath. The night is punctuated by the sharp crack of avalanches as the hanging seracs calve off on Nuptse. After a week or two, the floor of the tent tilts, and my head is lower than my feet. Base Camp itself is on the move.  After Ang Tsering sets off for his summit push, other climbers arrive. Purnima Shrestha, a photojournalist for Karobar relates how after her first summit, it just became one peak after another.  She is at EBC after having climbed Kanchenjunga earlier in the week, and was now going for Lhotse. Last year she climbed Mt Everest, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna. Everyone expects her to do 14 peaks a la Nims Purja, but she has not made up her mind yet.“I don’t know, I want to keep K2 for when I’m in my 50s or 60s,” she laughs. “I don’t know what my life will be like then. There’s some poetry in leaving something unfinished, a challenge for me to pick up later on in life.”Kristin Harila has a much more immediate ambition. The Norwegian climber is sponsored by a watch brand, and is taking the help of Lakpa Sherpa and 8K Expeditions to fulfil her dream of conquering all 14 eight thousanders in record time. Not only will she be the fastest woman to do it, but she might even be the fastest human being to climb all 14 true peaks in record time.She adds, “I am completely beholden to the 8K Sherpas who help me up there. They are the backbone, without them I would not be able to even dream of doing what I am setting out to do.”“Nowadays individuals get too much credit, and make too much of their achievements,” she continues. “The real story is that it is a collaborative effort from fixing ropes to carrying oxygen and making sure that survival is possible at such altitudes.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/scaling-the-mountain-of-humanity/">Scaling the mountain of humanity</a>, Aria Shree Parasai <img width="1136" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111132/637219219c7e80680e0baa82jpeg.jpg" alt="">Dawa Sherpa has come out of retirement to help Kristin beat the record of 14 peaks, and has seen how climbing has changed in the last few decades.“Before you were truly going into the unknown, nowadays they can tell us precisely when a weather window will open. It is much easier,” he says, but adds that the mountains still have plenty of surprises.Dawa and Kristin had a tough time in April on Annapurna 1 when they got lost in a complete whiteout with fierce winds.   “It was the first time that I was in that situation. Annapurna 1 is truly the most difficult mountain in my experience,” he says.All activity at EBC also revolves around the weather. The conditions in Lukla for the ferry flights, weather here, and high up on the mountain. Nature has to be an ally for any progress from Kathmandu to the high camps, and the summit. Purnima leaves for her Lhotse ascent, and we head up to Pumori High Camp to get a better perspective on things. It is the day of Ang Tsering’s summit, maybe it will be possible for our lens to capture him on the southeast ridge more than 4,000m above us.These mountains are taller than anything else in the world, and even here we are already higher than all mountains in Europe. Be humble, the mighty mountains silently implore.Far off to the south, Ama Dablam is a swirl of vanilla ice cream, gleaming like gold in the first rays of the sun, even as the crags below us are in shadow. A shroud of fog blankets the Khumbu Glacier, drifting up the valley. It is movement in stillness in these mountains.The sun is rising from behind the West Ridge of Everest. The Icefall swooshes down from the Western Cwm and veers off to the right - like the bridal train in a white wedding. There are little dots of yellow and orange of Base Camp on the moraine below us, but even these soon disappear as the fog turns into cloud.There are rockfalls off Pumori as we descend, and we get word that Ang Tsering did summit Mt Everest that morning.But getting to the top is only half the battle, getting down safely is even more difficult. Back at EBC, we learn just how difficult it can be just listening in on the walkies. A client has thrown off shades, and is walking aimlessly on the South Col. Another ripped off the oxygen mask, and told his guides he will come on his own but headed off the wrong way. A team of unroped guides have to quickly help him back.“This happens,” says Lakpa, “there is lack of oxygen, a feeling of accomplishment, and some people hallucinate. This is when the Sherpa’s job is critical. Sometimes we have to force them to come down. They are angry up there, but once they get to Camp 2 they are grateful that we took control.”Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-in-business-class/"> Mt Everest in Business Class</a>, Shankar Dahal <img width="893" height="504" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111132/637219249c7e80680e0baa83jpeg.jpg" alt="">Rescue helicopters are able to land at Camp 2, and can even sling lift wounded off Camp 3.  Without these daredevil pilots there would be many more casualties on Everest every season. We run into Khimlal Gautam, the Nepali civil servant and surveyor who has scaled Mt Everest twice. Having summited 11 years ago, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/measuring-mt-everest-because-it-is-there/">he went up again in 2019</a> as part of the expedition to calculate the exact elevation of Mt Everest at 8848.86m. He is now worried about the impact of all the people at EBC. “Think of all the waste we generate by just being here on the glacier for three months,” he says, “maybe Base Camp should be shifted to Kala Pattar." Over the next couple of days, the climbers return to EBC. