Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I
Speaker 1: will be reading National Geographic magazine NADE November twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: which is donated by the publisher. As a reminder, RADIOI
Speaker 1: is a reading service intended for people who are blind
Speaker 1: or have other bit disabilities that make it difficult to
Speaker 1: read printed material. Please join me now for the continuation
Speaker 1: of the article I began last time A Sharpest Steepest
Speaker 1: Climb by Gloria Leu. He fancied himself more an explorer
Speaker 1: than a climber, and winter climbing is more like exploration,
Speaker 1: he declared, having never done a winter climb. It's more
Speaker 1: for me. Historically, the chance of success for any winter
Speaker 1: eight thousand meter expedition is low, just fifteen percent, according Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: so Nima added a disclaimer. Even if we don't reach summit,
Speaker 1: it's a learning for us. It would be better if
Speaker 1: they summitted. Though, Nima wants to be a professional climber,
Speaker 1: meaning one sponsored by brands like The North Face and Bull,
Speaker 1: but his fourteen Peaks record hasn't been enough to earn
Speaker 1: those endorsements, so Manaslu is a chance to build his resume.
Speaker 1: Nima jokes that he needs a sponsor so that he
Speaker 1: doesn't bankrupt his dad. But sponsorship isn't about the money,
Speaker 1: It's about dignity, he said. Sherpa climbers, he continued, never
Speaker 1: had the privilege to get chosen. The day I make
Speaker 1: the team, the day people consider me a professional athlete.
Speaker 1: It brings value. For all the upward mobility that Chirpis
Speaker 1: have recently enjoyed, they have yet to make the leap
Speaker 1: from being guided to climb in their off hours to
Speaker 1: athletes being paid to chase their own dreams. In naming
Speaker 1: to be the first, Niva hopes to earn a measure
Speaker 1: of respect and equality that his people have long been due.
Speaker 1: But to grasp the opportunity before him, he'll have to
Speaker 1: transcend the world of commercial climbing that has both elevated
Speaker 1: and circumscribed his community for generations. The idea of paying
Speaker 1: someone to guide you up a peak because you lack
Speaker 1: the ability to climb it independently is a relatively new
Speaker 1: one in the history of Himalayan mountaineering. For most of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, only explorers and serious climbers attempted peaks
Speaker 1: that rose above eight thousand meters into the so called
Speaker 1: death zone, where there is insufficient oxygen to support human life.
Speaker 1: But in nineteen eighty five, a wealthy Texas business man
Speaker 1: named Dick Bass was led to the top of Everest
Speaker 1: by a climbing phenomon named David Brisher's sparkling the imaginations
Speaker 1: of amateur climbers worldwide. If he can do it, so
Speaker 1: can i. The commercial climbing industry was born. From the
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties through the oughts. Western companies dominated the booming
Speaker 1: guiding business on Everest, charging up to seventy five thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to climb the world's highest peak. They employed sirpas
Speaker 1: and subcontracted logistics like base camp set up and rope
Speaker 1: fixing to Nepalese companies, but the foreign guides owned the
Speaker 1: customer facing outfitters and made the majority of the money.
Speaker 1: Some young shrpas working on Neva saw an opportunity. Among
Speaker 1: them were Nima's father, Tashi Lakpa Shirpa, and three of
Speaker 1: Tashi's five brothers, ning Ma, Chang Daowa who goes by Dawa,
Speaker 1: and Pasang Furba. The brothers grew up in a remote
Speaker 1: village with no electricity or running water in view of
Speaker 1: eight thousand, four hundred eighty five meter Makalu Peak. Their
Speaker 1: childhood was one that Tashi now compares to the show
Speaker 1: manned versus wild. They lived in the jungle, herding the
Speaker 1: family's yaks, sheep, and cows. They slept in shelters built
Speaker 1: from plastic tarps and hunted small animals for food. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they heard no other human voices for months, but the
Speaker 1: boys grew up proud their herds made them wealthy by
Speaker 1: the subsistence standards of the village. There were no mountaineers
Speaker 1: in the family. The brothers learned on the radio about
Speaker 1: climbing sherpas like ang Uta Shrpa, who was nicknamed the
Speaker 1: snow Leopard and climbed everest tents without bottled oxygen. He
Speaker 1: is Sirpa, I am also Shrpa. Why can't I do this?
