The Cho Rolpa glacier lake in Rolwaling

Anyone who has ever climbed with Sherpas knows: There are many powerful, really good climbers among them, who can make western climbers look quite old. It is no wonder that there have been Sherpas as team members in many first ascents of the world’s highest mountains in the Himalayas and the Karakoram – like Tenzing Norgay on Mount Everest in 1953, Pasang Dawa Lama on Cho Oyu in 1954 or Gyalzen Norbu on Manaslu in 1956. But always along with foreign mountaineers. That has now changed.

In Alpine style

Dawa Gyalje Sherpa (l.) and Tashi Sherpa

In Rolwaling Himal, Nima Sherpa Tenji, Tashi Sherpa and Dawa Sherpa Gyalje reached three previously unclimbed summits of six-thousanders within three days, all of them in Alpine style. On Sunday, the Sherpa team succeeded in first climbing Mount Raungsiyar (6,224 meters), on Monday Mount Langdak (6,220 meters) and today the trio completed the trilogy by first climbing Mount Thakar-Go East (6152 meters). A remarkable performance – but hardly surprising when you look at the climbing achievements of the three Sherpas.

Beautiful view

Nima Tenji Sherpa

The Sherpa trio collected in total 23 ascents of Mount Everest and eleven ascents of other eight-thousanders before. Tashi summited Everest nine times, Dawa Gyalje did it eight, Nima Tenji seven times. The three Sherpas are living in Rolwaling area, so they made their first ascents more or less “on the doorstep”. Raungsiyar, Langdak and Thakar-Go East were on a list of 104 mountains that had been given free for climbing by the Nepalese government in spring 2014.  The three mountains that have now been first climbed by the pure Sherpa team should be interesting for commercial operators too. Expedition leader Nima Tenji described Langdak as the “best view point” he ever climbed. From the summit, he saw six eight-thousanders: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Shishapangma and Kangchenjunga.