The first two buildings are finished

When I saw the pictures, I found myself almost in tears – for joy! The year 2018 could hardly begin any better. This week I received the news from Thulosirubari that the students have moved from provisional corrugated-iron classrooms, that had been built after the devastating earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, to the first two finished buildings of the new school. A big day for our aid project “School up!” which I had launched along with the climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits more than two and a half years ago!

Yellow colour required

First lessons in the new classrooms

Our goal was to rebuild as quickly as possible the school in the village of Thulosirubari, located about 70 kilometers east of the capital Kathmandu, which had been destroyed in the quake. Several hundred children and adolescents from the mountain region were and are being taught there. In September 2016, the foundation stone was laid for the new school. At the end of December, the pale yellow paint, prescribed by the government of Nepal, was applied, and the construction company handed over the first two parts of the building.

Together we will make the difference

Thulosirubari

“The students and the school family are so happy to get new classrooms in safe buildings,” Shyam Pandit, liaison man of the “Nepalhilfe Beilngries”, writes to me. The German aid organization has coordinated the construction of the school, which has become possible through your donations for “School up!”. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your generosity. As you can see, your money has worked successfully. “Together we can and we will make a difference,” Sunil Krishna Shrestha, the coordinator of the “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” in Nepal for 25 years, writes to me.

Let’s go on!

A third building is to follow

The joy accompanying the success on this first, very, very important stage should give us new impetus. Finally, a third building is to be built on the site, as well as toilets for girls and boys are needed. So we have not yet arrived at the destination but continue to rely on your donations. We are happy about every euro. Once again the bank account of “School up!”:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V..
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

If you indicate this intended purpose, the money will flow directly into the construction work of the school in Thulosirubari. I will continue to keep you informed about the progress of the project in my blog.

Update 6 January: The students of Thulosirubari have sent this message to the “Nepalhilfe Beilngries”: “We still remember that day. It was Saturday, 25 April 2015, when we lost our houses – and our dreams too between the colapsed buildings. We heard that God comes in many shapes. Some came to our place to reshape our damaged confidence. With our open heart, we thank you for your big heart, for reviving our hopes again. And our dreams have now got a new start.”

Hillary Step in 2017

The big boulder is gone. This is for sure. Tim Mosedale, a six-time Everest summiter from the UK, has added some pictures to Facebook to support his statement that the Hillary Step, the striking twelve-meter-high rock at 8,790 meters, no longer exists in its previous form. Tim’s pictures show: Where once a mighty boulder represented the last serious challenge before the summit, now only a few chunks are lying around. The British expedition leader had already claimed this in mid-May after his successful summit attempt: “It’s official. The Hillary Step is no more.”

Government speaks of misconception

Hillary Step in 2009

Mosedale had to accept some criticism, especially from Nepal, where he was accused of spreading “fake news”. The Nepali government made even an official statement. They had asked the “Icefall Doctors”, the highly specialized Sherpas on Everest, wrote the Ministry of Tourism in a press release: “The report furnished by the Icefall Doctors confirms that the Hillary Step is still intact and is covered with snow. The misconception may have appeared as a new route to the summit is constructed which is some five meters right to the original route.”

The last-mentioned was right, says Mosedale, “but it was to the right because the Hillary Step wasn’t there and we ascended a snow ridge instead.” The Briton receives backing from other climbers who were on the summit this spring, such as the US expedition leader Garrett Madison. “It’s pretty obvious that the boulder fell off and has been replaced by snow, Madison told the magazine “Outside”. “You can see some of the rocks below it that were there before, but the gigantic boulder is missing now.”

Result of the 2015 earthquake?

Hillary Step in 2017 (close-up)

This made the ascent easier during this spring’s season, with a lot of snow in the summit area. The consequences of the change in terrain during dry years with little snow, in which there is no broad snow ridge, remain to be seen.

Already in 2016, climbers had reported that the Hillary Step looked different compared with the time before the devastating earthquake in Nepal two years ago. It is quite possible that the big boulder has become loose and fallen down during the quake. Summit aspirants staying in the Western Cwm on 25 April 2015 had watched stonefall from Everest and Lhotse.

