R.I.P.

Tragic incident on the eight-thousander Dhaulagiri in western Nepal: Yesterday an avalanche hit a seven-man Sherpa team of the operator “Seven Summit Treks”, who were fixing ropes between Camp 2 (6,400 m) and Camp 3 (7,400 m). “Six (Sherpas) survived the avalanche unharmed, but the only 24-year-old Dawa Gyaljen, born near (the eight-thousander) Makalu, is missed,” Spaniard Luis Miguel Lopez Soriano wrote on Facebook. Luis accompanies his 79-year-old friend Carlos Soria, who this fall is trying for the tenth and, in his own words, probably last time to scale Dhaulagiri. The 8,167-meter-high mountain and Shishapangma (8,027 m) are the last two eight-thousanders still missing from Carlos’s collection.

Billi Bierling and Herbert Hellmuth on Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri

Billi Bierling also confirmed Dawa Gyaljen’s death in the avalanche. She had reached Camp 2, but returned to base camp because of the incident, Billi wrote today on Twitter. The 51-year-old German mountaineer and journalist, who heads the mountaineering chronicle “Himalayan Database” in Kathmandu as successor to the late legendary Elizabeth Hawley, belongs to a group of the Swiss expedition operator “Kobler & Partner”. She has already scaled five eight-thousanders: Everest in 2009, Lhotse and Manaslu in 2011, Makalu in 2014 and Cho Oyu in 2016. On Manaslu and Cho Oyu, Billi climbed without bottled oxygen.

German Herbert Hellmuth, who has a permit for a ski descent from the summit with his Russian team mate Sergey Baranov, is also en route on Dhaulagiri. Last May, the 49-year-old reached the top of Kangchenjunga, his third eight-thousander after Manaslu (2011) and Mount Everest (2013). On K2 he had to turn around at 7,000 meters in 2015.

Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa

He is one of the Sherpas who stay well clear of Mount Everest this year. “I simply haven’t got the time,” says Dawa Sherpa Gyaljen, when I meet him in a cafe in Kathmandu during my visit Nepal. The 29-year-old is working for a trekking operator. “Maybe I’ll get the chance in 2017 again. I have been asked if I would lead an Everest team next year. Let’s see whether I can take as much vacation.” The Sherpa, who was born in the Khumbu region in a small village west of Namche Bazaar, has reached the highest point on earth already four times: in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The upcoming spring season could set the course for the future, Dawa believes.

Used to aftershocks

“If also this year accidents happen like in 2014 or last year, maybe people get scared,” Dawa expects. “But if the expeditions are successful, the number of climbers for sure will go up in 2017 and 2018.” Dawa says, that he is happy, that many foreigners are willing to travel to Nepal again to boost the economy of the country that was hit so hard by the earthquake. In his own words, Dawa is now hardly thinking about the earthquake on 25 April 2015, not least because of the more than 400 aftershocks measuring 4.0 or more: “Sometimes I don`t even feel earthquakes of 4.5 or 5 because I got used to. It’s a bit normal for me now. We survived a very dangerous situation, now I feel safe. But there are still rumors that a bigger quake will come again.”

Impossible to forget

Rescue helicopter above Khumbu Icefall (in 2014)

Sherpas are determined to make this year’s Everest season a successful one. “Finally, it is also about protecting their jobs in the future,” says Dawa Gyaljen. “It’ not actually pressure, but a kind of challenge. I think they will push hard to get to the summit this year.” In spring 2014, the young Sherpa was among the first who reached the accident site in the Khumbu Icefall after the avalanche and who started the recovery of the injured and dead. 16 Nepali climbers were killed, three of them remained missing. I ask Dawa if he could climb through the icefall easily after that experience. “I think you cannot escape this. When we pass this place, we even feel like that there is some blood or somebody is still in the crevasse.”

Better trained

Dawa on Lobuche Peak

Dawa Gyaljen finds that Everest aspirants of today on average are better climbers than those in past years. “There are only a few who still don’t know how to put on their crampons,” says the 29-year-old, adding that also the Sherpas are now much better trained because they went through the practical trainings offered by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) twice a year. The Sherpas are always responsible for their clients, says Dawa: “If some bad thing happens, the Sherpas are blamed for it because they didn’t take care of their clients. There are rumors about unskilled Sherpas who abandoned their clients half way on the mountain.” However, the trained and skilled Sherpa guides never left their clients alone, says Dawa: “But if the clients insist on climbing further up against the advice of their Sherpas, then they have to bear the responsibility for their own.”

Landslide north of the village of Phakding

A cautious all-clear for the Everest Base Camp trail. “None of the major suspension bridges appear to be affected by new geotechnical hazards as a result of the earthquake”, says the report of a group of mountain guides and engineers of the US based agency Miyamoto International which is specialized on earthquake damage. “Much of the trail and most of the rock retaining walls (both above and below) the trail are undamaged. We have observed very little foundation damage to buildings.” At the end of June the team had assessed the condition of the trail from the village of Lukla to Everest Base Camp after the devastating earthquake of 25 April and the aftermaths. 83 percent of the observed lodges and houses were given a green tag, meaning that they were undamaged or hardly affected. And the others? “It was found that most of the buildings that were damaged can feasibly be repaired. Building owners have started reconstructing damaged buildings”, says the report.

