Sherpa Page #2

I can do what those guys can do.

Wardle:
It's kind of daft,

but you know,

in the world of adventure,

people are always thinking

of new crazy things to do.

Douglas:

It's part of the deal now...

Is that they're all kinds

of strange notions

of what can be done on Everest

simply to attract attention.

One, two, three.

The way these commercial

expeditions climb Everest

is to establish a series

of higher and higher camps,

stocking them

over a period of weeks

with everything required

to give the clients

the best chance

of reaching the summit.

The government

doesn't permit equipment

to be flown up the mountain,

so everything that goes into

building these camps

has to be carried.

Douglas:
And it's the sherpas

that do that work,

including going through what is

its most dangerous section.

If you want to climb Everest

from the south,

you have to go

through the khumbu icefall.

It's the route up Everest most

commercial operators prefer,

partly because of

political uncertainty

on the northern side

of the mountain in Tibet,

which they'd rather avoid.

Mckinley:
The khumbu icefall

is like a waterfall of ice.

Coming out of the western cwm.

There is nowhere else

in the world

that a mountaineer would go

through an icefall like this.

But because it's the only access

on the south side to Everest,

then people do walk through

this jumble of ice.

The problem with the icefall

is that it's uncontrollable.

All the other aspects of

the mountain that are dangerous

have, you know,

in terms of safety,

have been improved

over the years.

But the icefall remains,

you know, perilous.

Douglas:
There are threats

from every direction.

Not only that...

There are big blocks of ice

falling down

without warning from above.

You're asking men to go to work

in a very dangerous environment.

And it's becoming more so

as the seracs,

these giant blocks

of glacial ice,

are affected by the forces

of climate change.

They're dropping off

more readily,

and people are going

to get caught more often.

Man #8:
Oh, shoot.

Douglas:
So you know that

this is a perilous moment...

Going through the icefall.

Man #8:
Oh, my god.

Douglas:

And it's not just once or twice.

The sherpas

have to go through it.

It's up to 30 trips per season,

as compared to about two

or three for most foreigners.

Brice:
I'm totally scared

every time

I send the sherpas

up in the mountain.

It's like sending them off

to war.

I don't know

who's gonna come home.

If there's an accident

in the icefall,

are we gonna lose one?

Are we gonna lose two?

Are we gonna lose six people?

Because the potential is there.

Douglas:
And the question is...

What is the moral

justification for that?

You know, what reward is there

for you to play

what is essentially

a game of Russian roulette?

In 2012, I determined

the mountain to be dangerous.

Every night,

I'd listen to the sherpas

on the radio going

through the icefall.

And all the time,

they were running away

from small avalanches

and blocks of ice

falling down

and things like that.

So I made a decision

to cancel my expedition.

That's an incredibly hard thing

to do...

To cancel

a commercial expedition.

Douglas:
There were people

around who said,

"well, Russell's, you know,

being a bit of a chump here"

because his clients

will be pissed off

because they went home

"and other people

got to the top."

I think Russell Brice

was really putting

into perspective the risks

that people were making

the sherpas take.

Now Russell has

four of those clients

returning this year.

So that adds a lot of pressure

for a successful expedition.

Douglas:

Tenzing norgay was a man.

Who was determined

to change his stars.

And when he reached the summit

of Everest, he did that.

The British

couldn't have done it

with someone like tenzing.

He'd been to the mountain

seven times by that point,

and they benefited

from all those years

of his experience,

but he wasn't acknowledged.

He wasn't given due regard

for what he had achieved.

Coming down from that,

almost immediately,

he finds himself

in a political firestorm.

Reporter:

Who got to the top first?

Hunt:
To anybody who climbs

mountains, to any mountaineer,

and I feel

to thousands of others.

The matter couldn't matter less.

Reporter #2:
When tenzing

norgay was asked how he felt,

his chilly answers

had to be interpreted.

Hunt:
He's very happy.

Reporter #2:
All this

and the George medal, too.

Douglas:
So John hunt became

sir John hunt,

Hillary became sir ed Hillary,

and tenzing got

the George medal.

Now, there is a superior award

to that... the George cross.

So it's kind of like

a second-level award.

It was just not right.

So in the eyes of sherpas,

in the eyes of people in India,

in the eyes of most asians,

they felt somewhat slighted

that he would not get

the same kind of recognition

that his partners got.

Jamling:
My father said,

"i wish I had never

climbed this mountain."

Douglas:
He was immensely proud

of what he had achieved,

but I think he felt

thwarted in a way.

I think he felt that he hadn't

realized himself

in the way

that he would have liked.

I think partly it's because,

you know,

he lacked a formal education.

Steven:

The 60-year-old reputation.

Of what it is

to be a sherpa is changing.

Joshi:
Now, you go to base camp.

And more than 80% of sherpas

finish their high school.

And if you go 20 years ago,

none of them have been

to high school.

Because of their education,

they know a lot more

than western clients

think they do.

Steven:
Now with

the Facebook generation,

sherpas see

how much credit westerners

are getting

for a climb on Everest,

and they know that they've done

most of the grunt work.

Without the sherpa,

the westerner

would never have gotten there.

And they are dissatisfied

with that.

And they want equal credit

for what they have done.

What we've seen in recent years

is a...

A tendency of aggression

from younger sherpas.

So, last year,

there was fighting on Everest,

and I think we were

all disappointed,

so sad about that.

Man #9:
Dozens of people

risk their lives every year

trying to climb mount Everest.

This morning, some of them say

they nearly died in a brawl.

Woman:
Man versus the mountain

to man versus man.

Man #11:
Three climbers

say they faced a human foe.

Man #12:

Three top European climbers

had to flee for their lives.

Man #13:
The highest-altitude

scrap in history.

Man #14:

They just tried to kill us.

Man #15:

The sherpas tried to kill you?

Man #16:
This all unfolded

near the summit,

an altitude

of roughly 22,000 feet.

Douglas:
You have a European

calling a sherpa a...

Which is, in Nepal,

particularly,

culturally insensitive.

Man #17:
Yep. I copy that.

I know what word you used.

I don't like that word, either.

Man #18:
Sherpas, who usually

help westerners summit,

turned against them.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes