Sherpas on Everest
by Audrey Salkeld and Liesl Clark
Sherpas have an unmatched spirit and positive outlook that has been written
about the world over. From the early days of mountaineering, their prowess at
high altitude has not gone unnoticed. It is generally believed that the first
person to recognize the value of employing Sherpas for expeditionary work was
the Aberdeen physiologist, Dr. A.M. Kellas. At the beginning of this century,
he taught chemistry at Middlesex Hospital in London, and spent several months
every year exploring the more remote passes and valleys of the Himalaya with
trusted bands of Sherpas assisting him. General Bruce, too, appreciated the
hardiness of Sherpas. For the pioneer Everest expeditions of 1922 and 1924 he
engaged his porter force from among the considerable expatriate Sherpa
community in Darjeeling.
These men performed so well, climbing and carrying to the highest camps, that
it very soon became the custom for all Himalayan climbing expeditions to hire
Sherpa help in Darjeeling. A system of registration came into force that
contributed to the recognition of Sherpa "Tigers" and the creation of an elite
force. Word filtered back to the Sherpa Homeland in Nepal, which was out of bounds to Westerners, and every year more Sherpas would make their way to
Darjeeling to take on this kind of work. Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, hearing of the
continuing British climbing expeditions to Mount Everest, came to India in 1933,
hoping to be taken on for that year's expedition. He was not among those
selected, but in 1935, at the age of 19, he was picked by Eric Shipton to take
part in the exciting reconnaissance he was leading to the Everest area.
Tenzing stayed on in Darjeeling and took part in no fewer than seven Everest
expeditions, culminating in his successful first ascent of the mountain with
Edmund Hillary in 1953. By that time, Nepal was opening up to outsiders, and
Sherpas were hired locally and brought down to Kathmandu.
The first ascent of Everest, far from marking an end to interest in the
accessibility of the highest point on Earth, opened the floodgates to hordes of
other climbers, trekkers, and tourists into the Solu Khumbu region, noticeably
changing the local economy and lifestyle of the Sherpa people. With the
arrival of modern climbing and the desire to conquer the world's highest peaks,
theirs became the gateway culture to Everest and other peaks for visitors in
search of mountaineering glory.
Are the Sherpas and other highland peoples physiologically different from the
rest of us?
Dr. Cynthia Beall of Case Western Reserve University and Physical
Anthropology Advisor to the MacGillivray Freeman Films Everest IMAX/IWERKS
film, postulates that there may be a genetic factor involved in Sherpa strength
at altitude: "The Everest climbers must not only exert great physical effort
to climb the mountain, but do so while under tremendous hypoxic stress. This
stress is not something that can be mitigated in the way, for instance, that we
would put on extra clothes when we are cold. We must adapt physiologically.
How the Sherpas do this more effectively than others has been a puzzle to
anthropologists and physiologists, and we don't really have the answer. There
is evidence of a gene that allows their blood to carry more oxygen, but there
are other factors that affect this, as well."
Sherpas have played quiet but critical roles in Everest achievements. From the
beginning of their involvement with high altitude mountaineering, Sherpas have
paid a disproportionately high price in life and limb. In 1922 seven Sherpa
porters were buried under an avalanche on Everest's North Col. In the first
seventy years of Everest activity, 43 Sherpas were killed, more than a third of
the total deaths in that period. Even this year, on the south side of Everest,
two of the three evacuations from the mountain thus far—due to serious injury—were Sherpas. Because of their contribution to route fixing and ferrying supplies, they find themselves exposed to the extreme risks of high mountain climbing more frequently than their employers.
On our way up to Base Camp, we passed by a sacred site in the Khumbu valley, a
testament to the Sherpas that have lost their lives on the surrounding peaks.
Dozens of memorial chortens, each commemorating a death on the nearby
mountains, line a ridge that looks out on a 360° view of snow-covered
peaks. Although history has recorded their deeds as mere footnotes to
greatness, it is the Sherpa contribution and effort that has been the backbone
of most expeditions on Everest.
Audrey Salkeld of Clevedon, England is one of the world's premier
Everest historians and photo researchers. Her photo editing credits include
Everest: The Ultimate Book of the Ultimate Mountain and Everest: The
Best Writing and Pictures from Seventy Years of Human Endeavour.
Liesl Clark, NOVA Online's producer and writer, joined the expedition up to Base Camp.