Speaker 1: Daoa recalled thinking Mingma. The second oldest brother, went to
Speaker 1: cut men Do at fourteen and found a job hauling
Speaker 1: seventy five pound loads as a trekking. Porter, then worked
Speaker 1: his way up to climbing with clients once he gained
Speaker 1: enough experience to fix ropes on eight thousand meter peaks,
Speaker 1: a job reserved for the strongest and most skilled sherpas,
Speaker 1: he said. For his brothers, Tashi, the second youngest, began
Speaker 1: climbing Everest at eighteen, He crossed the deadly Kombu ice
Speaker 1: fall twenty to thirty times an exhibition expedition, he told me.
Speaker 1: Experiencing mortal fear each time, every day, every second, life
Speaker 1: is in danger, he said. But Mingma and Dowa, the
Speaker 1: brawny big brothers, were particularly irked by their unofficial job title.
Speaker 1: The Western people say we are porters, said Dawa. This
Speaker 1: is not fair, said Mingma. In their eyes, they were
Speaker 1: doing the same work as foreign guides, climbing the s
Speaker 1: mountains as clients. Why were they porters and the Western
Speaker 1: guides and climbers. That's why we have to show something,
Speaker 1: said Dowa. To prove that they had the skills to
Speaker 1: rival the world's best guides, Mingma and Dowa decided to
Speaker 1: climb all the eight thousand meter peaks. At the time,
Speaker 1: only the most dedicated mountaineers climbed all fourteen, and Mingma
Speaker 1: was the first Nepali to do so. The accomplishment gave
Speaker 1: the brothers major credibility and inspired an idea they would
Speaker 1: start their own company and cut out the middleman. In
Speaker 1: twenty ten, they launched seven Summit trecks, charging just thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars per person to climb Everest. Other Sherpa led
Speaker 1: businesses followed, and over the next several years, these companies
Speaker 1: out competed the old guard, benefiting from the ability to
Speaker 1: set lower prices as well as various upheavals in the
Speaker 1: climbing industry. As journalist Will Cockrell chronicled in his book Everest, Inc.
Speaker 1: By twenty nineteen, Cockrow courted seven Summit was the largest
Speaker 1: taxpayer in Nepal's trekking and guiding industry. Today, Himalayan climbing
Speaker 1: archivist Billy Bierling calls srpas the bosses on the mountain,
Speaker 1: estimated that they own eighty to eighty five percent of
Speaker 1: the expedition market. While Surpas of this generation were taking
Speaker 1: control of their industry, some were also falling in love
Speaker 1: with climbing, a sport most of their forbear saw is
Speaker 1: only a job, and slowly building visibility. By twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: Shirpa climbers were making first ascents sans clients and promoting
Speaker 1: their feats on social media. In twenty eighteen, a SHRPA
Speaker 1: named Dawa Yangzum was sponsored by the North Face albeit
Speaker 1: for guiding. She was the first Nepali woman to earn
Speaker 1: a certification from the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations.
Speaker 1: But the trend was turbocharged in twenty nineteen when a
Speaker 1: Nepali British former Special Forces soldier near Mau Nim's Porgia
Speaker 1: climbed the fourteen peaks in record time, using helicopters, bottled oxygen,
Speaker 1: and fixed ropes to accomplish in six months what had
Speaker 1: previously taken Korean climber Kim chang Ho nearly eight years
Speaker 1: to do. Though Kim climbed without supplemental oxygen and kayaked
Speaker 1: and cycled to Everest base camp, Nims, who was not
Speaker 1: sure about, brought handheld cameras and broadcast his journey on Instagram,
Speaker 1: capturing footage that became a hit twenty twenty one Netflix documentary.
Speaker 1: He leveraged his exploits to start his own guiding business
Speaker 1: and signed deals with Red Bull, Nike, and Bremont Watches.
Speaker 1: And though his career is now plagued by accusations of
Speaker 1: sexual misconduct, which he's denied, he put the world on
Speaker 1: notice that when Nepalis didn't have to serve clients they
Speaker 1: could be recognized as world class climbers in their own right.
