Dawa Steven Sherpa

Due to this important role sherpas have an excellent reputation all over the world, many have achieved modest prosperity. Sherpas are also working as successful entrepreneurs, doctors or pilots. They know that these achievements are due to Everest. „As a Nepali, Mount Everest is my identity to the world. As a Sherpa, Mount Everest is the reason we have education, health care and prosperity”, Dawa Steven Sherpa wrote to me. „As a mountaineer, Mount Everest is the playground where I learned to explore myself, my limitations and my abilities as a person.” 

Twice on the summit of Everest 

Dawa Steven (r.) cleaning garbage on Everest

The 29-year-old Nepali belongs to a generation of Sherpas that has benefited from Everest from an early age. Together with this father Ang Tshering Sherpa Dawa Steven is managing „Asian Trekking“, a leading agency for expeditions and trekking in Nepal. His mother comes from Belgium, he studied in Edinburgh in Scotland. In 2006 Dawa Steven summited Cho Oyu, in 2007 for the first time Mount Everest. The following year the young Sherpa scaled Lhotse and five days later Everest again. For the last five years he has been leading „Eco Everest Expeditions“, which combine business and ecology: The clients are led to the summit on 8850 meters. In addition all members collect garbage from the slopes and bring it down to the valley. 

Basecamp bakery 

Dawa Steven is creative in raising money for ecology. In 2007 he founded the „world’s highest bakery” at 5350 meters in the basecamp on the Nepalese south side of Everest. Chocolate cake, apple pie, doughnuts and croissants went fast. The climbers were willing to pay higher prices because it was to a good cause. The money was used for projects to prepare local villages in Nepal for the effects of climate change. To raise awareness to the dangers of global warming Dawa Steven in 2012 walked together with Everest record climber Apa Sherpa on the „Great Himalaya Trail” 1555 km from the east to the west of Nepal. Later he was awarded with a first ever WWF award for outstanding achievements of people under the age of 30 for nature conservation around the world.   

Love for mountains and ecology 

On Island Peak (Ama Dablam r.)

On the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest Dawa Steven wishes a „next generation of adventurers, who will love the mountains and protect them from harm”. (You really should read his full statements on the two Everest-60-pinboards on the right side of the blog.) For Sherpas Dawa Steven hopes that the mountain will provide opportunities furthermore. „For the Nepali, I wish that Mount Everest will continue to make them proud to be a Nepali”, he writes. „For all the people in the world, I wish that Everest will continue to remind them that it is the highest mountain in the world.  Therefore, as citizens of this world Mount Everest belongs to all of us.”

Only an enormous mass of rock

Miss Hawley (and Ralf Dujmovits)

Prior to and after expeditions she or one of her assistants visits the climbers at their hotel and asks them about their plans and afterwards about what happened. Although she herself has never climbed a high mountain the Chicago born journalist knows about so many details of the 8000ers that she is able to expose any liar. That way Miss Hawley has also been playing an important role in Everest history. Nevertheless she only sees Mount Everest „as an enormous mass of rock shaped roughly like a pyramid with numerous features that are treacherous for mountaineers. (e.g., cornices, crevasses) and possible sudden change in the weather, all at extremely high altitudes”. (You can read Miss Hawley’s complete statements on both Everest-60-pinboards on the right side of the blog.)

Ultimate challenge Horseshoe route

Miss Hawley doesn’t wish anything for the mountain itself, because „it is sufficiently formidable that no humans can harm it”. But the chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering calls for more sporting spirit. She would „wish much better vetting of the people who attempt to climb it, thus eliminating the many incompetent men and women”. Miss Hawley condemns „circus antics such as standing at the summit for six minutes with no clothing above the waist or playing a stringed instrument at the top or hitting a golf ball off the summit”. Instead, climbers should have a try at unsolved problems on Everest, e.g. climbing new routes on the vast east face or “by the ultimate challenge of a continuous traverse via the Horseshoe Route along only ridges”: up the west ridge of Nuptse then over Lhotse and South col to the summit of Everest and finally down the west ridge back to the starting point, „all at very high altitudes without the crutch of any bottled oxygen”. Miss Hawley “would also like to see many women pioneers”. Women had been catching up with men, but “it’s time for them to do something new and different that men have not yet done”.

Namasté, Chomo! Stefan speaking.

Oh no, you again.

Take it easy!I haven’t woken you up from your hibernation, have I?

Look at your calendar! Pre-season. I’m still on vacation.

Do you look forward at least a little bit to the climbers who will visit you in this jubilee season during which the 60th anniversary of the first ascent will be celebrated?

Do you really want me to answer honestly?

Yes, please.

If it was up to me, at least 90 percent of them could go to hell. Nevertheless they will come. Without my invitation.

