Statue of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa in Kathmandu

One drama, two versions. In both the protagonist dies, but the reasons given for her death differ significantly. Tomorrow, Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa becoming the first Nepali woman to reach the 8,850-meter-high summit of Mount Everest. The triumph ended in tragedy. The 31-year-old mother of three children subsequently died on the descent on the South Summit. According to the official Nepalese version, Pasang Lhamu lost valuable time on 22 April 1993 because she helped her teammate Sonam Tshering Sherpa who suffered from high altitude sickness. In addition the weather turned bad, it was said. A report written by the (recently deceased) legendary Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, published in the American Alpine Journal, has a distinctly different tenor.

Too slow

Everest summit and South Summit (r.)

According to her, Pasang Lhamu was known as a very slow climber. It had taken the team 14.5 hours from South Col to summit, Hawley wrote. Normally ten hours are estimated for this section. In Hawley’s words, Pasang Lhamu was so weak at the highest point that the other team members had to drag down her and Sonam Tshering, who was already coughing up blood, from the main to the South Summit, 100 meters below. It took them four and a half hours. Then their last supply of oxygen ran out. According to Hawley, the next day other team members tried to bring up full oxygen bottles from the South Col, but fierce winds drove them back.

“Tremendous courage”

On the stamp

It was not until two and a half weeks later, on 10 May, that another Sherpa was able again to reach the South Summit, where he found Pasang Lhamu dead – sitting in the snow, with her back to the 40-degree slope. Sonam Tshering’s body remained missing. Unusual for that time, Pasang Lhamu’s body was recovered and brought down from an altitude of 8,749 meters. The dead climber was laid out in a stadium in Kathmandu before cremation, thousands of people paid their last respects to the Sherpani. She had “proved that Nepali women are also endowed with such tremendous courage,” the then Prime Minister of the country wrote in a message of condolence to her family. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa became a national heroine and a legend. Stamps with her picture were issued. Roads and schools are named after her – since 1996 a mountain too: the 7350-meter- high Pasang Lhamu Chuli, better known as Jasemba. Even today, every kid in Nepal knows the climber’s name.

Fighter for gender equality

Members of the “Women Everest Expedition 2018” on top of Island Peak

Although her Everest ascent may have been a little less heroic than many Nepali think, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa was a pioneer after all. She bent over backwards to reach her goal of becoming the first woman in her home country to reach the highest of all summits. In the three previous years, Pasang Lhamu had failed three times. In her till then most successful attempt in 1991 as a member of a French expedition, she had had to turn around at 8,700 meters, just 50 meters below the South Summit. For Pasang Lhamu, it was not just about absolute commitment to reach a summit. As a climber she also fought for the equality of women in Nepal. ““Men are considered heroic [for climbing] while women are called irresponsible,” Pasang Lhamu once complained.

Two Nepali women’s expeditions on the south side

Five young journalists in Namche Bazaar

This year’s spring season in Everest proves that her message was not allowed to fade away and that in contrary the seed has germinated. Just on the south side of Everest, more than a dozen Nepali women climbers will tackle the highest mountain on earth. So the “Women Everest Expedition 2018” of the 30-year-old Lakpa Yangji Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa “Phinasa”, aged 37, and the 25-year-old Yangdi Sherpa is themed with the slogan “Women’s Confidence”. The expedition is “a great platform to raise the voice for women and their rights and empowering them,” writes Pasang Lhamu. This week the three women scaled the 6189-meter-high Island Peak near Everest to get acclimatized. At the same time, the members of the “First Women Journalists Everest Expedition 2018” are still on the trek to Everest Base Camp. The Nepali journalists Kalpana Maharjan (33 years old), Rosha Basnet (29), Rojita Buddhacharya (26), Deuralee Chamling (35) and Priya Laxmi Karki (27) want to set an example for the “the equality of all people, undifferentiated by race, caste, community, or gender”.