Speaker 1: Nima comes of age in these flush times, blessed with
Speaker 1: not just family money, but also role models and next
Speaker 1: LEOFWL ambitions. Growing up in Katmandu, Nima began telling his
Speaker 1: father in early adolescence that he wanted to become a
Speaker 1: professional athlete. The plan was always to do something big
Speaker 1: in life, Nima said, it has always it was always
Speaker 1: the plan. The lead up to a major objective tends
Speaker 1: to be an esthetic time for athletes when they retreat
Speaker 1: from the world and prepare, but Nima is trying to
Speaker 1: capitalize on his moment that He kept a frenetic schedule
Speaker 1: in the first few days before Manislu, attending to small
Speaker 1: time obligations ranging from a cricket game for the NEPHAL
Speaker 1: Premier League to an interview for an American friend's YouTube
Speaker 1: channel and an elaborate twenty person lunch with National geographic
Speaker 1: explorer Jane Goodall. Nima's manager at the time, Asad Avid,
Speaker 1: was frustrated. He thought Nima was sinking too much time
Speaker 1: for free into engagements that didn't move him toward his
Speaker 1: ultimate goal, which is to get paid to climb by brands.
Speaker 1: Some companies have offered free gear, Avid said, but nobody's
Speaker 1: talking money. The outdoor industry is dominated by Western brands,
Speaker 1: and shirpas face racial and language differences that can make
Speaker 1: it difficult to secure endorsements. They also have to contend
Speaker 1: with a cultural and vocational challenge. The srpock community venerates
Speaker 1: climbers who have submitted summited Everest twenty times or set
Speaker 1: records like Neemas, but climbing brands don't usually sponsor mountaineers
Speaker 1: who ply trade routes on fixed ropes in the commercial style,
Speaker 1: whether they're the sherpa guides on those expeditions or the
Speaker 1: climbers who pay those guides and use bottled oxygen as
Speaker 1: Niema did. Most professional climbers are instead alpinists who are
Speaker 1: self supported and travel light and fast. To inspire the
Speaker 1: climbing cognizanti and eventually earn sponsorships, an athlete must climb
Speaker 1: new routes or peaks in good style, meaning without bottled
Speaker 1: oxygen or fixed ropes, and achieve an affable X factor
Speaker 1: that can be hard to grasp for those born outside
Speaker 1: of Alpinism's ego's eurocentric culture. You need to have been
Speaker 1: living and breathing climbing as a sport from a young
Speaker 1: age to understand what is considered an accomplishment. Cockrell says
Speaker 1: it's a daunting transition, even for the most well resourced
Speaker 1: young sherpa, which is why Moro told me he felt
Speaker 1: the urgency to grab the team, as he put it,
Speaker 1: and mentor him before he falls into the trap of
Speaker 1: becoming another famous eight thousand meter peak collector and inviting
Speaker 1: Nima to Montslau, Moro hoped both to teach skills and
Speaker 1: instill the kind of worldview he said Nima will need
Speaker 1: to make it as a professional adventurer. The leak that
Speaker 1: Nima needs to make from commercial mountaineering to alpinism could
Speaker 1: be years long. He'll have to learn skills like ice
Speaker 1: climbing and placing gear. Alpinist, National Geographic Explorer and former
Speaker 1: North Faced team captain Conway Anchor told me he'll also
Speaker 1: likely have to travel to North America or Europe to
Speaker 1: train on rock and ice, as it takes days to
Speaker 1: approach most peaks in Nepal, and he'll have to develop
Speaker 1: an eye for identifying his own projects. But in the
Speaker 1: age of the athlete influencer. There may be a different
Speaker 1: way for Nima, one modeled by Nepoly climbers like Nims climbing.
Speaker 1: Puri said that Nim's feet was primarily one of logistics
Speaker 1: and marketing. He achieved a speed record he essentially invented one,
Speaker 1: utilizing every accoutument from helicopters to bottled oxygen, yet he
Speaker 1: nevertheless circumvented the traditional path to stardom. Nima, too seems
Speaker 1: to be betting on this model of building his brand
Speaker 1: alongside his bona fides climbing both ephest and Le Lahozze.
