The spring mountaineering season had started when the Nepal government suddenly banned cargo helicopters to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/on-everest-4-years-after-the-nepal-earthquake">Everest Base Camp</a> and told expeditions to use porters and yaks instead.&nbsp; Just like another rule making it mandatory for all trekkers to hire guides, the decision has been greeted with cheers and jeers. Helicopter companies and expeditions are outraged, while porters, and owners of mules and yaks support the idea.&nbsp; So far, 400 international climbers are expected on Mt Everest, about the same number as last year. Nepal’s trekking and mountaineering industry is seeing a revival after the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-season-on-everest-during-nepals-covid-peak">2020-21 </a>break. The Expedition Operator's Association Nepal estimates that there will be more than 2,500 Nepali guides and support staff at Base Camp for expeditions on Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse peaks. They have to be supplied by food, energy and material for 3 months. Nepal shares Everest (Chomolungma) with China, and expeditions from the north Tibet side have also been opened this season after a three year gap. Nepal gets some of the largest numbers of mountaineers from China as well.&nbsp; This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Edmund Hilary and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/was-tenzing-a-tibetan-nepali-or-indian-it-does-not-matter">Tenzing Norgay</a> on 29 May 1953, and this is expected to attract more climbers and trekkers. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-city">Mt Everest City</a>, Monika Deupala  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023040413048_e9efc0626c853117574e17af075cd8e80f6bc50226b5fc6d64259aad606679f1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2023040413048_e9efc0626c853117574e17af075cd8e80f6bc50226b5fc6d64259aad606679f1" data-rendition-name="original" width="750" height="498" loading="lazy" alt="Porter EBC"> <figcaption>Photo: HIMAL ARCHIVES</figcaption> </figure>  Many mountaineers already arrived at base camp before the climbing season officially began, in order to acclimatise to the high altitude. Even before they arrived, helicopters have already been doing the heavy lifting from Kathmandu and Lukla. Expeditions begin only after climbers have made sure that they have all the necessary supplies, and the Icefall Doctors forge a route and fix ropes, which is already underway.&nbsp; The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-tourism-in-2023-9ukoi8iz">sheer volume</a> of climbers will mean that it will be difficult to get essential supplies to base camp in time. Now, tourism operators say that the difficulty will be compounded after the local government of the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality banned helicopters from making supply runs to base camp for environmental and employment reasons.&nbsp; At present, the municipality allows helicopters to transport supplies up to Dingboche (4,400m) and nearby Pheriche. Now choppers will only be allowed to fly gear up to Syangboche airfield (3,800m). The municipality has stipulated that porters, yaks or jokpe be used to move supplies from Syangboche. It can take up to four days for yak caravans and porters to carry supplies from Syangboche to &nbsp;base camp. Expedition operators complain that they are facing difficulty finding porters and pack animals. Local youth from districts to the south have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letter-from-sikles">migrated</a> to cities for better education and employment. Farmers in Khumbu are also moving away from traditional pastoralism, which means fewer yaks and jokpe.&nbsp; The sudden rule change at the cusp of the climbing season has not given expeditions time to prepare logistical alternatives. In fact, one expedition to Lhotse through Seven Summit Treks switched to climb Makalu after facing delays in supplies reaching Everest Base Camp. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/annapurna-dhaulagiri-double-take">Other expeditions</a> may &nbsp;follow suit. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-the-ice-is-gone-we-are-done">“If the ice is gone, we are done”</a>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023040413048_36f8a83e8280c3475f239a64a420139615cbf51fabb925791406e1c0aa47c1db.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="2023040413048_36f8a83e8280c3475f239a64a420139615cbf51fabb925791406e1c0aa47c1db" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality"> </figure>  But some residents of Namche and surrounding villages are against what they see as “<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-season-of-summits">hyper-commercialisation</a>” of Everest by expedition operators and helicopter companies which have taken away local jobs. Chopper flights in the Everest region have increased after climbers who could afford the fares began paying to be flown down even from Camp 2 under the guise of rescue operations. Locals add that the amount of trash in the region has increased significantly since helicopters started transporting goods directly to base camp. This politicisation of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/peak-climbing-season-in-nepal">mountaineering</a> will hurt this season’s expeditions if the local government and tourism bodies do not find a solution on time, say operators. Fifty climbing clients are booked for Everest just through Lakpa Sherpa’s ATK Expedition, and 15 have applied to climb Lhotse, and 160 guides will be helping them. But Sherpa says his supplies are stuck at Syangboche. “I have 14 tons of supplies waiting for transportation, our guides at base camp are spending nights in cowsheds,” he adds. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/expedition-brings-down-11-tons-of-mt-everest-trash">Expedition brings down 11 tons of Mt Everest trash</a>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230404130412_0dd3ca72a7ada3980ce4468100696b36f3d0b1e4c200753f9e37bf982edcd020.png" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20230404130412_0dd3ca72a7ada3980ce4468100696b36f3d0b1e4c200753f9e37bf982edcd020" data-rendition-name="original" width="505" height="423" loading="lazy" alt="Yaks NT"> </figure>  Operators are worried that delays in organising base camp and fixing ropes will reduce the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/after-deaths-a-weather-window-on-manaslu">summit window</a> leading to a repeat of dangerous overcrowding on the peak. "The icefall team has not even made it to Camp 2 yet,” adds Lhakpa Sherpa. “I can already see traffic jams on Everest making headlines in the global media once again.” The Everest Pollution Committee is contracted by the operator’s association to fix the route up the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 2 for most expeditions. &nbsp; Some 11 climbers and guides lost their lives while summiting Everest in 2019, with many of the deaths attributed to long delays in the summit ridge. The Expedition Operator’s Association Nepal met with Hom Prasad Luitel of the Department of Tourism, after the local government banned helicopters to base camp warning that this would affect the industry adversely. The Department of Tourism has since written separate letters to the rural municipality and district administration office to find a compromise. “Concerns about employment are valid, but the timing of these demands just at the start of e climbing season has led to tension between locals and tourism operators,” admitted Bigyan Koirala at the Department of Tourism, "The local government must come up come up with a solution immediately. We cannot afford to prolong this problem." Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-everest-base-camp-1-vfqcer0e">Letters from Everest Base Camp 1</a>