Lhakpa Sherpa wants to beat her own record

Record holder Lhakpa Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa can climb Everest without messages, because she herself is a message: that women can not only succeed on Everest, but can even do it in series. With eight summit successes, the 44-year-old Nepali, who lives in the US state of Connecticut, is already listed in the Guinness Book of Rekords as the woman with the most Everest ascents. This spring, the mother of two daughters, aged eleven and 16, wants to climb up again from the Tibetan north side to achieve her summit success number nine. “My body knows that I have already been this high,” says Lhakpa. “It’s like a computer. It figures it out very quickly. My body knows the high altitude. It remembers.” Achieving her first success on 17 May 2000, Lhakpa Sherpa had become the first woman of Nepal who did not only summit Everest but also returned safe and sound to base camp. However, she did not become a legend like Pasang Lhamu Sherpa in her home country, despite this first and her many other Everest summit successes.

Miss Hawley in her home in Kathmandu (in 2016)

The legendary chronicler of Himalayan moutaineering has passed away. “I am very saddened to announce that after a short battle in hospital, Elizabeth Hawley has left us”, the German journalist and climber Billi Bierling informed. “Personally, I cannot put it into words how much this amazing woman has meant to me, how much she has taught me and how much I will miss her in my life.” Elizabeth Hawley was 94 years old when she died. Two years ago, she had handed over the work on her chronicle “Himalayan Database” to Billi.

Never on a high mountain

Miss Hawley had lived in Kathmandu since 1960. At the beginning the American 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 recalled when I visited her at her home in the capital of Nepal in 2016. From Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first ascenders of Mount Everest, through to the clients of commercial expeditions – the chronicler had met them all. The highest mountain she herself ever climbed was only about 1,000 meters high, the old lady told me, “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.

“Just a chronicler”

R.I.P.

This was the reason for getting nicknames like “Miss Marple of Kathmandu” or “Sherlock Holmes of the mountains”. “Actually I never heard any of them, you can keep them,” Miss Hawley told me: “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.”

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

It is the old road, but due to the increased traffic the (digital) emergency lane is used too. From now on,  expedition teams heading for Nepal can register with the Himalayan Database, the high mountaineering chronicle founded by the legendary Elizabeth Hawley,  also online before setting off, for example via Facebook. “We will continue to meet as many teams in Kathmandu as we can. However, it has become almost impossible in the last few years to interview everyone personally,” Billi Bierling explains the new procedure.

Last instance: Miss Hawley

Miss Hawley in her home in Kathmandu (in 2016)

The German climber and journalist is doing the interviews for the Himalayan Database, along with the Nepalese Jeevan Shrestha, the American Richard Salisbury and the French Rodolphe Popier. The now 93-year-old Miss Hawley has withdrawn. At the beginning of the 1960s the journalist from the USA had settled in Kathmandu and started documenting the mountaineering on the highest mountains in the world. With her blue VW beetle, built in 1963, she drove to the hotels and interviewed the expedition teams. Her chronicle became the benchmark of the scene: Only if Miss Hawley had confirmed a summit success, the expedition was really considered successful. The persistent inquiring journalist succeeded in convicting some cheaters.

Work more efficiently

Billi Bierling

Since the start of commercial climbing in the 1990s, however, the number of expedition members in Nepal has exploded. The times when Miss Hawley knew and could know almost every Himalayan climber personally are over. The online registration is designed to help the team “to work a bit more efficiently,” says Billi Bierling. “We do not intend to make the Himalayan Database impersonal.” For many climbers the interviews have become part of an expedition to Nepal, says the 49-year old. “Of course, I’m not Miss Hawley, and some people are disappointed when they don’t get to know the lady personally – what I can fully understand.”