Speaker 1: On the same day, he wrote in April twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four on Instagram is almost unheard of and I found
Speaker 1: myself doing it as the mountain spirits guided me. Still,
Speaker 1: story telling can only go so far. Nim's record was
Speaker 1: puridigm shifting, and the long process through which Dauwat Yangzum
Speaker 1: obtained her i f m g A certification is widely
Speaker 1: respected in climbing. Nima may be able to find his
Speaker 1: own path to professional climbing, But if you want to
Speaker 1: climb for a brand, like the North Faced Ankar says,
Speaker 1: you have to climb hard. As with many prodigies. It's
Speaker 1: hard to tell how much of Nima's ambition is innate
Speaker 1: versus inherited, the result of some subtile parental prodding. As
Speaker 1: Tashi drove Nima and Mia around Katmandu in his leather
Speaker 1: lined s U B one afternoon, the two took turns
Speaker 1: telling Nima's origin story, passing the baul to one another
Speaker 1: smoothly in the front seats. Tashi's support of Nima has
Speaker 1: been tireless and unconditional. When Nima wanted to become a
Speaker 1: professional soccer player, Tashi tried to link him up with
Speaker 1: an elite coach. When that fizzled, he took his son
Speaker 1: to the climbing jim. When Nimo wanted to become a photographer,
Speaker 1: he took him trekking to shoot photos. Tashi, who at
Speaker 1: thirty nine wore thick framed black glasses and a stylish fade, said,
Speaker 1: I bought like a Sony a seven. Sony a seven. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nima agreed, with a chuckle from the passenger seat. A
Speaker 1: Sony A seven for him in several lenses, Tasha continued,
Speaker 1: Then I took him to Kongma La Pas right. This
Speaker 1: is a multi day trek in Nepal. Just the two
Speaker 1: of us, Yeah, just him and me. Tashi agreed, I
Speaker 1: saw that he's very strong. It was on this track,
Speaker 1: when Nima was fifteen, that Tashi suggested it might be interesting,
Speaker 1: as Nima called it, recalled it, for him to climb
Speaker 1: the Fourteen Peaks as a teenager. Nimo went home and
Speaker 1: did his research, then told his dad, let's do it.
Speaker 1: The father's idea had become the sons. Initially, the Fourteen
Speaker 1: Peaks project was a creative, mostly selfish endeavor inspired by
Speaker 1: Asian American adventure photographer and National Geographic Explorer Jimmy Chin.
Speaker 1: Nima wanted to produce a documentary, but on his first
Speaker 1: climb Manaslu in September twenty twenty two, he saw something surprising.
Speaker 1: He never knew much about the family business and had
Speaker 1: always assumed his father's clients must be elite level athletes
Speaker 1: to climb big mountains. Now he saw that, in fact,
Speaker 1: many of them were average even slow. Meanwhile, Sherpa's outpaced
Speaker 1: everybody and carried their loads. Seeing their raw talent, Nima
Speaker 1: began to wonder why there was no world famous Shrpa
Speaker 1: climber today. His motivation was galvanized. However, on his first
Speaker 1: trip to Shisha Pangma, a year before he'd ultimately summit.
Speaker 1: It was October seventh, twenty twenty three, and Nima was
Speaker 1: at base Camp A seven summit Shirpa named Tejen Lama Sherpa,
Speaker 1: whom Nima had grown close to, was also on the mountain,
Speaker 1: assisting climber Gina Rizzi's silo as she attempted to become
Speaker 1: the first American woman to some at the fourteen peaks.
Speaker 1: Another American, Anna Gutu, was also targeting her fourteenth peak.
Speaker 1: That same day, on their summit push, Gutu and her
Speaker 1: partner were killed in an avalanche. Lama and Rusidlo were
Speaker 1: just below the summit, and Nima radioed to advise that
Speaker 1: they descend, but Rusidlo wanted to continue, and shortly after
Speaker 1: a second avalanche claim both her and Lama's lives. Nima
Speaker 1: was in shock. Lama had come to feel like one
Speaker 1: of his guardian angels on the mountain. Afterward, he was
Speaker 1: depressed for months. I just felt very demotivated, he said,
Speaker 1: not just in climbing, in life itself. It was during
Speaker 1: this time that he began to use the hashtag Sherpa
Speaker 1: Power he realized he wanted to be a voice for
Speaker 1: the Sherpa community. He wanted his people to feel that
Speaker 1: their lives had value beyond the measure of their wages.
Speaker 1: Let's say they make four thousand dollars a summit, he said,
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any job where you get
Speaker 1: paid this, and it's so risky. Shripas literally feel for
Speaker 1: their clients, me pointedly sacrificing their own safety and even
Speaker 1: lives to help them summit. This kind of courage and loyalty,
Speaker 1: he said, is not something money can buy. They deserved
Speaker 1: for their story stories to be told. He thought, to
Speaker 1: be honored like heroes, not just paid like help. Over
Speaker 1: the years, Tashi has witnessed the death of many Sherpas
Speaker 1: like Lama, which is why he always told his own
Speaker 1: son that if he were to climb, he'd climb as
Speaker 1: an athlete, not a guide. If Nima was going to
Speaker 1: risk it all, he would risk it for his own dreams.