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Chopper vs Chauri below Everest

<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 width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b83cb9c7e80680e067758jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Nepal's <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/spring-returns-to-nepals-mountaineering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spring mountaineering season</a>, just recovering from <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/04/26/the-winter-of-our-spring/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">avalanches</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/04/25/massive-earthquake-rattles-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">earthquakes</a>, and a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">year of Covid-19 lockdown</a> is once more looking uncertain with reports of coronavirus cases at the base camps of Mt Everest and Dhaulagiri.The Nepal government has tried to keep a tight lid on information from the mountains, but hospital and expedition sources confirm that there have been at least a dozen sick climbers who had been helicoptered from the base of Mt Everest who had tested positive at hospitals in Kathmandu. Twenty climbers were evacuated from Dhaulagiri, five of them on Thursday, after testing positive in antigen tests at base camp.“The breakout up in the mountains must be monitored but we have to look at this against the background of the latest surge which has ravaged the entire country,” says a physician at a hospital in Kathmandu.Nepal saw another day with record high reported Covid-19 cases on Thursday with 9,070 testing positive — the seventh straight day with more than daily 5,000 cases. Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi had warned of 15,000 new cases a day by July but at the rate the infection is multiplying, Nepal is most likely to exceed the projected figures and much earlier at that.The number of daily <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-electric-crematorium-running-non-stop/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deaths</a> from coronavirus is also rising, with 54 more in the last 24 hours. Active cases have surpassed 70,000. Kathmandu Valley registered 3,972 cases.So far, none of the 42 expeditions and 408 foreign climbers aiming to climb Everest has cancelled, and a strict protocol on isolation and evacuation appears to have brought things under control. There are 100 other mountaineers and staff of the 11 expeditions on Lhotse, 25 climbers headed up to Nuptse, and ten climbers attempting Pumori. They all share the same tent city, which now has a population of nearly 2,000 people at 5,634m altitude.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/despite-covid-19-climbers-are-back-on-everest/">Despite Covid-19, climbers are back on Everest</a>, Monika Deupala <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EverestERNepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everest ER</a>, run by the <a href="https://himalayanrescue.org.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Himalayan Rescue Association</a> doctors, says it has treated 227 patients so far this season, most of them for the ‘Khumbu cough’. The non-profit volunteer group says on its site: ‘This year it's especially challenging in light of the Covid pandemic. We do not have the capacity for rapid point of care testing at the moment.’There are antigen kits on Dhaulagiri, however, and so far more than 20 climbers and their guides and camp staff have tested positive for Covid-19 and evacuated to Kathmandu. Eleven climbers who had tested positive on Wednesday were flown out by helicopter on Thursday morning after the weather improved. The Nepal Army, which is on a campaign to clean up the base camps of Nepal's mountains, also evacuated three of its soldiers.There are 35 foreign climbers from five expeditions on Dhaulagiri, and some of them, including six Nepali women climbers had climbed Annapurna <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/annapurna-dhaulagiri-double-take/">last month</a>. There are 750 foreign climbers on 13 peaks in the Nepal Himalaya, including six 8,000m peaks. There have been no Covid-19 cases reported from the other mountains. The matter of Covid-19 on the mountains is so sensitive that neither the expedition leaders nor doctors at base camp are willing to give exact figures of those evacuated or testing positive. In fact, Mira Acharya at the Mountaineering Division of the Department of Tourism has said she has no information on whether there are Covid-19 cases, nor how many have tested positive.Mountaineering fees, and jobs in the tourism sector are important for Nepal, which earned nearly $850 million from tourism in 2019. This spring season alone, the government collected over $4 million in fees for Everest. More than a million Nepalis are employed in the tourism sector, and many more in remote areas depend indirectly on the seasonal income from trekking and climbing—with <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-all-the-guides-gone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most of them without any income in 2020. </a>Ang Phurba Sherpa, a high altitude guide with an expedition at Everest Base Camp says he is fearful about the pandemic second wave sweeping the country, and if it will force another cancellation of the climbing season.“Expedition months are earning months for most of us who depend on mountaineering business, and last year we had no earnings. It is a dangerous job, but it is our profession. This is the life of a Sherpa.”Read also: <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mt Everest City</a>, Monika Deupala