No referees or detectives

Real (1,2) and fake (3,4) (© The Himalayan Times)

After the expeditions, the four interviewers continue to question as many climbers as possible. Everyone they miss has the opportunity to complete a questionnaire at a later date. Does this not reduce the chance to expose liars? “The number of cheaters is still very small compared to the people who are honest,” replies Billi Bierling. “And it does not mean that we will expose all cheaters, even if we meet them personally.” Thus the Everest fraud of the Indian couple in spring 2016 was initially not noticed despite the interview with the climbers. “If the actual owners of the faked summit pictures had not pointed out, this lie would probably have landed in the Database,” Billi admits. “We’re working on trust, as we are neither referees nor detectives – I would never presume. We will, of course, do our best to keep Miss Hawley’s Himalayan Database as good and precise as possible. But if someone really wants to lie to us, he will do. If we are lucky, other climbers who were at the same time on the mountain tell us about the fraud.”

Billi in Tibet

Anyone who has been on expedtion in Nepal more than once should have met her. Billi Bierling has been working as an assistent to Elizabeth Hawley, the legendary chronicler of mountaineering in the Himalayas, for many years. The meanwhile 92-year-old American is regarding Billi as her successor as leader of the Himalayan Database. What many people don’t know: the 49-year-old German does not only visit arriving and departing expedition members in the hotels of Kathmandu to interview them for the chronicle but is an ambitious high altitude mountaineer herself. She has climbed four eight-thousanders so far: in 2009 Mount Everest, in 2011 Lhotse and Manaslu (she reached this summit without bottled oxygen) and in 2014 Makalu. This fall she is tackling the 8188-meter-high Cho Oyu in Tibet. “I have chosen Cho Oyu for this year because I was here eleven years ago and reached just Camp 2 (at 7,200 meters). It was my first eight-thousander, and at that time I was convinced that I am not strong enough for such high mountains“, Billi writes to me. “Now I’m here again, and I really hope that the sixth highest mountain on earth will accept me this time. And like on Manaslu, I would like to reach the summit without supplemental oxygen.”

Billi, Cho Oyu might be your fifth eight-thousander. In preparation for expedition you did hundreds of kilometers mountain running. How high do you estimate your chance of success?

The Nepalese side of Cho Oyu

I believe that I benefit especially from my participation in the “Zugspitz Ultratrail” (the race around the Zugspitze, Germanys highest mountain covers a distance of about 100 kilometres and a total of more then 5,000 meters difference in altitude; last summer Billi finished the Ultratrail in 23:36.57 hours). During the training for this event I ran hundreds of kilometers in the mountains and I’m benefiting from that now. I feel very well acclimatized, and even after four days on the mountain, I still feel strong.

How are the conditions on Cho Oyu?

There is quite a lot of snow on the mountain, but it is very will consolidated. Until now I have been only at about 6,800 meters, above the ice wall, and until there the conditions were good. In the next days an Austrian colleague and I want to climb to Camp 2 and spend two nights up there. After that our acclimatization would be complete.

Billi Bierling

Besides Manaslu, Cho Oyu is the most requested eight-thousander this fall. Has the Base Camp the dimension of Everest BC?

It’s interesting, because in the last ten years Manaslu and Cho Oyu have got very commercialized. Both mountains are offered by commercial operators in preparation for Everest. Until ten years ago, most aspirants climbed Cho Oyu without breathing mask, now the majority is using supplemental oxygen. I estimate the number of climbers here at 250 to 300. A large Tibetan-Chinese expedition alone consists of about 150 people. For this reason it is good that I am here, because usually these expeditions slip through our fingers for the Himalayan Database.

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.”

Miss Hawley (and Ralf Dujmovits)

Perhaps I have exaggerated. Following my request to send her comments on Mount Everest 60 years after the first ascent Elizabeth Hawley replied: „Your questions seem to anthropomorphize Everest, and I don’t see it that way at all.” The world’s preeminent chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering is already 89 years old. For more than half a century the Amercian, living in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, has been documenting expeditions to high Himalayan mountains. It’s an unwritten law that you haven’t been on the summit until Miss Hawley has confirmed that you really have been on the top.

Only an enormous mass of rock

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”.