Last key section before the summit

Hillary Step in 2013

The Hillary Step is more than just a piece of mountain, it is a myth. Climbing experts classify the rock only somewhere between the first and second degree of difficulty according to the scale of the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA). But at this extreme altitude, where oxygen is pressed into the lungs with only one-third of the pressure compared to sea level, even this climbing, which might be laughed at in the Alps, becomes a real challenge. It was not without reason that over years traffic jams formed on Hillary Step, because many clients of commercial expeditions were just overstrained. On the first ascent in 1953, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary had taken heart and had climbed up through a thin crack between rock and ice. “It was then for the first time that I knew that we were going to get to the top, “ the Everest pioneer once said about the last key section that had been named after him. The New Zealander died in 2008 aged 88.

Wrath of the gods

South side of Mount Everest

Mountains are exposed to seismic activities as well as the climate and thus can change. Rockfall occurs all over the world. Thus Mount Cook, the highest mountain of New Zealand, lost considerably height in 1991, when rock and ice broke down from the summit. So why shouldn’t it happen on Mount Everest? The Sherpas call the highest of all mountains Chomolungma, “Goddess Mother of the World”. Natural events such as rock fall or avalanches are regarded in their faith as a sign that people have incurred the wrath of the gods. Perhaps that explains why many people in Nepal don’t want to accept that the Hillary Step does not look like it was before.

Plastering in the new rooms

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Nepal. About 9,000 people died, more than 22,000 were injured, hundreds of thousands of homes collapsed or were severely damaged and thus became uninhabitable. Many people in the most affected mountain regions are still living in shelters. In the village of Thulosirubari in Sindhupalchowk District, about 70 kilometers east of the capital Kathmandu, has been a hive of construction activity over recent months. The donations for our aid project “School up!” have made it possible to start building a new school for more than 500 students, the construction is operated by the Nepalhilfe Beilngries. The old school had been so badly damaged by the earthquake that it later had had to be demolished. In recent weeks there have been temporary supply bottlenecks for constructions material, as well as a lack of water to mix concrete. Since the school ground is located on a hill, the water has to be pumped up or – if the pumps fail – even be carried up.

Soon twelve new classrooms

The second floor plate is ready now

Meanwhile, the second floor plate has been completed. The interior work is on (see the video below). “We are quite excited,” says Devi Dulal, chairman of the School Management Committee in Thulosirubari. “We will soon have twelve new classrooms. We are eager to shift the students from the temporary class rooms to the new building.” Another eight classrooms are still needed to house really all students, and two toilet houses have to be built, says Devi. “We dream of becoming something like a model school for Sindhupalchowk.”

We have already come a long way with “School up!” but have not yet reached the goal. We need more donations. Here again the bank account of our aid project:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V.
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

Already now a thousand thanks for your support. It would be great if you could tell your friends about “School up!”.

Lhakpa Thundu Sherpa (1970-2016)

Once again the earth trembled on Monday in the Khumbu region around Mount Everest. The tremors with an intensity of 5.4, with the epicenter 19 kilometers west of Namche Bazaar, normally would not have caused panic, because small to medium scale aftershocks are almost everyday routine in Nepal after the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015: 475 tremors with an intensity of 4 or more have been registered since then. Major damage was not reported after Monday’s quake. But there was also sad news: Due to the tremors Lhakpa Thundu Sherpa lost his life while climbing the 6814-meter-high Ama Dablam.

Wrong time, wrong place

Ama Dablam

Thundu was on a summit push along with a British client, above Camp 3 at 6,300 meters, when the quake triggered a hail of ice chunks. The 46-year-old Sherpa was hit on the head and died of the injuries. The British survived and could be brought to safety in a rescue operation by helicopter. “Both of them were very unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time”, British expedition operator Tim Mosedale wrote on Facebook. Both climbers belonged to his expedition group: “Five minutes either way and it would have just been a close call.” The shapely Ama Dablam, one of the most beautiful mountains in the world, has been a popular destination for commercial expeditions for years.

Climber and watchmaker

Billi Bierling (l.) and Thundu Sherpa (r.) on top of Cho Oyu

Lhakpa Thundu Sherpa came from the village of Pangboche, located about 4,000 meter high, near Ama Dablam. He was a very experienced high altitude climber. Thundu summited Mount Everest nine times (8850 m) – in 2006, 2007 and 2010 even twice within a few days – , in addition Cho Oyu (8188 m) twice, Manaslu (8163 m) and Annapurna (8091 m) once. He was also highly familiar with Ama Dablam, which he had scaled seven times. But his life did not only take place in the mountains. At times, Thundu also worked as a watchmaker of a luxury brand in Kathmandu. “Thundu was a special person,” writes German mountaineer and journalist Billi Bierling, who had reached the summit of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu in Tibet on 1. October along with Thundu. “He was very empathetic and open, and he told me a lot about his family and his temporary work as watchmaker. Even then he wanted to get away from the dangerous work of Climbing Sherpa, but his passion for the mountains brought him back to his original work.”