In this case ten percent remain for you to welcome.

You don’t listen. I said at least 90 percent. But between you and me: Indeed I look forward to a few of the climbers.

For example?

Simone Moro from Italy and Ueli Steck from Switzerland, the Kazakh-Russian Team Denis Urubko/Alexej Bolotov and the Russians Gleb Sokolov und Alexander Kirikov. They will scratch me, where I feel itchy.

Please, explain it to me!

Have you ever heard of RSI?

Should I?

RSI stands for Repetitive Strain Injury. Someone who is always doing the same move, e.g. mousing, will sometime feel pain in his shoulders, neck, arm or hand.

And what has all this got do with you?

(He groans) For lunkheads like you: Year after year hundreds of people are crowding around on the two normal routes, that’s completely overusing. It really hurts. And where nobody is climbing, that is on my beautiful steep walls, I feel itchy. A withdrawal symptom. The opposite of RSI.

I understand: Climbers on new routes offer relief.

No shit, Sherlock! If Urubko and Bolotov climb on southwest face, Sokolov and Kirikov on east face and Moro and Steck whereever but on a new route, they are like a yaktail I can use for chasing the flies away.

That comparison falls short, because these top climbers may scratch your unattended areas, but won’t make you get rid of RSI.

For this I have my own yaktail.

But you don’t even want to …

Come on, don’t give me ethics!

But can you turn a blind eye this jubilee season at least?

My eye has been closed for years.

Why?

Because the blowflies are sitting on it.

Does it mean that you threaten them?

I am only a mountain, do you remember?

Three pillars 

Bernd Kullmann

Ten years later Kullmann returned to the 8000-meter-peaks for a double expedition in Tibet. In spring 1988 he climbed Shishapangma in Tibet. A little later on Cho Oyu he had to turn back below the summit due to a storm. „Afterwards the issue 8000-meter-peaks was settled for me,” Kullmann said. He was not only focused on mountains. „My life is based on three pillars: family, job and climbing. None of these may suffer, because in this case my whole life would suffer.” Kullmann can combine job and sports. He is managing director of the outdoor company Deuter in the city of Augsburg. „I myself can test all the products we are selling.” On average he is still spending about 80 days per year on climbing or hiking in the mountains.

Ten guardian angels 

Kullmann said, that he had become more careful. Not without reason. At the beginning of the 1980s he fell seriously when he did a solo climb, „in a period, when we thought nothing could happen to us. We were slightly arrogant.” He spent one and a half year in hospital and in a wheelchair. Afterwards he started climbing again. „Often there was plenty of luck involved”, Kullmann said. „ And sometimes I needed not only one, but ten guardian angels.” 

Commerce kills good style 

The „jeans-climber” is still watching what’s happening on Everest. „Today I wouldn’t like to climb there.” Kullmann said, adventure had got lost. “In 1978 I stood on the summit alone and in a storm, with fear of climbing down. It was an incredible situation. Tears were rolling down my cheeks.” A picture of him on the summit of Everest doesn’t exist.

Kullmann said, that day Everest was tied up with ropes. Everywhere guides and sherpas were leading up their clients. „Today they must queue to reach the summit.” Due to improvements of gear, sports medicine and training methods in his opinion all climbers should try to climb without supplementary oxygen. „Exactly the opposite happens. Commerce has killed the good style. But where a demand exists, a market develops. Unfortunately this happened on Everest too.” 

P.S. Bernd Kullmann has also given his statements concerning the 60-years-jubilee of the first ascent of Mount Everest. You can read and hear his words on the Everest-60-pinboards on the right side of the blog.

Edurne Pasaban

Edurne, you completed the fourteen 8000ers in 2010. Have you been in the Himalayas since then?

I came back to Everest in 2011. Everest was my first 8000er in 2001, I used (supplementary) oxygen for the summit. So after I had finished all 8000ers I wanted to try Everest without oxygen. But we didn’t make the summit. 

Until now there have been debates whether Oh Eun-Sun really reached the summit of Kangchenjunga or not. Have these discussions been difficult for you or have they left you cold? 

I think this kind of dispute is neither good for me nor for Miss Oh nor for all alpinists. It’s no good image for climbers. It was a difficult situation that I could do nothing. The Korean Alpine Federation said that she didn’t climb Kangchenjunga, so the debate began and it was a very crazy moment for me. 

Edurne Pasaban: The dispute about Miss Oh

In this case not Miss Oh, but you would be the first woman who climbed all 8000-meter-peaks. Do you feel you are the first or the second? 

It was the big project, the big challenge of my life to finish all 8000-meter-peaks some day. It’s true that it’s nice to be the first one if you make something, but it’s not the most important, there are many more things. I spent a lot of time in this one. It was one part of my life, but now I’m in another period. 

