Nepali Kanchha Sherpa, the last survivor of the expedition that took humans to the top of Everest for the first time in 1953, died this Thursday (16), aged 92.
His journey to fame began as a teenager, when he fled to the mountains of Darjeeling from his village of Namche Bazar, now a major tourist center on the route to Everest Base Camp.
The 19-year-old met in the Indian city, which at the time was the starting point of expeditions to the Himalayas, his compatriot Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who hired him as a multitasking man.
A few months later, in exchange for a few rupees, he joined Tenzing Norgay in Nepal, hired for the expedition led by New Zealander Edmund Hillary.
Gathered in Kathmandu, the climbers reached the base camp after several days of walking, as at that time there was still no adapted route or the possibility of arriving by air. Today, climbers follow an itinerary drawn up by Nepalese guides.
Without any mountaineering training, Kanchha Sherpa climbed the more than 8,000 meters of Everest.
Two years ago, during an interview with AFP, he stated that he was the “happiest man when Tenzing and Hillary reached the top”, according to statements conveyed by his grandson Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa.
With clothes too big for them and their backs loaded with tents, materials and supplies, he recalled how the Nepalese Sherpas climbed the steep mountain slopes singing.
Seven decades later, hundreds of people reach the summit of Everest (8,849 m) every year and thousands more travel to Nepal to admire the Himalayan landscapes.
The mountaineering industry, which generates millions of dollars, depends on the experience of “sherpas”, who each year pay a high price to accompany hundreds of climbers to the top of the world: a third of those killed on Everest are Nepali climbers.
“Tenzing and Hillary opened our eyes and enabled development here,” Kanchha Sherpa told local channel YOHO TV in 2019.
“Life was very difficult before. There was no way to make a living,” he recalled.
A direct witness to the transformation of the Everest region, Kanchha Sherpa continued climbing for two decades, until his wife asked him to end the dangerous expeditions.
The education of Sherpa children is the most important benefit of the region’s development, highlighted the Nepali hero.
“Now they have the possibility of studying and can become whatever they want: doctors, engineers or scientists, like my grandson,” he added. “In my time, I would never have imagined that something like this was possible,” he added.
After abandoning mountaineering, Kanchha Sherpa created a foundation named after him, dedicated to helping families who did not have the resources to send their children to school.
During his final days, he said he feared that “young people would be influenced by Western culture and slowly forget the Sherpa culture and language.”