Donation campaign for Thundu’s family

R.I.P.

She was shocked when the news of Thundu’s death reached her. “Without him,” says Billi, “I probably would not have reached the summit of Cho Oyu. Even though sadness is the predominant feeling at the moment, I am glad that I got to know Thundu and shared the special moment of my ascent with him (even though he sometimes blamed me for my slowness on the descent – rightly!). Thank you Thundu, I will never forget those special moments.” Thundu leaves behind his wife and two sons at the age of eight and 14 years. If you want to support his family, you can submit donations online very simply and unbureaucratically via Tim Mosedale’s aid project JustGiving. Just add the note “For Thundu”!

The cornerstone was set

Yesterday, Sunday, was a very special day for the people of Thulosirubari. One who made a mark for the future, a sign of hope. In the small village in Sindhupalchowk District, about 70 kilometers east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, the cornerstone for a new school was set. The old “Gerlinde and Ralf School” of the German aid organization Nepalhilfe Beilngries (NHB) had been so badly damaged by the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015 that it later had to be demolished. In the summer of 2015, I had initiated, along with the professional climbers Ralf Dujmovits and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, the donation campaign “School up!”, with the goal to rebuild the school in Thulosirubari as soon as possible. Therefore yesterday was for us three a special day too – and also for all of you who have donated for “School up!”: Without your support, no foundation would have been laid yesterday.

Twelve classrooms

Sapkota at “work”

Former Forestry Minister Agni Sapkota, a Maoist politician from Sindhupalchowk District, symbolically set the cornerstone. Several representatives of the District Government, other local politicians and the two NHB liaison men in Nepal, Sunil Krishna Shrestha and Shyam Pandit, attended the event.
The members of the new School Management Committee have meanwhile begun their activity. “They are happy with excitement and committed to do good supervision for quality building and good coordination with NHB,” Shyam writes to me. The new building will have twelve class rooms, six on the first and six on the second floor. Higher buildings are no longer allowed because of the continuing risk of earthquakes in the region. 575 students are to benefit from the new classrooms. According to current plans, the building will be completed in December 2017.

It was on a Saturday

The earthquake about one and a half years ago had killed almost 9,000 people in Nepal. Sindhupalchowk District was hit particularly hard. In the small mountain village of Thulosirubari alone 75 people died – including eight children, who had been students of the “Ralf and Gerlinde School”. There would have been more young victims if the earthquake had not taken place on a Saturday when the school was closed. Only 30 to 40 of about 1800 houses in and around Thulosirubari remained intact.

Not forgotten

Thulosirubari

During my visit to the region last March, I saw many people who were still living in provisional corrugated-iron huts. In many places of Sindhupalchowk the debris of collapsed houses had not even been removed. Many people I talked to felt abandoned. The residents of Thulosirubari will soon be able to see with their own eyes that they have not been forgotten. And as they already did during the construction of the old school, they will once again join the work – for instance by carrying material to the construction site.
A first stage finish of “School up!” has been reached with the start of construction, but we are not yet at the end of the trip. I’ll continue reporting about the progress of the construction work in my blog.  The overall cost of the school is not yet completely financed. We need more donations. Here again the bank account:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

A thousand thanks to all “School up!”-Friends! You are great!

Schoolchildren in Thulosirubari

… go! Not only Olympic athletes are currently waiting for this call. People in Thulosirubari are in the starting blocks too. Hopefully we are only few days away from the start of the construction of the new school at this small village in Sindhupalchowk District in Nepal. According to the German aid organization “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” finally all bureaucratic barriers have been broken down so that the school for 700 children and adolescents in Thulosirubari can be rebuilt. That has been and will be the goal of the aid project “School up!” that I had launched along with the professional climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner from Austria and Ralf Dujmovits from Germany a year ago. The “Gerlinde and Ralf School”, which had been inaugurated only in 2009, was so badly damaged by the devastating earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015 that it had to be demolished.

