This past mountaineering (spring) season was a full one for Nepali climbers on Mount Everest. Besides the usual dozens making it to the top as high altitude guides and the porters, there were the few climbs that was noteworthy.
Appa Sherpa made his 11th ascent; Babu Chhiri Sherpa accomplised a speed climb of 16 hours 56 minutes from Base Camp (5400m) to the 8848m summit; Lakpa Sherpa became the second Nepali woman to make it to the top (and also the first to come back alive); and Pemba Dolma Sherpa became the third Nepali woman to climb the Everest but the first to do so from the Northern Tibetan side. Ram Krishna Shrestha became the second Everest Summiteer from the Newar community (yes there are a few non- sherpa Nepalis who have taken the climbing). Then there was 15 -years- old Temba Chhiri Sherpa who missed submitting by a bare 22 meters (and managed a record height by anyone so young).
As has become a norm, these individual achievements were a matter of such celebration in Nepal, where the media has finally become aware of the mountains as not only the locus of Western Climbers. The Nepali mountaineers were feted by all and sundry —political parties, youth groups, cultural organisations.
For sure, Nepali (to be more exact, Sherpa) climbers have come a long way since British mountaineer Alexander Kellas ´discovered´ the Sherpa climber in first decade of the 20th century. The early British expedition employed expatriates from Nepal´s Sherpa country living in Darjeeling — Tenzing Norgay being the most notable among them. Thereafter, Sherpas evolved as the integral of Himalaya Climbing– typecast in the role of support staff helping carry loads and setting up high camps– so much so that ´ Sherpa´ entered the English lexicon as meaning someone who goes ahead to prepare the ground for the meeting or summit.