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-everest-base-camp-1/">Patrine Cheng from Hong Kong</a> completes her ascent though the speed record remains unbroken. Ang Tsering arrives as well, having lost weight and still nursing that cough. Purnima also gets down after bagging Lhotse. Kristin was among the few still waiting to go up. That night there is a party at EBC.  Purnima says, “Now that I’m just one peak short of completing Nepal’s 8K peaks, the idea of Pakistan and China are more appealing. Especially K2. I might just go for it.” Kristin Harila later completes the double summit of Everest and Lhotse, beating her own record and thereby also climbing five eight thousanders in 24 days -- another record.  She and Purnima are off to Makalu now, where Kristin is aiming to set another record for the fastest completion of the First Phase. Once she does that, she will just need the weather to be on her side, and perhaps a little political clout to get to Xixapangma.  UPDATE, 28 May: The Norwegian Kristin Harila has set a record clmbing six 8,000m peaks in the fastest time, beating Nims Purja's record for 6 summits. Purnima Shrestha has also climbed Makalu, her sixth 8-thousander in Nepal. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-everest-base-camp-1/">Letters from Everest Base Camp 1</a>, Eelum Dixit The final instalment of Eelum Dixit's Letters from Base Camp will appear next week in Nepali Times.

Letters from Base Camp 2

<figure><img width="2708" height="1492" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111124/637217bf9c7e80680e0baa04jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>The sun rises from behind Lho La on Thursday morning as seen from Base Camp. Photos: EELUM DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Everest Base Camp sits on a moving, melting avenue of ice and boulders. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">It is today 50m lower</a> than where it was when Hillary and Tenzing first climbed the mountain nearly 70 years ago. Surrounded by icy towers on all sides, it is a noisy place with growls from beneath and cracks of frequent avalanches above. As the sun comes up there is a new sound: the gurgle of water from a stream that runs down along <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/living-through-the-himalayan-thaw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Khumbu Glacier</a>. One can picture what it was like before the expeditions got here as the spring climbing season got underway in early March. It is now <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a tent city</a> along a  river of melting Himalayan ice.  It has numerous suburbs: Pioneer Adventure, Elite Exped, Seven Summit Treks, named after the expeditions going up to Everest or Lhotse. Three more weeks, and they will all be gone.  It is a temporary Dubai: a boomtown amidst pinnacles of ice, where nothing grows but everything is available for a price. The only difference is that this is a 5,300m expanse of ice and rock, not a desert. And in their own way, the inhabitants here are also climbers.  They come here from all over the world to fulfill their dreams of standing on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/overkill-on-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">top of the world’s highest mountains</a>. Every year, more records are set, and more broken.  <figure><img width="2714" height="1480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111124/637217c39c7e80680e0baa05jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>                       The melting ice pinnacles of the Khumbu Glacier at Base Camp.It is the high altitude guides mainly from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/why-are-sherpas-always-happy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Sherpa community</a> who are mostly the reason those records can be set. From setting up tents, preparing food, fixing lines, stockpiling oxygen at high camps, and deciding all-important climbing windows – it is the Sherpa who do it all.Nepal’s other ethnic groups have also started to rise up the ranks in different roles, and even among the Sherpas there are more and more from the Makalu and Rolwaling regions. We are here to follow one such Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa from Walung below, Makalu, as he leads his first clients up the world’s highest peak for the first time as the proprietor of his brand new 8K Expeditions outfit. He plans to climb with his clients, who trust his expert guidance. It so happens that one of Lakpa’s first clients is Ang Tshering Lama, owner of The Happy House in Phaplu – the place that <a style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/highs-and-lows-of-sir-ed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Edmund Hillary</a> considered his home as he built schools and hospitals in Solu Khumbu decades ago.  