Everest's Covid dilemma

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cebef9c7e80680e09ad35jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Nepal's <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/spring-returns-to-nepals-mountaineering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spring mountaineering season</a>, just recovering from <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/04/26/the-winter-of-our-spring/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">avalanches</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/04/25/massive-earthquake-rattles-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">earthquakes</a>, and a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">year of Covid-19 lockdown</a> is once more looking uncertain with reports of coronavirus cases at the base camps of Mt Everest and Dhaulagiri.The Nepal government has tried to keep a tight lid on information from the mountains, but hospital and expedition sources confirm that there have been at least a dozen sick climbers who had been helicoptered from the base of Mt Everest who had tested positive at hospitals in Kathmandu. Twenty climbers were evacuated from Dhaulagiri, five of them on Thursday, after testing positive in antigen tests at base camp.“The breakout up in the mountains must be monitored but we have to look at this against the background of the latest surge which has ravaged the entire country,” says a physician at a hospital in Kathmandu.Nepal saw another day with record high reported Covid-19 cases on Thursday with 9,070 testing positive — the seventh straight day with more than daily 5,000 cases. Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi had warned of 15,000 new cases a day by July but at the rate the infection is multiplying, Nepal is most likely to exceed the projected figures and much earlier at that.The number of daily <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-electric-crematorium-running-non-stop/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deaths</a> from coronavirus is also rising, with 54 more in the last 24 hours. Active cases have surpassed 70,000. Kathmandu Valley registered 3,972 cases.So far, none of the 42 expeditions and 408 foreign climbers aiming to climb Everest has cancelled, and a strict protocol on isolation and evacuation appears to have brought things under control. There are 100 other mountaineers and staff of the 11 expeditions on Lhotse, 25 climbers headed up to Nuptse, and ten climbers attempting Pumori. They all share the same tent city, which now has a population of nearly 2,000 people at 5,634m altitude.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/despite-covid-19-climbers-are-back-on-everest/">Despite Covid-19, climbers are back on Everest</a>, Monika Deupala <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EverestERNepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everest ER</a>, run by the <a href="https://himalayanrescue.org.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Himalayan Rescue Association</a> doctors, says it has treated 227 patients so far this season, most of them for the ‘Khumbu cough’. The non-profit volunteer group says on its site: ‘This year it's especially challenging in light of the Covid pandemic. We do not have the capacity for rapid point of care testing at the moment.’There are antigen kits on Dhaulagiri, however, and so far more than 20 climbers and their guides and camp staff have tested positive for Covid-19 and evacuated to Kathmandu. Eleven climbers who had tested positive on Wednesday were flown out by helicopter on Thursday morning after the weather improved. The Nepal Army, which is on a campaign to clean up the base camps of Nepal's mountains, also evacuated three of its soldiers.There are 35 foreign climbers from five expeditions on Dhaulagiri, and some of them, including six Nepali women climbers had climbed Annapurna <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/annapurna-dhaulagiri-double-take/">last month</a>. There are 750 foreign climbers on 13 peaks in the Nepal Himalaya, including six 8,000m peaks. There have been no Covid-19 cases reported from the other mountains. The matter of Covid-19 on the mountains is so sensitive that neither the expedition leaders nor doctors at base camp are willing to give exact figures of those evacuated or testing positive. In fact, Mira Acharya at the Mountaineering Division of the Department of Tourism has said she has no information on whether there are Covid-19 cases, nor how many have tested positive.Mountaineering fees, and jobs in the tourism sector are important for Nepal, which earned nearly $850 million from tourism in 2019. This spring season alone, the government collected over $4 million in fees for Everest. More than a million Nepalis are employed in the tourism sector, and many more in remote areas depend indirectly on the seasonal income from trekking and climbing—with <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-all-the-guides-gone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most of them without any income in 2020. </a>Ang Phurba Sherpa, a high altitude guide with an expedition at Everest Base Camp says he is fearful about the pandemic second wave sweeping the country, and if it will force another cancellation of the climbing season.“Expedition months are earning months for most of us who depend on mountaineering business, and last year we had no earnings. It is a dangerous job, but it is our profession. This is the life of a Sherpa.”Read also: <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mt Everest City</a>, Monika Deupala