Long and winding road

Stones for the new school

“We are going to do our next meeting with the contractor this week, after that we’ll start the work,” Arjun Gatraj, the chairman of the school committee in the village, which lies some 70 kilometers east of Kathmandu, writes to me. Sunil Shrestha and Shyam Pandit, the liaison men of “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” in Nepal, have completed a truly “Olympic program” in recent months to obtain all permits and stamps for the construction project. Those who (often with good reason) complain about cumbersome and excessive bureaucracy in western countries could experience in Nepal that an increase is possible: The road through the involved authorities is even much longer and more winding. Many employees in Nepalese offices feel and act just as if they were little kings, because they know that things cannot go on without their permission.

Only two-storied buildings

The new school building is to be built here

Thanks to Sunil and Shyam this probably most difficult phase of the project is now behind us. In the first of three construction stages the first building section with classrooms is to be built. The Nepalese government has ruled that due to the risk of earthquakes only two-storied school buildings should be built in the future – in the form of the letters H or U. Of course, I will continue to keep you up to date about what will happen in Thulosirubari. Arjun will provide me with first-hand information and pictures of the construction progress.

Thanks to your donations the construction is about to start at all. So far we have collected more than one third of the required sum. We need more donations for “School up!” to finance also the second and third construction phase. Here again the bank account in Germany:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V.
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

Please tell others as well! Thank you so much!

P.S.: If you want to read my previous articles on this subject – including those about my visit in the earthquake region last March – simply click on the top bar at “School up!”, there you will find all posts concerning our aid project.

Jost Kobusch in Annapurna Base Camp

It sounds like an April fool’s joke with a month’s delay. Before the German Jost Kobusch – as reported – reached the 8,091 meter-high summit of Annapurna on 1 May, he, according to his own words, played a game of chess against the Israeli climber Nadav Ben-Yehuda just below the highest point. “We had previously played at least two games every day at Base Camp during the periods of bad weather,” says Jost. So the idea of a chess duel at the top was born. Nadav, who used bottled oxygen, reached the highest point just before Jost, who climbed without breathing mask. “When we met just below the summit, I said to him: Wait! We still have to play a game of chess,” the 23-year-old German tells me. “We played on my smartphone, 20 meters below the summit.”

Some pretty stupid moves

The game turned into a kind of blitz chess. “We did it fast, fast. After seven minutes one of us won.” Kobusch does not reveal who. “This is a matter of honor.” To play chess in extremely thin air at 8,000 meters, says Jost, was “as if you try drunken to solve a math problem: in slow-motion, sometimes with pretty stupid moves.” Kobusch wants the game to be registered in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the highest ever played chess game. An American climber made a video of the chess game and can also testify it.

Seen climbers where none were

On ascent to Camp 4

For the 23-year-old, the summit success on Annapurna was his first on an eight-thousander. “Up to the top, I found it relatively easy but on the descent I got problems,” says Jost. On the eve of the summit day, due to the icy cold it took him plenty of time to melt snow. “Two hours for one and a half liters of water. And I shared it. So I had only 750 milliliters for the whole summit day.” Totally dehydrated and exhausted, he briefly hallucinated: “I saw climbers descending where none were.” Kobusch recovered and safely reached the Base Camp.

Maybe next year to Lhotse

At home in Germany, he is already making new eight-thousander plans. “Today I thought to myself that I still have a permit for Lhotse, maybe I could go there again next year.” Last year, he had wanted to climb the fourth highest mountain in the world. However, on 25 April the Base Camp at the foot of Everest and Lhotse had been hit by a huge avalanche that had been triggered from the seven-thousander Pumori by the devastating earthquake in Nepal. 19 people were killed. The video (see below) of the avalanche, which Jost had made, spread like wildfire around the world. As a long-term goal, Kobusch wants to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, if possible without breathing mask. “I hope that I can climb also the high eight-thousanders without oxygen.”

His chess partner on Annapurna, Nadav Ben-Yehuda, had made headlines in 2012. The Israeli turned around just 300 meters before the summit to rescue Turkish climber Aydin Imrak who had collapsed. Ben-Yehuda helped Imrak down to Camp 4 at the South Col and suffered frostbite himself.