Back in Sir Ed’s day, Phaplu was an important stopover on the walk-on from Lamosangu on the Everest trail. Today, most trekkers start their journeys after flying to Lukla, or even higher. Soon, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-building-a-highway-to-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a road from Phaplu</a> will arrive at Chaurikharka below Lukla. For now, helicopters are the taxis of the Khumbu sky during peak season – ferrying cargo and trekkers up and down between Lukla and Base Camp. Call them the ‘Ubercopter’, or ‘Heli-Tootle’ of the Himalaya. Lakpa Sherpa himself came to Kathmandu and rose up with no wealth, no contacts,  pulled himself up with the straps of his climbing boots, starting out as a porter 14 years ago. “I started from zero,” he recalls. “I didn’t get a leg up from my father or my brothers. I used to wait around the shutters of different trekking agencies in Kathmandu to get work.”His first jobs were with Pasang Sherpa’s Green Lotus Trek and Expeditions. Eventually, he was promoted to Mountain Guide, and between 2016 and 2021, became Managing Director of Pioneer Expeditions.  <figure><img width="1578" height="1498" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111124/637217c69c7e80680e0baa06jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Lakpa Sherpa at Everest Base Camp, with his brother Tashi. Photo: 8K</figcaption></figure>When trekking and mountaineering <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-climate-crises-hit-everest-region/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">collapsed during the pandemic</a>, Lakpa sold some property, banded together with two friends and started 8K Expeditions. He risked his savings to start a company of his own at a time when tourism had hit rock bottom. But meeting Lakpa in person, it would seem like he does not have a care in the world. When we get to Base Camp on 10 May, Kami Rita Sherpa had just beaten the record by climbing Everest for the 26th time. Raju Lama held the highest ever music concert somewhere above Camp 2. Lhapa’s namesake, 48-year-old Lhakpa Sherpa also started out as a porter, and broke her own previous record climbing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/measuring-mt-everest-because-it-is-there/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everest</a> for the 10th time. Some 150 other climbers also reached the summit on Thursday, including the Full Circle expedition that put six Black American climbers on top.There are 317 climbing permits for Everest this season and more records are set to be broken, including by Marc Batard, 70, who is bypassing the Khumbu Icefall on a new route to be the oldest man to climb the mountains. Nepal's Sagar Sunar, who is 109cm tall, wants to be the shortest man on the summit.At the 8K tent at Base Camp we find that Lakpa has developed the ‘Khumbu Cough’ – a whooping and wheezy expectoration that will not allow him to join Ang Tshering when he heads for the summit of Everest at 1AM on the 12 May.Lakpa has always prided himself in the fact that as leader of the company, he wants to also lead his clients to the top. He must be crest-fallen. But Lakpa has also realised after having climbed Annapurna I, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/what-is-it-about-ama-dablam/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ama Dablam</a>, Makalu, Baruntse and Dhaulagiri, that his most important job is at Base Camp to work on logistics, and communication. Another factor is that his wife, Samasti Sherpa, has ordered him to stop climbing.“She tells me that if I climb another high peak she’ll divorce me. She’s pretty clear about that,” Lakpa laughs. “But I have to climb so… I have to convince her somehow.”  <figure><img width="2706" height="1490" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111124/637217c99c7e80680e0baa07jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>                   The summit of Mt Everest peeking from behind the West Shoulder, as seen      from above Base Camp earlier this week.  Such family pressure is strongly felt by <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-all-the-guides-gone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s mountain guides</a>. Fear of losing a loved one is real. At Base Camp this week we hear of three fatalities on Everest, two of them guides.  Even if he does not climb Everest this season, Lakpa is going to take one of his clients to Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum 1 and 2 and Broad Peak. He is helping Norwegian climber Kristin Harila break the record of most female ascents of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/um-hong-gils-project-impossible/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">14 peaks above 8000m</a>.  “Since I have already done K2, I have said I will be her guide on the other four,” says Lakhpa. The radio crackles. It is Pema Chering one of the few members of the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA) and Lead Sirdar of Team A. Pema, who has summited Everest 19 times, has reached Camp 2. Team B Sirdar, Tshering Pemba, who has summited 11 times, follows.  