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6dd9c7e80680e09678ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photos: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Red, yellow, green, colourful tents stand out amidst the brown debris of the Khumbu Glacier as Base Camp grows into a small city 2km long and a population of 2,000 people. It takes more than one hour to walk from one end to the other, across boulders and crumbling ice pinnacles.This year, there are 42 expeditions with nearly 400 climbers just for Mt Everest. But Base Camp also has more than 100 mountaineers from 11 expeditions attempting Lhotse, 25 climbers headed for Nuptse and ten members of two teams attempting Pumori. Each has retinues of high altitude guides, cooks, dish-washers, and support staff. This is home for many of them for three months till end-May.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6e19c7e80680e09678fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6e49c7e80680e096790jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Mornings begin with the hiss of pressure cookers and clanking of LPG cylinders from numerous kitchens. There are people making short treks to the toilet tents located beyond the creaking crevasses.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/despite-covid-19-climbers-are-back-on-everest/">Despite Covid-19, climbers are back on Everest</a>, Monika Deupala<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6e79c7e80680e096791jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">https://youtu.be/GQ-3178OLR4The reason for the crowd this year is that there is a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/spring-returns-to-nepals-mountaineering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">backlog of expeditions from 2020</a> when climbers had to abandon their attempts as Nepal clamped a lockdown on 25 March. As befitting a small town, Base Camp has cafes with WiFi, wooden floors and heating, tables full of snacks, hot drinks, chips and more. There are hot shower rooms, meeting rooms, charging stations for electronic devices, and even a recreational tent with yoga in the mornings and movies in the evenings."Base Camp life has improved significantly, with helicopter delivering fresh food directly from Kathmandu,” says expedition leader Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering. “We used to keep meat frozen on the glacier even ten years ago. Now we can make video calls to family, and this helps not missing home a lot."<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6ea9c7e80680e096792jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6ed9c7e80680e096793jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Helicopters with more than 600kg cargo ferry the loads only up to Gorakshep, and are not allowed to Base Camp. From there, porters and yaks carry expedition gear and other items to Base Camp.The climbing outfitter Climbing the Seven Summits even has spacious Executive Dome Tents with large windows overlooking the Khumbu Icefall, king-size beds with down duvet, pillows, easy chairs and coffee machines. This is like climbing Everest ‘business class’, and there has been some ridicule of it on social media. But the company’s <a href="https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2021/04/21/everest-2021-interview-with-everest-guide-mike-hamill-on-base-camp-luxuries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mike Hamill justifies it</a> saying that there is enough roughing it on the mountain, and some climbers who can afford it want creature comforts at Base Camp.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6f09c7e80680e096794jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6f39c7e80680e096795jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1338" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6f69c7e80680e096796jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1338" height="1000">The Executive Dome Tents of the company Climbing the Seven Summits offer creature comforts at Everest Base Camp. Even before dawn there is activity at Base Camp as climbers and their guides head up the Icefall to Camp I on the Western Cwm. They want to cross the most dangerous parts before the sun comes up and increases avalanche danger.By the time the sun comes up from behind Everest’s west shoulder, expedition tents come alive with breakfast calls. The Bahraini Everest Team was here first in late February, and located its camp farthest up the glacier.In the expedition tent, the cook is busy all day preparing three meals. As soon as breakfast is finished, it is time to work on lunch and then dinner. Western climbers need carbs, but do not like dal bhat, so there is lots of pasta, meat, and chocolate desserts.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-all-the-guides-gone/">Where have all the guides gone?</a>, Alisha Sijapati<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6fa9c7e80680e096797jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121156/636ce6fd9c7e80680e096798jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">It does not take long for the first of many helicopter flights to arrive, bringing essential supplies and evacuating climbers with altitude sickness or other ailments. Four climbers have already been evacuated, and three of them have tested positive for Covid-19 in hospital in Kathmandu. Covid-19 attacks the respiratory system, and symptoms are similar to acute mountain sickness, with one exacerbating the other.Rumours of another lockdown have cast some uncertainty over the season, as reports come in of a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/unmasking-the-second-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">massive surge in new cases</a> and fatalities in various parts of Nepal.High altitude guide Ang Phurba Sherpa is nervous about the pandemic resurgence since it may jeopardise his earnings for another year. But for now, he is happy that the expeditions are back in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Khumbu</a>."Expedition months are earning months for most of us who depend on mountaineering business, and last year was a washout,” he says. “It is a dangerous job, but it is our profession. We try to go up and down the Icefall at night to reduce the risk. This is the life of a Sherpa."