Ueli Steck (l.) and David Goettler

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. When the Swiss top climber Ueli Steck solo climbed the South Face of 8027-meter- high Shishapangma in only ten and a half hours five years ago, he discovered a possible new direct line. This spring, the 39-year-old – along with the 37-year-old German professional climber David Goettler – returned to the 2000-meter-high wall to have a try at the new route. If everything works perfectly, they plan to descend from the summit via the north side, thus traversing the eight-thousander.

Before heading off to Tibet, Ueli and David acclimatized in the Everest region in Nepal – including trail-running over extremely long distances. I sent them five questions to their Base Camp at the foot of Shishapangma South Face.

Ueli and David, the pictures which you published on Facebook in recent weeks, remind me of Speedy Gonzales or Road Runner, two cartoon characters of my childhood: continuously in high speed mode, because hunted. At the same time each of you let us know that the other is really, really fit. Honestly, who of you is actually rushing whom? Or from what are you trying to escape?

Fast en route

Question back, who of us is Speedy Gonzales and who is Road Runner? We are not at all on the run. We just have a lot of fun together! It’s fun to be together on the road. We both know that we are similar fit. No one must prove or hide anything from the other. We have a great positive energy in the team. It just works. And it creates an ingenious dynamics!

Most high-altitude climbers do acclimatizing  according to the motto: Conserve your strength so that you have enough power left for the actual goal. Instead, you have run in the Khumbu region a distance of 57 kilometers over several passes in 12 three-quarter hours. What is the logic behind this high-speed acclimatization?

Most climbers do high altitude mountaineering as in the days of Messner. I personally (Ueli) do not see much progress. Of course you have to be careful, because e.g. at 5,000 meters, the regeneration takes longer, and actually each climber behaves very individually in high altitude. Kilian Jornet (a professional Spanish ski mountaineer and mountain trail runner), for example, believes that you can run 50 kilometers every day! I am still far away from that, but it shows what could be possible. In the end you just have to know your body. And everyone has to make decisions for himself and to assess how high his personal performance is, and how fast he is able to ascend or move in high altitude. We both have considerable experience in high altitude and can check out what can be optimized without actually losing all our power.

You have pitched up your Base Camp below Shishapangma South Face. How are the conditions in the wall where you want to climb a new route?

We have already been at the bottom of South Face. Quite simply, it looks awesome. Now we hope it remains like this until the suitable weather window opens.

What will be the main focus of your planned first ascent, possibly including the traverse of the mountain: the aesthetic of the line, difficulty, fun…?

Ueli’s route through Shishapangma South Face that he climbed in 2011

The route speaks for itself. A direct logical line on an eight-thousander, that’s truly fascinating. In the first place we want to climb via this route to the summit and go home healthy. We’ll see how fast we are, this depends on the technical difficulties. We will belay normally, with rope and pitons. It doesn’t matter whether we need two days or one or three. But we are not very motivated to spend as many nights as possible on the mountain. The traverse would certainly be the icing on the cake.

Last Monday was the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Nepal. How have you experienced the people in the Himalayas during the past weeks?

People got used to the aftershocks and the situation. It’s impressive how the Nepali have got accustomed to the little tremors, which also happened again when we were traveling in Khumbu. But they have no other choice than to take it as it is. And it’s really great how everything is back to normal and works.

The avalanche from Pumori on 25 April 2015

At 11:56 a.m. all hell broke loose. Exactly a year ago today, a magnitude 7,8 earthquake struck Nepal. About 9,000 people were killed, 23,000 were injured. However, these were only the victims registered by the government, it was probably more. Also on Mount Everest many people died on 25 April 2015. The quake triggered a huge avalanche on the nearby seven-thousander Pumori. It hit Everest Base Camp, 19 people lost their lives. On this anniversary of the disaster, climbers and the staff of the infirmary “Everest ER” gathered at the foot of the highest mountain on earth for a minute of silence – at 11:56 a.m.

“This was an opportunity to remember those who died, those who were injured and the many people who worked so hard to rescue and treat the 100 patients”, Rachel Tullet writes in the blog of Jagged Globe. An American climber from the team of the British organizer had died and two other team members had been injured in the avalanche. “We also remember the huge number of people affected across Nepal by the devastating earthquake, many of whom are still struggling to rebuild their lives”, Rachel continues.