In the back and forth we hear that it took part of the group 15 hours to get to Camp 2 – the Sirdars in the communications tent tell us that means that they were walking in the blazing afternoon heat in the parabola of the Western Cwm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5J4pJ7RGOsA river of ice now runs past Base Camp as the Himalaya warms up due to climate change.It would not have been an easy climb. The ascent to Camp 1 is done early in the morning so that climbers have a chance of getting there at 8 AM or 9AM in order to get to Camp 2 before noon. “Anything after noon is walking in heat you have never experienced anywhere in the hottest parts of India. That’s why your cheeks burn up – because the reflected heat off the mountain snow is far worse than direct sun,” says guide Nima Sherpa.It’s now hours before Ang Tshering’s ascent, and though Lakpa is not going up with him, he has put him in the capable hands of another one of Nepal’s few IFMGA guides – Lead Sirdar, Tshering Lama. <figure><img width="1600" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111124/637217cc9c7e80680e0baa08jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Lakpa Sherpa on the summit of Mt Everest in 2017. Photo: 8KThat evening, at the members tent, we get to know a few more of the clients that are in and around Lakpa Sherpa’s orbit – either climbing with 8K or past clients. Shehroze Kashif, a 20-year-old from Lahore, holds the record of being the youngest climber to scale K2, which he did under Lakpa’s guidance. Shehroze is just strolling through to catch up with his climbing friends, and tells us of his mission to be the youngest climber to complete the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-next-for-reinhold-messner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">14 peaks above 8,000 meters</a>. Patrine Cheng from Hong Kong plans to beat the record of fastest female climber to reach the top of Everest. Lakhpa is positive about her chances. I ask Cheng why she is going for this record, she says she read about someone from Hong Kong who broke the record, and thought why should she not give it a try. “I think she can achieve an ascent in under 22 hours. She can show the world what women are capable of,” Lakpa says. <figure><img width="1600" height="900" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111124/637217cf9c7e80680e0baa09jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Patrine Cheng from Hong Kong (in red jacket) with Sherpas at Base Camp before heading off.</figcaption></figure>And what about Lakpa? What drives him? He does so much work for others, what does he get out of all of this? He points to a climber who is heading out with Ang Tshering, Sunil Nataraj from Bangalore and replies, “I might be his mountaineering mentor, but he is my life mentor.”  He adds, “It is not all about money, although I make sure all our Sherpas at every level are paid better than they would normally expect. That is why we have the best people, we care about the people who make us grow. We get credit from clients we help get to the top.”  It is midnight as Ang Tshering, Sunil Natraj and Tshering Lama get out of their tents and sit down for an early breakfast. As they make their way to the gumba for puja, Ang Tshering’s cousin, Tashi, comes over to wish him godspeed.  They hug, and when the prayers are done, the team of four Sherpas and two climbers are off, illuminated by their head torches. They have reached a little way off when Tashi calls Ang Tshering back. His Aunt in Kathmandu is on the phone to say she is praying for him. In that moment, we all understand the gravity of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-we-climb-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">what it means to climbers</a>, guides, and the families involved in these adventures on the world’s highest mountains.

Letters from Everest Base Camp 1

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410110/637204649c7e80680e0b285djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1488" height="838"/><figcaption>New Zealand climber John Nankervis who died last week.</figcaption></figure>When I bring Nank to mind we are always laughing, often uncontrollably. He is crouched pixie-like on a low table in a Wellington bar, stomping tongue-extended in a Maori haka through <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/bat-caves-and-edible-bird-nests/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/bat-caves-and-edible-bird-nests/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1LefGhIJhsIFTeTNytevGo">Dave Bamford</a>’s kitchen, or skipping nimbly along the edge of a city pavement in his lawyer’s dark suit.I don’t remember why, probably to delight my young sons, or to embarrass me, or to irritate Dave -- or just mischievously to push the limits of staid behaviour.Sometimes Nank is with fellow Kiwi climbers pre- or post-expedition in a scruffy guesthouse in downtown Kathmandu, discussing the finer points of summit ascents with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/elizabeth-hawley-1923-2018/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/elizabeth-hawley-1923-2018/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0DZllsvuy88wEMHm1zBiWU">Elizabeth Hawley</a> on the unforgiving chairs of her Dilli Bazar sitting room, or lolling on my yellow veranda sofa in our <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/a-house-in-budanilkantha/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/a-house-in-budanilkantha/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0TcK0zcZdwDf_B_hiSx94S">Budhanilkantha</a> home whilst I fend off questions about my husband.But John Nankervis was a serious man, beneath the banter and his protective cloak of humour. Behind the legendary prankster, friends who knew him much better than I will remember his lifelong commitment to justice, his work to preserve the environment, his passion for natural history, and his deep love of mountains and mountaineering which so cruelly got him in the end. His enquiring mind, rigorous reading, thoughtful analyis and innate curiosity made Nank worth listening to on any topic.