Mt Everest City

<img title="" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121144/636ce4569c7e80680e0966a4png.png" alt=""/>Namche Bazar, the gateway to Mt Everest, is currently abuzz with climbers and trekkers as they prepare to head towards Base Camp after the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/didnt-visit-nepal-year-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pandemic closed Nepal’s tourism for a year</a>.The narrow stone-paved streets of this township at 3,500m are once more filled with trekkers and climbers from all over the world, spending a day or two acclimatising before they head up the trail.The start of the season has not been very lucky. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Thick smoke from forest fires</a> have disrupted flights to Lukla, and the haze has blown up to Pheriche at 4,300m, blurring views of Ama Dablam and Everest along the way.Many spend their day hiking up to the Everest View Hotel in Syangboche and back to their lodgings to get used to the altitude.The Khumbu region <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-open-for-trekking-from-17-october/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">opened to international trekkers</a> only in October 2020 after <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unlimited-flights-to-nepal-from-17-october/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">international flights resumed</a>, but there were few who ventured here till now.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-smoky-mountains/">Nepal's smoky mountains</a>, Nepali TimesTotal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/survive-revive-thrive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tourist numbers in Nepal dropped</a> from over 1.1 million in 2019 to fewer than 230,000 last year --- and most of them arrived before the lockdown January-March. This year, the last three months have seen only 35,000 tourists.But with the start of the spring climbing season, there has been an uptick in the number of climbers and trekkers to the Khumbu.So far, 167 international climbers have got permits to climb Everest, with 39 climbers on Lhotse and 23 on Nuptse. All of them, as well as high altitude guides and support staff, will be sharing Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier, which is bustling with activity again as it prepares to host 700 people.Despite the slow start to the season, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/capital-of-sherpaland-gets-a-makeover/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Namche Bazar</a> is emerging from its enforced closure. Sonam Norbu runs a shop for climbers and trekkers in one of the stone-paved alleys of the town."It has been only 20 days since we opened up. Most people here actually closed their shops and went down to Kathmandu during the Covid crisis," he says.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tourism-may-take-5-years-to-recover/">Nepal tourism may take 5 years to recover</a>, Nepali TimesBecause of the amenities it provides, Namche is a resting destination for most climbers and trekkers on the Everest Trail. Even as some climbers head up the Khumbu Icefall, other climbers who are booked on the mountains are still arriving.This has been attributed to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-should-now-allow-visa-on-arrival/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">massive confusion around Nepal’s Covid-19 quarantine and testing rules</a>  Last month, the Ministry of Tourism finally <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/tourist-visas-now-open-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">allowed visa on arrival</a>, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-relaxes-entry-for-tourists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lifted quarantine restrictions</a> for those who had been vaccinated.Even though the numbers of trekkers is picking up, Namche locals say it is much quieter than previous years. Lodge and restaurant owners here are worried about the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-braces-for-its-2nd-covid-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">second wave</a> as well as the wildfire affecting arrivals.Nepal has been recording its worst-ever pollution levels in history, with the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wildfires-in-nepal-cause-air-quality-to-plummet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AQI index constantly hitting the 'hazardous' mark </a>for consecutive weeks now.For those like Sonam Norbu, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-hopes-for-tourism-rebound-in-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">resurgence of tourism</a> is hope of a revival of the region’s paralysed economy.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/survive-2020-revive-in-2021-and-thrive-in-2022/">“Survive 2020, revive in 2021 and thrive in 2022”</a>, Alisha Sijapati