Speaker 1: Nima's climbing was none the less extremely stressful for Tashi
Speaker 1: and his wife, Lima. Tashi says he hid his worry.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to affect Nima's decision making in the
Speaker 1: mountains but behind the scenes he spun a protective web.
Speaker 1: He assigned one of his ace guides, Pasang Nurbu Sherpa,
Speaker 1: as Nima's climbing partner, kept helicopters on standby while they
Speaker 1: were climbing. He cut clients deals to beef up the
Speaker 1: manpower on Nima's expeditions. Some days he didn't sleep, refreshing
Speaker 1: Nima's GPS tracker every ten minutes. Whenever Tashi thought about
Speaker 1: calling his son back, he reminded himself, we are on
Speaker 1: a mission. That's the word he uses. We I want
Speaker 1: him to make a super climber, super athlete, he said,
Speaker 1: so I manage my emotions. Tashi also wanted to shield
Speaker 1: Nima from another fraught aspect of the guiding business. Especially
Speaker 1: in its early years. Seven Summit was criticized for its
Speaker 1: safety record, and some said the company brought dangerously inexperienced
Speaker 1: guides and climbers on to the mountains. The brothers acknowledged
Speaker 1: some growing pains, but said they recruited many new sherpas
Speaker 1: to the industry who are now trained and experienced, and
Speaker 1: trained clients on lower peaks before they climb eight thousanders.
Speaker 1: In channeling, Nima toward a different path. Tashi hoped to
Speaker 1: keep his son from the controversy that' stogged him and
Speaker 1: his family. He can have another type of job in
Speaker 1: professionalism as an athlete, he said. Of course, Tashi could
Speaker 1: have encouraged his son to pursue a profession outside of climbing,
Speaker 1: and as many Sherpas have urged their children to do,
Speaker 1: any eight thousand meter peak can kill you, and the
Speaker 1: dangers are magnified in the winter, when temperatures plummet and
Speaker 1: avalanche risk increases. Going in alpine style removes the added
Speaker 1: security of fixed lines and bottled oxygen. The first time
Speaker 1: Morrow attempted a winter alpine style eight thousand meter ascent,
Speaker 1: and avalanche killed both his climbing partners. I asked Tashi
Speaker 1: what he'd say to parents who wonder how he can
Speaker 1: not only let his son do something so dangerous but
Speaker 1: also fund it. I think, he said, pausing the thoughtful
Speaker 1: creating history is not normal. It's not simple. Abed Nima's
Speaker 1: former manager offered his theory. I think Tashi is living
Speaker 1: vicariously through Nima, he said. But when you're a parent
Speaker 1: whose life story is entangled within a generation's long struggle
Speaker 1: for equality. Your children may serve as a proxy for
Speaker 1: more than your own unrealized ambitions. Tashi has seen so
Speaker 1: many strong SHERP of boys working for the glory of others.
Speaker 1: He told me, so much of his people's talent hired away.
Speaker 1: He always wanted to see one of those young athletes
Speaker 1: climb unencumbered. This is a totally different opportunity for the
Speaker 1: SRP of community, he said. And I really want to
Speaker 1: send my son in this way. In Catmandu in December,
Speaker 1: you can be seduced into believing winter won't kill you.
Speaker 1: The day that Nima left her as climb was like
Speaker 1: all the other days before. It sunny and mild at
Speaker 1: the smog filled sky at Dichy Blue, I bordered an
Speaker 1: orange helly Everest chopper with Nima Morro and Polish filmmaker
Speaker 1: Oswald Rodrigo Pierra forty, their climbing partner. The plan was
Speaker 1: to fly into the Everest Valley and truk five days
Speaker 1: to the base camp of Ahma d'ablam, a technical six thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred twelve meter peak known as the Mader Horner
Speaker 1: of the Himalaya, where I'd catch a helly ride back.
Speaker 1: They'd climb Alma d'ablam to acclimatize, then fly out to
Speaker 1: the Monastlu Valley. The helicopter soared over green hills, rippled
Speaker 1: with farming terraces curved from the mountain like stadium steps.