Rural exodus could increase

Self-help (in the village of Kadambas) instead of waiting for help

I saw this with my own eyes during my visit in Sindhupalchowk District a month ago. People there are still living in shelters made of bamboo and corrugated iron. In no way could it be called reconstruction. People grumble about the government, they feel left in the lurch. “It is time that the money arrives that was promised to the people and should serve to ensure that they really can be at home in their villages again,” Ralf Dujmovits tells me. “As many developing countries, Nepal has already a problem with large rural exodus. This will continue, the villages will be deserted. This will harm entire Nepal which is depending on agriculture. It benefits no one if people migrate to the cities.” It will take Nepal “certainly ten years to recover from the earthquake,” says Ralf.

Reconstruction proceeds slowly

School in the village of Mailchaur

The hitherto only German who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders had visited Sindhupalchowk two weeks after the quake and had been shocked about the extent of damage. His emotional state has hardly changed in the last twelve months. “I’m especially worried about the children, because the reconstruction of the schools is proceeding very slowly,” says Ralf. “In most cases, nothing worth mentioning has happened. It is to be hoped now that building material reaches the villages, so that the schools finally can be rebuilt.”

Please continue to donate for “School up!”

Schoolchildren in Thulosirubari

Along with Ralf Dujmovits and Austrian top climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, I had initiated the donation campaign “School up!” to rebuild as soon as possible the school at the village of Thulosirubari that had been destroyed by the earthquake. So far we have collected more than one third of the required sum – thanks to your donations (!). The first of three construction phases is due to begin shortly, we are still waiting for the okay of the government in Kathmandu, hoping that they finally get their act together.

We need more donations for “School up” to finance also the second and third construction phase. Here again the bank account in Germany:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V.
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

Please tell others as well! Thank you so much!

Helicopter starting from the airstrip Syangboche above Namche Bazaar

Time does not stand still, even in Khumbu. Two things have changed dramatically in the region around Mount Everest between my first visit in 2002 and my second last March. Firstly, the sanitary facilities – on average – have become much more modern and cleaner than 14 years ago. Secondly, the aircraft noise has increased significantly. On a clear day, helicopters are flying – as I felt, steadily – through the valley from Lukla to Namche Bazaar and also further up towards Everest Base Camp.

Cheaper than mules

“Meanwhile, a big part of material transport is done by helicopter,” Ang Dorjee Sherpa, owner of a lodge in Namche, told me. “That’s almost cheaper than the transportation by mules.” Not only material is transported, even people use helicopter transfer. When we sat on the terrace of the Everest View Hotel, above Namche Bazaar, drinking an (expensive) milk tea, we met a couple from the United States that virtually smelled of money. The two had just landed next to the hotel by helicopter along with their private pilot. “We flew over Everest Base Camp and Khumbu Icefall and afterwards even turned a round through the Gokyo valley”, both said enthusiastically. But you have not got a real feeling for these beautiful mountains, I thought.

More than 80 loads less cross the Icefall

Rescue helicopter above Khumbu Icefall (in 2014)

As the US blogger and mountaineer Alan Arnette – he wants to climb Lhotse this spring – reported from Everest Base Camp, the Nepalese government has allowed for the first time to fly climbing equipment by helicopter up to Camp 1 at about 6,000 meters: ropes, anchors and bottled oxygen. All in all, says Alan, it is more than 80 loads that have not to be carried by Sherpas through the Khumbu Icefall. Although it is a contribution to safety, the helicopter transport flights to high camp also mean another step of commercialization of Mount Everest.

Many cracks and deep holes

Even after the huge avalanche which had been triggered on the seven-thousander Pumori by the earthquake on 25 April 2015, had hit the Everest Base Camp and killed 19 people, the Nepalese government had agreed to material transport by helicopter to Camp 1. However, it had not happened, because the season had ended prematurely, as already in 2014 after the avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall with 16 dead Nepalese climbers.

The Icefall Doctors speak of very difficult conditions this spring, after the earthquake that hit Nepal on Monday exactly one year ago. “I have never seen so many cracks and deep holes on the path to the summit of Sagarmatha,” said Ang Kami Sherpa, head of the specialists who prepare and secure the route through the Icefall and further up. “It’s dangerous this year.” By their own account, the government has issued 289 Everest permits for foreign climbers this season. Many of them use their permits from 2014 or 2015, the validity of which had been extended by five respectively two years.