Despite Covid-19, climbers are back on Everest

<figure><img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70be9c7e80680e060094jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>All Photos : MANISH PAUDEL</figcaption></figure>It is a truism in tourism of the Himalaya that the closer we get to the mountains, the less we see of them. This holds for the <a href="Annapurna%20Base%20Camp%20Trek" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Annapurna Base Camp Trek</a>, which follows the narrow <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/go-take-a-hike/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mardi Valley</a> where Machapuchre is hidden by towering cliffs. And it is true of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/everest-fights-back/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Everest Trek</a>, where the highest mountain in the world is not visible after Tengboche, unless trekkers climb Kala Patthar.For the best panoramas of the mountains, therefore, one has to step back to mid-mountain peaks, like Pathibhara in Taplejung for a view of <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/the-kingdom-of-cardamom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mt Kangchenjunga</a> and Jannu, or Kalinchok for a grandstand view of Mt Gauri Shankar. Then there are peaks like Pulchoki on the southern rim of Kathmandu Valley, Bandipur for a tour d’horizon of the entire Central Nepal Himalaya, and the famous Poon Hill for the vista of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70c19c7e80680e060095jpeg.jpg" alt="">But one of the best kept secrets of trekking in Nepal is Pikey Peak in Solu, which offers a view of eight of Nepal’s eighthousanders from one place, including Mt Everest. The 4,065m peak used to be a favourite of Sir <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/hillary-centenary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edmund Hillary</a> after he climbed it to take a look around during the walk-in on his 1953 expedition.For several decades after that Pikey was isolated because it was so difficult to get to, and most people doing the Everest Base Camp trek overflew Pikey en route to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lukla.</a> Indeed, there is a parade of planes overhead every morning doing the Kathmandu-Lukla ferry.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vDEMl1dCdg&amp;feature=youtu.beBut with new roads from Kathmandu to Jiri and the Solu Highway reaching Phaplu via Okhaldhunga, Pikey is suddenly accessible. After major snowfall last month, Pikey saw dozens of Nepali youngsters roughing it out on a camping trip. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70c59c7e80680e060096jpeg.jpg" alt="">Winter is the not the best time for a Pikey hike, but the views can be stunning especially after snowfall blankets the mountains in white. The best time is actually early spring when rhododendron forests are abloom in pink, red and white and the mountains are dazzling against deep blue skies. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70c99c7e80680e060097jpeg.jpg" alt="">Since few people know about Pikey, visitors will find the trails deserted and the tea shops basic, although new lodges are now coming up, and the local Sherpa community is trying to promote homestay tourism. Pikey is revered by the Sherpas as a deity and climbing it does seem more like a pilgrimage than a trek.The fortunate thing about Pikey is that you can make it a circuit so you do not have to come down the same way you went up. A recommended itinerary is to drive up the Jiri Road from Kathmandu, continue on to Shivalaya, following the old trek route <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to Khumbu</a> before Lukla airstrip was built in 1968. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70cb9c7e80680e060098jpeg.jpg" alt="">From Shivalaya it is a leisurely three-day trek to Bhandara, Namkheli and Pikey Danda with only some steep sections. The trail winds through thick oak and rhododendron forests, with pine giving way to grasslands in the higher reaches.What is astounding is that from Pikey on a clear day one can see more than 800km of horizon from Dhaulagiri to Kangchenjunga. All along during the walk-in, Annapurna, Manaslu, Mt Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Lhotse, Kangchenjunga and other eight-thousanders play hide and seek behind lesser but nearer peaks. But smack in front is the elegant summit of Mt Numbur, standing tall above Mt Karyolung. <img width="1500" height="1001" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70cf9c7e80680e060099jpeg.jpg" alt="">Sunrise from Pikey Peak is a ‘lifetime experience’ as the slogan for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/make-sure-you-visit-nepal-in-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Nepal 2020</a> puts it. The sun rises from behind Kangchenjunga, illuminating the peaks to the north one by one, even as the valleys below are shrouded in fog.For the return, the descent can be down to Junbesi, and on to Phaplu, from where you can either take a flight back to Kathmandu or make the trip by road. For those pressed for time, you can make a flight in and out from Phaplu with a circuit to Pikey via Lamjura and down through Dhap. (See map).  <img width="1000" height="1118" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101120/636b70d29c7e80680e06009ajpeg.jpg" alt="">...