Speaker 1: Snowcapped peaks lined the horizon, each big and beautiful enough
Speaker 1: to anchor a national park on its own. This was
Speaker 1: all inspiring stuff for most people, but for Nima it
Speaker 1: was a commute. He'd fallen asleep during the past few
Speaker 1: days in Katmandu. I'd witnessed the Muscle of Seven Summit
Speaker 1: first hand. Everywhere I went, I bumped into smiling, clean
Speaker 1: faced young men wearing company puffies and ball caps. Nima
Speaker 1: was cocooned within this universe, chauffeured and flanked constantly by
Speaker 1: the sherpas in his father's employ Does Nima fully understand
Speaker 1: what achieving his dream would require, from the hard work
Speaker 1: to the risk taking it would demand, He says he does.
Speaker 1: But for all his precociousness, here was an eighteen year
Speaker 1: old who still compared climbing to the epic adventures out
Speaker 1: of his favorite fantasy books. Winter Expedition is like Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings, he said, with exuberance, or when you
Speaker 1: read Harry Potter, it makes you excited. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm in net life right now. In both these stories,
Speaker 1: a hero, a chosen one, goes on a quest to
Speaker 1: save the people he loves. Harry Potter is destined by
Speaker 1: prophecy to save wizard Kind, Prodo carries the Ring to
Speaker 1: save Middle Earth. Nima too sees himself as a messenger
Speaker 1: for his community. I think, at the young age that
Speaker 1: he is, he already has a big burden on him
Speaker 1: that he also imposes on himself. Prierira later told me
Speaker 1: in the helicopter, Nima woke up. We were wearing sound
Speaker 1: proof headsets, so he used his iPhone camera to show
Speaker 1: me Everest zooming in on the snow covered pyramid. Then
Speaker 1: he opened his notepad and typed me a message. The
Speaker 1: Prince returns to the mountains. Nima's first non commercial expedition
Speaker 1: began smoothly with days of dry weather on Alma Dablam. Nima, Mora,
Speaker 1: and Pieria enjoyed too easy rotations a climatization trips up
Speaker 1: to Camps one and two, But the night before their
Speaker 1: summit bid it snowed, with the rocks now slick, The
Speaker 1: climbers had to brace more often against fixed ropes, and
Speaker 1: on the second day, Nina's hands and forearms began to cramp.
Speaker 1: The trio decided to turn around several hundred feet below
Speaker 1: the summit and move on to Manoslu with less acclimatization
Speaker 1: than they'd hope. After they reached a Monostolu base camp
Speaker 1: a week and a half later, it snowed again. Then
Speaker 1: the forest forecast deteriorated further. Three straight weeks of winds
Speaker 1: projected at over ninety miles an hour, creating dangerous climbing conditions.
Speaker 1: If they waited, they'd lose what acclimatization they had. After
Speaker 1: a week at base camp, they canceled the expedition. Nima
Speaker 1: and Morrow immediately planned another attempt on Monostlu for next winter.
Speaker 1: I felt like this was the best expedition of my life,
Speaker 1: Nima told me. The extreme conditions exhilarated him and compared
Speaker 1: to commercial expeditions, everything was in our hands. Nimah's greatest
Speaker 1: challenge now may be to stay focused on climbing after Manosolu.
Speaker 1: He once again he has a lot going on. He
Speaker 1: recently signed a book deal and announced that he's a
Speaker 1: climate influencer for the United Nations Development Program in Nepal.
Speaker 1: In spring, he went to Everest base camp, but not
Speaker 1: to climb. He was helping his day manage logistics, sitting
Speaker 1: for interviews with an American news crew, and assisting a
Speaker 1: company that was experimentally using drones to haul trash off
Speaker 1: the mountain. He also incorporated a company of his own
Speaker 1: to make souvenirs from all that trash. He was training
Speaker 1: for Manosolu, he told me, but he was vague about
Speaker 1: how much, saying that he was trail running and strength training,
Speaker 1: but didn't track his workouts. It remains to be seen
Speaker 1: if Nima will be the breakthrough athlete he wants to be.