Miss Hawley in her home in Kathmandu

When I saw the Beetle, I knew I was right. I knew the street, but had no house number, only a rough description of where Miss Hawley is living in Kathmandu. But there it stood in the courtyard: the light blue VW Beetle, built in 1963. “The car is right, of course. Those Beetles are just incredible durable,” says the legendary chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering. For decades, the US-American has driven with the light blue car in front of the hotels in Kathmandu to interview climbers about their expeditions in the Himalayas. However, the 92-year-old is no longer driving her Beetle by herself, she has a driver. “I can’t drive a car with a walker”, says Elizabeth Hawley and grins. Since she broke her hip, she is not quite as mobile as before.

More braggarts

Miss Hawley has been living in Kathmandu since 1960. Since then, she has collected more than 4000 expeditions in her chronicle “Himalayan Database”. At the beginning she worked for the news agency Reuters. “At that time mountaineering was becoming a very important part of a foreign correspondent’s job in Nepal”, Hawley recalls. From Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first ascenders of Mount Everest, through to the clients of commercial expeditions – the chronicler has met all types of climbers. I should like her to tell whether there is more fibbing among today’s climbers. “Has the percentage of liars per expedition that gone up? I don’t think so,” says Miss Hawley. “Maybe the commercial climbers rather brag about it.”

Kind of fishy

The highest mountain she ever climbed was only about 1,000 meters high, tells the old lady, “in Vermont in New England. It was just a walk. A mountain? No, it was like the hills around Kathmandu.” Nevertheless, again and again the American was able to unmask climbers as liars who previously had claimed to have scaled eight-thousanders or other high mountains in Nepal. She checked it with the other teams who were on the mountains, other got tangled up in contradictions: “Some of them sounded really a kind of fishy. But I’m sure I missed a lot.”

On the back of a Sherpa

North side of Everest

Miss Hawley depicts the “interesting” case of the Japanese climber Tomiyasu Ishikawa, who ascended Everest from the north side in 2002. The 65-year-old was then “the oldest to reach the summit but had he really climbed it? How many realized the distinction,” Miss Hawley asks. The Japanese became tired in the summit area. “He got to the summit on the back of a Sherpa.” She considers an age limit for old Everest climbers – as it was announced by the Nepalese government in 2015 – for needless but pleads for stricter rules for young people: “Certainly young kids should not be climbing mountains, certainly not Everest. They are not strong and developed enough, physically and mentally.”

Held on the table

Miss Hawley is eagerly awaiting the upcoming spring season. “I’m quite curious about what happens this year,” she says. “I think probably the numbers will not be very great partly because people are afraid of earthquakes. We still have aftershocks occasionally.” She experienced the devastating quake on 25 April 2015 in her home. “I sat at a table, just held on. You wait until it’s over and carry on.” Like many people in Nepal, Miss Hawley speaks of an even stronger earthquake that could hit the country in the near future. “I hope I am near my strong table again,” says the 92-year-old, laughing.

Her successor

Billi Bierling

Step by step she wants to hand over her work on Himalayan Database to her German assistant Billi Bierling. “Maybe she knows it, maybe she doesn’t. We work very well together. She is good, she is crazy, she is fast,” says Elizabeth Hawley who can not even imagine retiring completely. “It depends on how it works out. I’ll probably criticize her. Well, I hope I don’t.”

Without airs and graces

Recently, the Nepalese government has dubbed a six-thousander “Peak Hawley”. “No mountain should be named after any individual and certainly not for me,” Miss Hawley plays it down. She should take it as an honor, I reply. “Okay, but It’s a funny kind of honor”, Hawley says, giggling. She also can not base anything on nicknames. I mention “Mama Himalaya”, “Miss Marple of Kathmandu” or “Sherlock Holmes of the mountains”. Miss Hawley grins: “Actually I never heard any of them, you can keep them. There was a book and a documentary film about me called ‘keeper of the mountains’. I don’t know that I keep them. I am just a chronicler.”

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.”

Trekking in Khumbu

Safety is primarily a feeling. Often we don’t even realize the lurking objective danger. And if we do, then usually only if we have no other option than facing the danger. A week ago I have returned from my trekking in Khumbu, the region around Mount Everest. Eleven months have passed since the devastating earthquake in Nepal. I think that my senses were quite sharpened because it was an objective of my journey to inform myself about the consequences of the quake. I can send all the people who want to travel to the region for trekking or climbing on their way with my experience: I felt perfectly safe in Khumbu.