Lifetime experience on Pikey Peak

https://youtu.be/IBCLqSG_HMMThe Everest Base Camp trek is arduous enough for fit people, but it can be even more difficult for someone over 70. And it is no mean feat if that person also wants to tee off at 5,100m in winter.Harry Tan, a 71-year-old Singaporean possibly became the first person to tee off from three points below Mt Everest above 5,000m earlier this month.A part-time physical education teacher at Nanyang Technical University and an avid golfer at the Seletar Golf Club in Singapore, Tan had come to Nepal in 2016 after the earthquake. His trekking partner, Raj Tamang, was himself raised in Singapore and is also a golfer.“We got really excited about teeing off from high points during the trek, but did not realise how difficult it would be,” Tan recalls. This was a winter trek with the Khumbu Galcier so windy that the wind chill factor made conditions difficult. The high thin air also meant that the golf balls behaved differently.After flying to Lukla and acclimatising in Namche and Ama Dablam Base Camp, the group proceeded up to Dingboche, where Tan decided to buy warmer feather mittens for the adventures ahead. “The gloves I brought from Singapore were not adequate for the job at hand,” he noted.They waited out a blizzard on 13 December and then walked on to Pheriche and Lobuje.The next day, they climbed to a ridge on the way to Gorakshep at 5,180m found a patch of flat ground and brought out a 3 Wood driver, rubber tee, and an ecobioball manufactured by Elbusgolf.It was a complete whiteout when Harry did the first-ever 5000-meter tee off by a foreigner in Nepal. (The previous record was by Tamang himself.) They continued on the lateral moraine towards Gorakshep, had a quick lunch and left for Everest Base Camp. Trekkers there who were talking about a Singaporean with a golf club and were wondering what he was going to do with it got to see the swings for themselves.