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410110/637204679c7e80680e0b285ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960"><figcaption>John Nankervis (left) in Kathmandu with the New Zealand Yangma Expedition team 2012.</figcaption></figure>Whilst his emails were laugh-out-load funny, rife with innuendo, clever nicknames, Nepali slang and word play, he was always seeking to learn something new. Whether it was Himalayan climbing history, alpine club details, plans for often-obscure peaks in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet or Pakistan, exchanging articles or sourcing traditional paintings from the Khumbu, like his conversation Nank’s messages never wasted a precious moment and were never ordinary.Nank’s climbing record both at home and around the world extends over a 50-year period. It includes all New Zealand 3,000m peaks and over 50 first ascents in the Southern Alps and overseas. His first expedition to the Himalaya was in 1981 where he completed a dozen major climbs and over 20 ski mountaineering trips.He also climbed in Antarctica, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Norway, Myanmar and South America. Twice Nank declined invitations to join expeditions to Mt Everest, preferring to pioneer off-the-beaten-track adventurous and less high profile peaks.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410110/6372046b9c7e80680e0b285fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1276" height="736"><figcaption>John Nankervis (left), Colin Monteath and an American client set out from Peggotty Camp, King Haakon Bay to cross South Georgia in 2005. Photos: Colin Monteath</figcaption></figure>Widely recognised, publicly awarded and much admired, he served as President of the New Zealand Alpine Club, on the Tongariro-Taupo Conservation Board, New Zealand Conservation Authority, and for ten years represented New Zealand at the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation). In 2010 he was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to mountaineering.A Wellington-based lawyer by profession, Nank’s real passion was for the great outdoors, exploration, mountain clubs and conservation. Although he joined the legal profession to please his mother, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hanging-out-with-the-headhunters/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hanging-out-with-the-headhunters/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3w35w4LjA7kThZxjlv5bzC">Dave Bamford</a> reckons he should have been a natural scientist, following in the footsteps of his famous grandfather, <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/ernest-marsden" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/ernest-marsden&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0cy837AnT9qh1yoSmZtVHV">Ernest Marsden</a>, a prominent professor of physics in the field of radiation and nuclear sciences whose work led to the discovery of the structure of the atom.In 2013, Nank broke his back in a freak climbing accident on Mt Awful in the Mount Aspiring National Park. Confined to a wheelchair, the accident brought out hidden depths of courage and resilience, un-contemplatable for most of us.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410110/6372046e9c7e80680e0b2860jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1418" height="648"><figcaption>John Nankervis in Chengdu in 2001, en route Kangri Garpo Mountains in eastern Tibet.</figcaption></figure>I prefer not to recall his struggles of the last decade, pain etched into his face, the relentless cheerful bravado, salvaged by the amazing band of faithful friends who tended him so tirelessly, wheeling him to parties, theatres, symphonies and endless medical appointments.Instead, here he is, brandishing an ice axe upside down (health and safety regulations) leading the New Zealand Alpine Club guard of honour for <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/funeral-of-Sir-Edmund-Hillary,1100" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/funeral-of-Sir-Edmund-Hillary,1100&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ov-qo9NeMmuRl39gD3mpC">Sir Edmund Hillary’s coffin</a> as it leaves Auckland cathedral after the state funeral. By some quirk of fate both these NZers departed on the same date, 11 January, although 14 years apart.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410110/637204719c7e80680e0b2861jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1068" height="679"><figcaption>Dave Bamford, Chris Bonington and John Nankervis at Fox Glacier, Westland Tai Poutini National Park in New Zealand in 1990.</figcaption></figure>For <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/not-just-another-book-on-everest/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/not-just-another-book-on-everest/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1642407220499000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1nzJeydlRoYvJJwcnkbcwn">an Everest book</a>, I recently asked Nank how he would define the Sherpa people in a few words. It occurs to me that his reply – ‘loyal, tough, tenacious, fun-loving’ -- would do quite well for him. I’d probably add ‘modest’ to the list, but his friends may not agree.I’m just very glad to have known him at all -- and blessed to have been touched by such a remarkable and vibrant life. So thank you, Bammy Bamaphone, for that. And farewell Nank, we will miss you.