Did you fall into a deep hole after you had reached your target? 

I thought: What can I do now? I had spent a big part of my life on expeditions. When you make one, you already make plans for another one. I saw a big hole in front of me. But when I took care of it, I said: First I need time for me. Now I have spent two years. I continued climbing in the Alps or elsewhere. I never thought that I could live one day without 8000ers, but now I can. Life continues. 

Edurne Pasaban: Life without 8000ers

Is it a kind of new freedom? 

Yes. But when you are at the end of something, you don’t see this freedom very clear. You need time to see that you can make something more – like going to the Pyrenees with my friends or to the Alps for ten days climbing or skiing. I didn´t have this time before, now I have it. 

Have the 8000ers lost the fascination for you? 

No. They are still important. I have spent nice years of my life there. If now a good friend asks me ‚Edurne, do you want to come with me to an 8000er?‘, I will go. Because I like the area in the basecamp and I like expeditions.

Next May the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest will be celebrated. How do you think now about the highest mountain on earth?

Everest is a special mountain, it’s the highest, the top of the world. And everybody, who starts climbing in the Himalayas or elsewhere, has the goal to climb Everest at least once in his life. When I made it in 2001 I thought before that I would cry on the summit or would be crazy. But it was not like that. I felt fear, took a picture and went back. I lost a little bit there. Everest is nice and the highest, but it’s not a fantastic place. Everest has changed a lot during the last years. It’s true that it’s a commercial mountain in spring, on the normal route from the south and the north side. But if you want to go to Everest without anybody you can do so: In winter or on another route. There are more than 15 routes where nobody is climbing. We speak a lot about the many people on Everest. But there is another Everest that you can find if you want to.

Would it be attractive for yourself to do it?

Only two percent of the people on Everest are without oxygen. When I started to climb 8000ers I checked it out and said: Only a few are without O2. So I also used oxygen in 2001. But after all 8000ers I know that you can go to Everest without oxygen, if you train a lot. Now I know my body, how I feel in high altitude. So I have this inside me that maybe one day I will like to come back to Everest without oxygen.

Edurne Pasaban: Everest without oxygen

What do you wish Mount Everest for the future?

The last news from Everest were not good news. It looks like Everest is a show, like a Disneyworld. But it’s not like that. So I think the best present we can give Everest is to have big respect for him. Maybe Mount Everest is a commercial thing, but it’s a mountain, the highest, and we must respect him.

P.S. You can hear the statements of Edurne concerning the 60th anniversary on the pinboards on the right side of the blog.

She watched the scene from Nuptse 

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner

The shock is still present about what she saw last year on the highest mountain on earth. Together with David Göttler Gerlinde had climbed the 7861 meter peak Nuptse, it was the sixth ascent of this mountain in the immediate vicinity of Mount Everest. From there she saw the long queue of Everest climbers in the Lhotse wall. Before, she had noticed how unsteady many of them used their crampons. „All this troubled me greatly”, Gerlinde said. „And it hurts. This mountain hasn’t deserved it.” Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner was the first woman who climbed all fourteen 8000ers without supplementary oxygen, 2010 she was successful on Everest via the Tibetan normal route. 

Her proposal fell on stony ground 

On occasion of the 60th anniversary of the first ascent Gerlinde wishes Mount Everest more quiet and climbers „who visit him by conviction, with real enthusiasm, and who try to climb the mountain on their own, not using all available means, whatever the cost”. At the debriefing with Nepalese authorities in Kathmandu after her expedition in spring 2012 Gerlinde proposed to give Everest permits only to mountaineers who have climbed at least another 8000-meter-peak before. Her appeal fell on deaf ears.

Not unchangeable 

Tibetan side of Mount Everest

Thinking about how climbing of Chomolungma has changed in the past two decades, it’s difficult for me to celebrate this 60th birthday light-hearted – although it would deserve it. The first climb of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay was a pioneering achievement of two outstanding adventurers. Both are dead and we cannot turn back time. But do we have to accept the current situation? The problems are caused by human beings and they can be solved by human beings. 

Everest 60 

I open two pinboards titled „Everest 60“. You find them now on the right side of the blog. I invite you to write on the first pinboard how you consider Mount Everest. On the second you can send „birthday-boy“ Chomolungma your wishes for the future. Send your notes by email to stefan.nestler(ad)dw.de! I pin them to the board. Please don’t write a novel. In this case I claim the right to shorten the text.

During my visit on the trade fair ISPO in Munich I started to ask famous mountaineers to contribute their views on Everest. You will find these statements soon in blog-posts and on both pinboards too. And I’ll keep on collecting.