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Who are the Sherpas?

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 For humankind, the Everest is one of the most remarkable treasures, the nature offered to us. For the Sherpas, the Everest (named Sagarmatha in Nepali) is a treasure given by the gods. For me, the Sherpas are the treasure of the Everest and, more globally, of the Himalayan chain. Without them, there is no climbing possible. Most of the times, no rescue possible. Besides their humility, their warm sense of welcoming their guests (to them, you are not a client, you are a guest), their perfect knowledge of the mountain, their greatest quality is their loyalty. But who is this community? Where do they come from? Where do they live? The Sherpa community arrived in Nepal from Tibet over 500 years ago, escaping from the local fights including between Tibet and Mongolia and set themselves up in the Himalayan mountains, at a high altitude or in the valleys.  Although you may find them in cities like Kathmandu, they mostly live in villages where they grow vegetables, raise yaks, work i...
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Facing the mountain's anger

 July 30, mid-day.  An avalanche struck the Broad Peack, the twelfth highest summit of the world, located in Pakistan.  In its rage, the avalanche took a group of 10 climbers led by a famous mountaineer, Nims Dai, know for having climbed 14 times the summits over 8 000m.  I heard the news only today and followed closely the updates of the news, sometimes with sadness, sometimes with a light of hope.  Today, July 31, the night has fallen over the Himalayan chain and with it the terrible news no one wanted to hear: out of 10 climbers, 9 bodies were spotted including Nims Dai. The research for the last one, the Pakistani guide, is still ongoing.  The group included; 6 Nepalese, 1 Pakistani, 1 American, 1 Omanese (the first Arabic woman to climb one of the highest summits in the world) and 1 Chinese.  No one saw the avalanche coming. No one saw the mountain's anger, ready to strike. It makes reflect on how small we are in front of it and how much we must r...
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The preparation

 Preparing such a big project requires a complete preparation: physical, mental, financial, etc... Mentally speaking, I asked some advice to trekkers who already had been at the Everest base camp. It's mostly about self-control, control your brethe and your steps...and have this willpower to reach the base camp!  But for me who join sport tourism with humanitarian action and ecology, the mental preparation goes to all these fields! Regarding the physical activity, I rely on my willing to reach the base camp the same way I intend to realize this project and I do everything I can for that. I go to the gym to work the cardio and the muscular reinforcement but starting next year, I'll use an altitude training mask to simulate the altitude and therefore, prepare my respiratory system. This project also led me to something obvious and this is why I took a very important decision: I'll go under surgery to lose some weight and be in the best physical conditions. This surgery will a...
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Introduction to my trip

 Hello everyone or rather, Namasté!  Sometimes, it's during some tough moments that ideas,projects appear...that's what happened to me.  During a long-term sickness leave, I started watching documentaries about the Everest, the roof of the world. Maybe because my origins share the Cordillera of the Andes (I'm French and Chilean and my mother is French and Argentinian), the big mountains such as the Andes or the Everest fascinate me.  And that's where I started to learn about the Sherpas, these guides without whom reaching the top of Sagarmatha (the Everest) would be impossible, these quiet and always smiling heroes. Then I saw Sagarmatha itself in all its splendor...and it was a shock.  I saw the garbage left by those thousands of climbers, probably barely aware of what the Everest means for the Sherpas, the Nepalese globally but also the  Hindus. By watching all those small documentaries, sometimes tragic, an idea was born, which helped me to liberate me f...
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