Relocation due to hazards

Hazard of Rockfall in the village of Shomore

Heavy damage was particularly found in the lower parts of the Khumbu valley, where the small villages of Toktok and Bengkar are faced with a great hazard of debris flows and rockfall. The experts recommend relocating parts of the villages and the trekking route to the opposite side of the river Dudh Kosi. The team advises as well not to stay overnight further up the valley in the village of Shomore that was hit by rockfall. In some places of the trail signage is necessary to inform trekkers about hazards like rockfall or landslide, says the report. For the entire trail to Everest Base Camp the experts recommend a more detailed study after the monsoon period.

Local people hope for tourists coming back

Gorak Shep near Everest Base Camp

“The local teahouse owners are rapidly reconstructing the lodges and most of the works have been completed”, Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa writes to me. The Nepalese mountain guide was a member of the assessment team. “The local people are hoping that tourism will be back in Khumbu.” The Nepalese government said it would move quickly to make the trails safe. “It is our top priority to repair the trails. We’ll relocate them wherever they cannot be repaired”, said Tulsi Prasad Gautam, an official of the Tourism Ministry. Before the earthquake, usually about 40,000 Western trekkers per year had been visiting the region around Mount Everest. The fall trekking season will start in September.

More aid is needed

Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa points out to me that most of the people in the Khumbu region who were hardly affected by the earthquake live off the main trekking route and are not engaged in mountain tourism. “They still need the aid of relief organizations”, says Dawa. It’s not over. Don’t forget Nepal!

P.S.: I want to remind you of our donation campaign “School up!”. We want to rebuild the “Gerlinde and Ralf School” in Thulosirubari in Sindhupalchowk District that was particularly hardly hit by the earthquake. The school was heavily damaged and has to be demolished before it can be rebuilded. You find the bank details for your donations on the right side of my blog. Thank you for your support!

Dawa Gyaljen sherpa

He was one of the first at the scene. After the fatal avalanche at the Khumbu Icefall on 18 April 2014, Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa rushed down from Camp 2 to help the buried climbers. “On the spot, we encounter dead bodies and blood everywhere. There were a row of dead bodies in one main rope swept into the crevasse”, the 28-year-old Sherpa wrote to me in 2014. “When we pulled the rope, we found the body one after another in the same crevasse. Some of the dead bodies were buried into the snow and we could see only the boots, it seemed those bodies were upside down.” 16 Nepalese were killed in the avalanche, two weeks later the Base Camp was empty, the season finished. Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa has summited Everest four times, he did it for the first time when he was 19 years old. Later Dawa studied in UK. Now he’s living in Kathmandu.  I asked him what he thinks about the upcoming Everest spring season. He replied openly. A Sherpa point of view, an interesting insight.  

Dawa, will you be back on Everest this spring season?

Yes, I would love to go but my client has not yet confirmed.

What are your feelings before the start of the new season?

I am feeling that everything will be normal this year as it was in previous couple of years.

Base Camp on the south side of Everest

Are there any doubts within the Sherpa community due to last year’s events on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest?

So far, there are no gossips around. Most of the Sherpas are booked for the upcoming season. And the good and strong Sherpas are in high demand. Moreover, the families of the avalanche victims are getting help and donations.

There will be a new route section through the Khumbu Icefall which is located more to the centre. What do you think about it?

I think, the route through the centre would be safer than on the side to prevent icefalls from Lho La (Note: Col on the border to Tibet, the lowest point of the West Ridge) and Nuptse face. But it depends on the structure of the Icefall. In my opinion, we cannot guarantee until we get there. Last year, the avalanche occurred at the “Soccer Field / Popcorn” (Note: sections in the Khumbu Icefall) which was said to be a safer place in the icefall where the climbers take a tea break. In my view: If the mountain guides fix the route, they cannot avoid the “Soccer Field”.    

Do you mean that enough was done to avoid conflicts between some Sherpa’s and western climbers as broke out last year and led to the premature end of the season?

I feel sad concerning the incidents in 2013 and 2014, due to which our Sherpa community got a bad image in the eyes of the western climbers. Last year it was unpredictable. This year, to build up that image again there must be a peaceful environment which is up to the western mountain guides and Nepalese mountain guides. If they co-operate with each other and work as a team, there will be a good environment.  

Dawa on Lobuche Peak

What’s about the Sherpas, who were the ring leaders last year? Do you expect that they once again will agitate in base camp?

It’s about the future and I cannot predict what will happen. Last year, it was an all messed up situation, and to control the situation somebody had to take the lead. I do not blame last year’s leaders because they did it in order to control the situation. I think if they weren’t there, the situation could have been very worst.

I don’t expect that there will be any argument about the last year’s topic. I feel sad about the innocent climbers who pay a huge sum of money to achieve their goal. But, there’s a big competition in business of mountaineering: between western companies and local companies; and western mountain guides versus local mountain guides. It’s simply a cold war inside. I’m writing this after reading the blogs in the social media.

Do you think that all the involved parties on Everest are willing to change their attitude?

So far, I have seen that lots of Sherpas have understood the importance of Everest and the tourism for living. In this year, I think they will talk more about responsible tourism. As I mentioned earlier about the cold war, until and unless it comes to negotiation, it’s likely to create a conflict.