Recently, several local alpinists in the Himalayas set records on the highest peaks in the world, including an 18-year-old. There used to be people who scoffed at the alleged unreliability of the Nepalese.
The Shishapangma: Here a few Nepalese mountaineers conquered their last eight-thousander to complete a series of records.
In Nepal, the news at the beginning of October was all over the place because of these two numbers: 8,000 and 14. It was about the highest mountains in the world and about the people who were the first to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders in certain categories.
Among them was the first woman from Nepal: Dawa Yangzum Sherpa. Or, at 18, the youngest person in the world to complete the list of eight-thousanders: Nima Rinji Sherpa, a Nepalese. Or the first Nepalese who stood on the highest fourteen mountains without artificial bottled oxygen: Mingma Gyalje Sherpa alias “Mingma G”.
The Kathmandu daily newspaper “The Himalayan Times” described the reception of the successful alpinists on their return at the capital’s airport as a “triumphant homecoming”. For all of them, Shishapangma in Tibet (8,027 meters) was the last eight-thousander they were missing.
Dawa Yangzum Sherpa: A pioneer in Nepal because she climbed all eight-thousanders.
The agencies advertise the summit successes of their local guides
Bernadette McDonald has written a book about local mountaineers in the Himalayas and Karakoram. She tells the NZZ: “The eight-thousanders mean a lot to anyone who pursues this goal. But for the Nepalese, successes on these mountains are a real turning point.”
With such a performance under your belt, it is easier to get sponsors. Nepalis who could adorn themselves with a record would receive significantly more respect within their community. And there are other business opportunities beyond guiding on the mountain. What expedition agencies also use for their purposes.
The Swiss Josette Valloton reports: “The agencies advertise their guides’ summit successes.” Valloton, who comes from Valais, can also boast a record: this year she became the world’s first certified mountain guide to have conquered all eight-thousanders.
It wasn’t that long ago that Nepalese were primarily seen as auxiliary personnel on the mountain, carrying the heavy loads and attaching fixed ropes and doing what they were told to do. If locals stood on the summit with Western mountaineers, the latter often took credit for the success in their reports. There is a reason why the book by Otto C. Honegger and Frank Senn about the Sherpas on Everest was subtitled “The Real Heroes of Everest”.
There were also people who scoffed at the alleged unreliability of the locals. They could say that it didn’t matter whether they were actually at the top or a few meters below the summit. They didn’t take the summit so seriously and were blasphemed, for example when in autumn 2016 at Manaslu (8,163 meters) the high porters who were entrusted with laying the fixed ropes declared a point well below the highest point to be the summit.
The expedition members then turned around there. The Ministry of Tourism in Kathmandu issued them a certificate for the successful climb to Manaslu. In the “Himalayan Database” the addition “fore-summit only” is noted.
Nima Rinji Sherpa, 18 years old, is euphorically received by compatriots at Kathmandu airport on October 14, 2024.
Record certificates have a much higher value in Nepal than in Central Europe
This may not make a difference to those working in a ministry. But actually reaching the highest point is part of mountaineering ethics. But that’s not all: the company that publishes the “Guinness Book of Records” only awards record certificates if it can be proven that the summit has been reached. And record certificates have a much higher value in Nepal than, for example, in Central Europe.
Practical knowledge and routine count more than certified mountain guide training for expedition participants who have no idea about mountaineering. This is confirmed by Kami Rita Sherpa, who is considered the mountaineer with the most Everest ascents. “Because I’ve been on Everest thirty times, people want to climb with me,” he says. That’s why Nepalese present a certificate from “Guinness” on social networks with particular pride.
In Nepal, meanwhile, people pay meticulous attention to doing everything right. When more and more evidence suggested that mountaineers had missed the summit of Manaslu for many years because they did not recognize that there was a higher peak behind the supposed summit, celebrated and highly respected mountaineers from Europe reacted with pique. “How can one doubt that they missed the summit?” they said.
Ralf Dujmovits, the most successful German high-altitude climber, said he would not climb again if it was proven that he had not actually reached the highest point in 2004. The fact that Dujmovits traveled to Manaslu again in autumn 2022 (an expedition that he canceled due to the objective dangers) has to do with Mingma G, the Nepalese who climbed all eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen.
While others denied and speculated, Mingma G took action. He was not left in peace by chroniclers’ research that the summit of Manaslu was different from the point from which most of the photographs came. In autumn 2021, Mingma G had actually reached the highest point – a peak that no one had stood on since 2012 and previously only some of those who climbed Manaslu. Australian alpinist Jackson Groves documented this with impressive drone footage.
“Mingma G” was honored for his achievements in Kathmandu in January 2021.
The locals are moving to the forefront – more entries are being made into the history books
Mingma G demonstrated that the Nepalese can do a lot on the mountain. The Swiss Josette Valloton says about them: “Many of them are good alpinists. They learn very quickly, are adaptable and don’t lack energy.” They provided proof of this this fall.
These successes could also inspire others in the future. Author Bernadette McDonald suspects: “We will see fewer Sherpas leading in the Himalayas and more Nepalis from other ethnic groups taking their place.”
The locals are pushing to the forefront and showing what is possible on the highest mountains. Just this spring, a Nepalese Sherpa team opened a new route up Cho Oyu (8,188 meters) from the south.
But there are many more ways to enter the history books of Himalayan mountaineering. For example, there is the crossing of Nuptse, Lhotse and Everest. Or a new route that could lead through the east face of Everest. Such a coup could certainly be carried out by a Nepalese.
Drone shot of a Mount Everest base camp in April 2023.