In Everest lore, the spring of 1996 will be remembered as the killer season. Eleven climbers died as fierce storms whipped oxygen-starved climbers on the world's highest mountain. The disaster got unusually intense Western media attention, and "made it" to the cover of Time, Newsweek and Life.
But while the world press was busy printing personal accounts of anyone who was anywhere near Everest when the climbers died, it failed to note a mountaineering milestone that was achieved at about the same time. On 23 May, Ang Rita Sherpa made it to the summit of Mount Everest for the tenth time, going about it as routinely as he had his previous climbs.
Not that Ang Rita cares much for publicity. When news of his achievement slowly filtered out, the handful of journalists who landed in Kathmandu hoping for interviews found him most elusive —true to his appellation of "Snow Leopard". Shuttling as he does between Kathmandu and his home village of Thame in the Sherpa-country of Khumbu, it takes considerable patience to track down Ang Rita. And even if he is finally located, having him sit down for a chat is another ordeal.
An Austrian radio journalist who was in Thame trying to meet Ang Rita for Himal South Asia faxed in an exasperated note: "He always agreed but never came to our appointments. Nobody has seen him for several days." It turned out that the ageing climber was up in the high pastures grazing yaks.