Remembering John Nankervis 1946-2022

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203229c7e80680e0b27f0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1944" height="1098"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>In the heart of Edinburgh near the Church of St John the Evangelist is <a href="https://www.oneworldshop.co.uk/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.oneworldshop.co.uk/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1641433168882000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DlDyvp0funtWsI3daY8Bf">One World Shop</a>, a modest-looking store that sells goods from all over the world.Among the products are ‘<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/made-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Made in Nepal</a>’ sweaters, mufflers, felted slippers, and beanies which are flying off the shelves this winter. There are also Nepali handicraft items, lokta paper products, herbal bath soaps and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/clothed-in-cannabis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hemp products</a> for sale.But the items are not as much for profit as they are for the international promotion of fair trade handmade goods made by women in poorer communities to improve their livelihood with added income. The store, a fair trade organisation set up in 1983, sources most of its Nepali products from the Association for Craft Producers and Get Paper Industry in Kathmandu."Our goal is to empower women and alleviate poverty through diversification of livelihood options," explains Rachel Farey, business manager of the One World Shop which also sponsors Nepali women to be trained at institutes in the UK. “We buy goods only when we confirm that they were made by women in need, or if they are somehow involved in manufacturing.”Farey comes from a family with a long-standing connection with Nepal. Her uncle was former Gurkha officer <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9296#.YdRS8C8RqLd" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D9296%23.YdRS8C8RqLd&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1641433168882000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2zTu5ZxUmpVaWi0pbRP35h">Mike Cheney</a>, a pioneer figure in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/trekking-in-Nepal-turns-50,2658" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s trekking</a> and mountaineering scene during the 1970s, who set up Sherpa Cooperative to ensure that porters had proper working conditions.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203259c7e80680e0b27f1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="971"><figcaption>Mike Cheney</figcaption></figure>Cheney had served in the British Army from 1946 to 1957 in the Royal Armoured Corps and the 10th Gurkha Rifles. After retiring from active service, he became a tea-estate manager in Darjeeling, and came to Kathmandu in 1965 for the first time and continued working in a tea estate in Ilam.He then turned to Nepal’s fledgling trekking industry, and in 1966 joined forces with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/hiking-with-jimmy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jimmy Roberts</a> who had set up <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-himalayan-odyssey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Travel Nepal</a>, the first registered trekking company in the world. In his later years, Cheney concentrated his efforts on promoting the country as a household name in the climbing and mountaineering industry.“Mike Cheney showed Nepal the way ahead, connecting the country to the rest of the world at a time when it was not easy to market a new destination, while at the same time making sure that porters got a good deal,” says tourism entrepreneur Karma Sherpa Lama in Kathmandu.Cheney was vocal about <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4747#.YdT8di2B2b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">low-paid porters</a> carrying heavy leads during mountaineering and trekking expeditions and worked to raise living standards by setting an example with his Sherpa Cooperative. He made sure that porters were paid higher wages, had proper gear for high altitudes, and were taken care of if they fell sick.Cheney’s other major contribution was in scouting new trekking routes across Nepal, away from already <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/managing-everests-waste-problem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">crowded Everest</a> and Annapurna areas, and improving the trails. Cheney was also a correspondent for several alpine journals and mountaineering magazines in Europe and the United States.Cheney was an active member of the Himalayan Rescue Association with its clinic in Pheriche, and the Trekking Agents’ Association of Nepal. He was the Local Hon Secretary of the Bombay-based Himalayan Club, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Alpine Club.Now, his niece Farey is following in his footsteps and is committed to helping Nepali women and children through her store One World Shop in Edinburgh which sells a wide range of handmade crafts, jewelry, textiles, interior furnishings, furniture, toys, clothing, ceramics, handmade paper products, cards, books and foods.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203289c7e80680e0b27f2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1700" height="802"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>“Our mission is to reduce poverty by sourcing and selling fair trade goods from all around the world,” says Farey. “It is not just the individual artisans who make the goods that benefit from our work, but also their families and the communities in which they live.”Like her uncle, Farey is also a passionate trekker herself and has visited Nepal often. She says that in a way she is carrying on Mike Cheney’s mission: to uplift Nepali families by removing middlemen and guaranteeing them a just income.For Farey ‘fair trade’ is not just a concept, she is actually practicing it in her business through One World Shop which sources and sells sustainably produced products from around the world by ensuring a decent price which is ploughed back into their communities.During the pandemic, One World Shop was selling its products online even though supplies from Nepal were disrupted because of flight cancellations.

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