Teeing off below Everest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJPUVWW9U4&amp;feature=youtu.beMt Everest has been called the ‘The World’s Highest Garbage Dump’ or ‘The Toilet Paper Trail’, but the international media has missed the good news: that Sagarmatha National Park is cleanest it has been since tourism started in the 1960s. And it is about to become even more garbage free as every visitor will be asked to volunteer to take down 1kg of trash back for collection by recyclers at Kathmandu airport.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58379c7e80680e05481fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="938" height="1005"/>Photo: TOMMY GUSTAFSSON<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a583a9c7e80680e054820jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1191" height="1257">Photo: ALTON C BYERSA ‘Carry Me Back’ bag that will contain 1kg of pre-processed solid waste that tourists will carry back to recycling facilities in Kathmandu.The spring 2019 climbing season saw another surge of international media coverage with daily stories of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/most-days-its-not-so-crowded-on-mt-everest/">‘traffic jams’</a>, newly exposed garbage, bodies and helicopter parts that surfaced as the mountain thawed due to climate change.Some 400 tons of plastic, metals, glass and other refuse is generated each year by lodges catering to the tourist industry, the bulk of it burned and buried in some 75 community landfills located near villages along the Everest Trail. Burnable garbage includes plastics that poison the air, contaminate the water, and create new health hazards for humans and livestock alike.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Living below Nepal's melting mountains,</a> Alton C Byers<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener">High Water,</a> Alton C Byers in the Barun Valley<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a583c9c7e80680e054821jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1016" height="762"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a583f9c7e80680e054822jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1016" height="762">Typical garbage pit outside of a village, usually out of sight of the main trekking trail. Landfills are particularly problematic in the alpine zone above 4,000m, where decomposition processes are much slower than those at lower, warmer and more humid environments. Photos: ALTON C BYERS<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58419c7e80680e054823jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1218" height="1642"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It hasn’t always been this way. When I first visited the <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.15px;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/">Khumbu in 1973</a>, there were no lodges, the total number of tourists per year was under 2,000 and virtually no solid waste was produced. Food came in reusable packaging (doko baskets, cloth bags) and meals consisted of rice, lentils, potatoes and some vegetables.By the 1980s and 1990s a few lodges started being built, and trekking groups camped in village potato fields rented out by landowners. By the early 2000s the rush to build lodges to feed and shelter the growing numbers of tourists took off, transforming the cultural landscape. With lodges came both greater tourist numbers as well as an increased demand for consumables like beer, whiskey, wine, bottled water, fruit cocktail, sunscreen, TVs and batteries, with their non-biodegradable packaging. It all ended up in refuse pits to be routinely burned.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58449c7e80680e054824jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="328"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58469c7e80680e054825jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="328"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Going by the international press narrative, the problem is bad and getting worse. Are the Sherpa people, Sagarmatha National Park and government doing nothing about it? <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/">Far from it.</a> More than 20 years ago, the <a href="http://www.spcc.org.np">Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) </a>was launched as a local initiative to manage waste. Since then, the SPCC and its partners have installed 106 waste collection centres throughout the park, banned glass beer bottles, organised <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/expeditions-brings-down-11-tons-of-mt-everest-trash/">annual Base Camp clean ups</a>, conducted compost trainings, and continually look for new and innovative solutions to the challenges of managing the waste generated. Not much of this is reported by the international media.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58489c7e80680e054826jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="961" height="647"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>During two solid-waste workshops facilitated by the University of Colorado and Arizona State University in Namche Bazaar and Kathmandu last month, local stakeholders were looking for innovative new ways to manage the waste of 60,000 trekkers and climbers, plus their support staff, who are in the park every year. The SPCC is now working with <a href="https://sagarmathanext.com/about-us/">Sagarmatha Next</a>, which is setting up segregation stations for a ‘carry me back’ program, where every tourist agrees to take back 1kg of waste to recycling centres in Kathmandu.The trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp has long been referred to as the ‘toilet paper trail’ -- today it is anything but. In spite of the growing numbers of visitors, support staff and pack animals, it is one of the cleanest and most beautiful treks in the high mountain world.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584a9c7e80680e054827jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="633" height="475"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Of course, a lot more needs to be done. Participants at the Namche and Kathmandu workshops stressed the need for innovation to deal with solid waste in a location-specific way, while being sensitive to local culture and values. The first step is establishment of waste separation centres, pre-processing facilities (shredding, compacting, baling) and finding way to transport the material to recycling centres in Kathmandu and elsewhere. Some of the aluminium and plastic waste is already being turned into ‘Everest Art’ to be sold for fund-raising. Aluminium cans are also converted into utilitarian objects like frying pans and other utensils. Human waste can be addressed through new solar technology, and more efficient septic tanks can prevent leakage.As a first step, Colorado and Arizona will be working with the local government ahead of the autumn trekking season to follow up the recommendations of the workshops. A landfill-free and waste-free Sagarmatha National Park, where garbage is not burnt, can be a reality in a few years. It could provide a much needed model for other mountain areas where the problems of tourist-related solid and human waste management exist.The difference is, things get done in the Khumbu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584c9c7e80680e054828jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="633" height="475"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584e9c7e80680e054829jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="320"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584f9c7e80680e05482ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960">Photo: TOMMY GUSTAFSSON<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58529c7e80680e05482bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960">Photo: ALTON C BYERSSagarmatha Next's Interpretation Centre in Syangboche.Alton C Byers, PhD, is a mountain geographer, conservationist and mountaineer specialising in applied research, high altitude ecosystems, climate change and glacier hazards. Field work for this project was supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society.

everest-base-camp

Chopper vs Chauri below Everest

Letters from Base Camp 2

Letters from Everest Base Camp 1

Everest's Covid dilemma

Everest's Covid dilemma

Mt Everest City

Despite Covid-19, climbers are back on Everest

Lifetime experience on Pikey Peak

Teeing off below Everest

Everest fights back