Speaker 1: He has his doubters, His privilege is a source of
Speaker 1: iron among some in his own community, and several people
Speaker 1: I interviewed wanted me to know that Nepal has many
Speaker 1: talented young climbers to day, not just Nemo climbers who
Speaker 1: would have his profile if they had his opportunities. But
Speaker 1: Nima believes that whether he achieves his goal or not,
Speaker 1: he's done something for his community already. On our trek's
Speaker 1: fourth day, I asked him what he thought of the
Speaker 1: debate about his climbing style. The sun was sinking below
Speaker 1: the mountains and we were in a chilly room of
Speaker 1: a rustic lodge in the Sherpa village of Deboche. Was
Speaker 1: he aware that some people dismissed climbing eight thousand meter
Speaker 1: peaks as he did with oxygen and fixed lines and
Speaker 1: Sherpa support that people suggested that in the eyes of
Speaker 1: real climbers, he had yet to achieve much. Nima was
Speaker 1: sitting in a chair with his arms crossed. He didn't
Speaker 1: even pause. He said he didn't think those criticisms applied
Speaker 1: to him, then laughed. If he was a grown man
Speaker 1: making a big deal out of his accomplishments, they might
Speaker 1: have a point. But I'm just sixteen seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: just figuring it out, he said, reminding me how young
Speaker 1: he was when he started climbing in the high peaks,
Speaker 1: so give him a break. Niema knows that what he
Speaker 1: did was impressive at his age. He understands that the
Speaker 1: story of Sherpas in the past fifteen years has been
Speaker 1: one of the power of role modeling, of being able
Speaker 1: to see heroes made in your own image and then
Speaker 1: daring to imagine yourself surpassing them. He believes he moved
Speaker 1: the right people. If I was some one else and
Speaker 1: I saw an eighteen year old did thus, he said,
Speaker 1: I'd be inspired. A history of high altitude grit. The
Speaker 1: Sherpa people are an ethnic group that have lived in
Speaker 1: Himalaya for thousands of years. Historically, they've made a living
Speaker 1: as traders, herders, and farmers. In the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: when Westerners started coming to attempt the world's highest peaks,
Speaker 1: many Sherpas found that they were well suited for the
Speaker 1: hard work of supporting the explorers on these expeditions, mostly
Speaker 1: via carrying loads of gear. Though dangerous, the job paid
Speaker 1: far more than they could earn doing almost anything else. Today,
Speaker 1: Sherpas are the backbone of a multi million dollar industry
Speaker 1: centered on Mount Everest, which draws hundreds of international climbers
Speaker 1: every year. While foreign climbers garner most of the attention
Speaker 1: on the peak, Shirpas have long been the ones making history.
Speaker 1: By Anna Callahan nineteen fifty three, in the decades long
Speaker 1: race to send the first team to the summit of
Speaker 1: Mount Everest, It's a British expedition that finally succeeds at
Speaker 1: eleven thirty a m On March on May twenty nine,
Speaker 1: Edmund Hillary thirty three and Tenzing Norgay thirty eight are
Speaker 1: the first people to stand atop the highest point in
Speaker 1: the world. After the ascent, Norgay and Hillary both become
Speaker 1: global superstars. Nineteen seventy three, Shambu Tamang summits Mount Everett
Speaker 1: at sixteen years old while working on an Italian expedition,
Speaker 1: setting the record for the youngest person to summit the peak.
Speaker 1: His age was later disputed and he was said to
Speaker 1: be closer to eighteen at the time. Seventies to nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: the early days of commercialism on Mount Everest are punctuated
Speaker 1: by iconic feats from the world's best climbers, like the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight first ascent without supplemental oxygen by Rheinhold
Speaker 1: Mesner and Peter Habeler. These expeditions always have Schrpas acting
Speaker 1: as porters and often have a few climbing ang Fu
Speaker 1: Shrpa and Dawa Nuru SRPA accompany Mesner and Habler. In
Speaker 1: the late eighteen eighties and nineteen nineties. Nineteen eighties and
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, the industry starts to look like today's enterprise,
Speaker 1: with expedition companies leading dozens of paying clients to the top,
Speaker 1: largely with a support staff dominated by schrpas. Two thousand three,
Speaker 1: Lachpu Gieda SRPA sets the speed record on Everest using
Speaker 1: supplemental oxygen, with a time of ten hours, fifty six
Speaker 1: minutes forty six seconds from base camp to the summit.
Speaker 1: This concludes readings from National Geographic Magazine for today. Your
Speaker 1: reader has been Marshall. Thank you for listening. Keep on
Speaker 1: listening and have a great day. Climbers Simone Morrow, Wailly
Speaker 1: Stick and Jonathan Griffith drawing attention to the power dynamic
Speaker 1: between Westerners and Sherpas