Memories of civil war

Namche Bazaar, in the background Kongde Ri

This was not the case during my first visit to Everest region 14 years ago. In 2002, there was a night-time curfew in Namche Bazaar starting at 5 p.m. because of the civil war with the Maoists. The soldiers of the local military station were nervous, I heard shots. It was only when we reached Tengboche monastery at 3,860 meters, that my former mountain guide Gowa Lama said: “Now we are safe. The Maoists have not penetrated higher so far.” The civil war in Nepal has been over since 2006. Ten years later we were able to hike through the impressive mountains of the Himalayas without need to think about charges to pay to rebels or about getting caught in the crossfire.

Most of the debris cleared

Stupa in front of the Hillary School in Khumjung

The earthquake on 25 April 2015 has left marks also in Khumbu, but the area got off rather lightly compared for instance with the particularly hard-hit Sindhupalchowk District. Here and there some stupas (tombs of Buddhist lamas who according to religion were reborn) with deep cracks still witness the earthquake. But most of the debris has been cleared. In many places, new buildings have already replaced the collapsed houses, which had been mostly traditional Sherpa buildings. The trekking trails are well maintained, virtually no traces of the earthquake can be seen there.

Depending on tourism

Everest, Lhotse and Makalu (from l. to r.)

Maybe I also felt so safe in Khumbu because there was much less talk about the earthquake. People in the Everest region seem to have come to terms with last year’s natural disaster and ticked it off. Probably because they were affected not that bad. The consequences of the earthquake were more indirectly: The tourism market collapsed because foreigners were worried about their safety. My impression in Khumbu: These concerns are groundless. You can travel there without worrying. The mountain guides, porters, farmers, lodge owners and shopkeepers, who heavily depend on income from tourism, will thank you: with great hospitality and an honest smile.

First glance on Everest (l.) and Lhotse

“I don’t have any ambitions to climb Mount Everest,” says Ang Dorjee Sherpa. “Too dangerous! Finally, I have a wife and three children.” However, the 47-year-old was a member of Everest expeditions twice. At the end of 1991, Ang Dorjee worked as “Mail Man” for a Japanese expedition who wanted to climb the mighty Southwest Face for the first time in winter. The Sherpa brought the news of the failure at 8,350 meters as “postal runner” into the valley. Two years later the Japanese were back again – and successfully: A total of six climbers reached the summit on a partially new route, the first team on 18 December 1993. The first ascent of the wall in (meteorological, not calendrical) winter was done. That time, Ang Dorjee did not play the postman, but worked as a cook for the Japanese.

Again and again, Japan

Ang Dorjee Sherpa

To date, the Sherpa has a special relationship with Japanese mountaineers. In the guest room of his “AD Friendship Lodge” in Namche Bazaar at 3440 meters photos are hanging on the wall showing Ang Dorjee with Junko Tabei, the first woman on the Everest, or even with Uchiro Miura, who was, aged 80, the oldest man ever to climb Everest. For several years Ang Dorjee also worked in summer for three months as a cook at a Japanese mountain lodge. And many of the trekking groups he is nowadays guiding through the impressive mountains of Nepal, are from Japan.

Accustomed to earthquakes

Bridge across Dudh Cosi

During the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015, Ang Dorjee was in Kathmandu to make final preparations for a Japanese travel group. “The Japanese did not even want to leave after the quake. They were accustomed to shocks from their home. But I sent them home. Their safety was for me more important than the money.” In Namche Bazaar, fortunately there was hardly no damage, says Ang Dorjee. adding that in the region the two villages Thame and Khumjung were hit, “especially the houses that had been built in the traditional way.” His own Lodge got only a small crack in the back wall. “Nothing bad!”

Icefall Doctors are making good progress

Namche Bazaar

For this spring season, Ang Dorjee is somewhere between slightly skeptical and cautiously optimistic. “But in spring even more climbers from expeditions arrive than trekkers. For us, fall is almost more important because it’s the main trekking season.” The Sherpa expects for the climbers who will come to Namche in the next few weeks a good summit chance to reach the summit. “I heard that the Icefall Doctors have already made good progress in preparing the route,” says Ang Dorjee. When I ask him about the mood among the Sherpas – after two years of deadly avalanches and without summit successes on the Nepalese side of Everest – Ang Dorjee smiles: “No matter how bad it is, we Sherpas are very good at forgetting and restarting.”