A mountaineering tragedy strikes on a Good Friday, 18 April 2014. An avalanche occurred on the slope of Mt Everest killing more than 13 climbing Sherpas, and still counting. It is devastating for the climbing community all over the world. To make it sound worst, only Nepalis were killed in this unfortunate accident (or well, not that foreigners deserve to die, no one really should die this way).

You see, climbing sherpas are the back bone to the entire climbing business on Mt Everest, they did majority of the work. From ferrying loads to camps, fixing ropes on the routes, sherpas also build up the entire temporary home for all the climbers. When a disaster strike, it is inevitable to have at least one or more sherpas be involved.

I can’t help but to think, have I fulfilled my desire to climb Everest at the expense of risking the life of the climbing sherpas? I probably have. To make myself feel less guilty, and if you allow me to simply put it that when there is a demand (people who want to climb), there will be a supply (the sherpas enable it). Reading from the report by Esquire , the article quoted that sherpas climb for the money, with the purpose of making a better living for their families.

Sherpas call Mt. Everest “Chomolungma,” which translates into Holy Mother. But it’s not spirituality that motivates them to risk their lives for tourists.

“A lot of climbers have romantic notions about why the Sherpas do this work,” said anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner, author of the book, “Life and Death on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering.”  “For the Sherpas it has always very clearly been about the money.  This is higher paying work than anything else they could do. A top Sherpa can earn about $6,000 in a two to three-month season, about 10 times the average annual income in Nepal. ”

I would not have been able to climb Everest without the support of the sherpas. That’s a fact that I cannot deny. And as long as there are aspiring climbers like me, there will be sherpas who would be wiling to risk their life to stay on Everest. The chinese word – 危机 –  means crisis, but if you read the word on its own, it means “危” refers to “Danger”, and “机” refers to “Opportunity”. Where there is a risk, there is an opportunity. And, death is part of the opportunity.

In sorrow, we mourn those lost. May the climbing sherpas who perished on Mt Everest Rest In Peace.

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