To Climb Every Mountain is Mingma Sherpa’s ambition

“Nepal is home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks, and foreign climbers are a major source of revenue for the Himalayan nation. In 2023, the government earned around $5 million in revenue from Mount Everest alone in one climbing season. Currently, there is no cap on the number of permits issued by the government to summit the various peaks.”

Nidhi Jamwal*

LUKLA (Nepal): Mingma Sherpa has a clear cut goal – to become an internationally certified female mountain guide. Dawa Yangzum Sherpa is the first Nepali woman to receive certification from the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association in 2017 and is now a qualified international mountain guide. “I want to become the second one,” says the 22-year-old, who is a guide in the high altitude Everest region of Nepal.

Mingma belongs to the indigenous community of Sherpas, who inhabit the Everest region, known as Khumbu to the Nepalese people. Of Tibetan descent, the Sherpas left their homeland in eastern Tibet about 600 years ago and moved south to the Khumbu region. They pray to Mount Everest, which is known as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma to the Tibetans. Sherpas believe that Chomolungma is home to goddess Miyolangsangma.

Every year, thousands of tourists and climbers from across the globe throng the Sagarmatha National Park in this land of deep valleys and high glaciers. They come there to  scale the tallest peak in the world, Mount Everest (8848.86 metres above mean sea level), and seven other peaks that are located within the national park.

And, these climbers in their hordes require the guidance and help of the resilient Sherpas to fulfil their dreams of summiting Everest and the other daunting peaks. It was Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary who made that first successful expedition to Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.

Mingma herself comes from a family of  mountaineers, and she has been a trekking guide for the past four years. She hopes to become an internationally certified mountain guide in the next four to five years. But it is not going to be easy, says Mingma, as female Sherpa guides are rare and funds for training are in short supply.

“It costs around 30 lakh Nepali rupees to become an internationally certified guide as one has to undergo a rigorous training at Kathmandu,” says Mingma who had just returned after climbing the Lobuche peak (7367m) in the Everest region. I had just returned from the Himalayan Climate Boot Camp 2024 to the Everest Base Camp when I met Mingma at a restaurant in Lukla on May 12. Lukla, a small town in northeastern Nepal, has one of the most dangerous airports in the world (2846 metres above mean sea level) and is considered a Gateway to Everest.

“There are almost no female Sherpa guides in the Everest region. Also, our society still views mountaineering as a male bastion and girls are discouraged from becoming a mountain guide,” says Mingma. She is determined to earn her international certification. She has two brothers, 14 years and 8 years old, and her father, a former mountain guide, now works as a construction worker in France.

He was not very keen on Mingma becoming a trekking guide. “He knew how difficult the life of a Sherpa guide is – climbing for hours in tough terrain, taking care of the needs of climbers and tourists, their lodging, food and safety. He told me to come to France and that he would help me get a job there. But I refused as I knew my calling lay in becoming a Sherpa guide.”

Mingma’s mother, who was also a trekking guide before she raised her kids, is delighted. “She is really proud of me,” smiles the young guide.

The reluctance to see their girls become guides stems from the fact that often the working conditions are less than perfect.  “As a guide when we set out on a trail, we do not get a proper room to stay. A female guide has to often share a room with a male guide as lodging facilities for guides are limited. Eyebrows are raised and this comes in the way of parents encouraging their daughters to become trekking guides,” explains Mingma.

But, she has not let that deter her. It has also helped her financially. “I mostly guide tourists who come from Brazil. One of my clients, Gega from Brazil, supported me financially and helped me get sponsors for my training.”

It was a trek with her father to across the Renjo La (a pass) when she was 13 years old, that triggered the dream in Mingma to become a climber herself. The Renjo La Trek is a pass at an elevation of 5,360 m. “That sowed the seed of mountaineering in me. I want to climb Mount Everest very soon, maybe next year I will do it.”

Growing up on the lap of the mountains, Mingma can’t help but worry about the changes she has been observing in the Khumbu region. “Snowfall is on a decline. During our school days, there used to be one to two metre high snowfall in the winter season in Lukla. Now there is no snow here. We keep hearing of global warming,” she says.

“Even higher up the mountains there is a lack of snow. On the way to the Everest Base Camp, when you aclimatise at Dingboche village, you can see Taboche and Cholatse mountains on the left side, which are above 6,000 metres, and there was no snow this year,” she says.

Mingma is aware of the discussions to put a cap on the number of climbers allowed to scale Mount Everest each season. Recently, the Supreme Court of Nepal stepped in asking the government to conduct carrying capacity studies of various peaks inside Sagarmatha National Park and accordingly limit the number of climbers.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks, and foreign climbers are a major source of revenue for the Himalayan nation. In 2023, the government earned around $5 million in revenue from Mount Everest alone in one climbing season. Currently, there is no cap on the number of permits issued by the government to summit the various peaks.

“It won’t be easy. But, if the cap comes into play, it will be good. It will be good for us guides too because we have to handle everything — rooms, food, safety – of our clients,” says Mingma. “Even climbers who are coming from outside of Nepal, want less people so that they can walk freely and enjoy the view from the peak. But for the local economy, people and lodge/hotel owners want more tourists,” she adds.

“We guides often discuss how if climbing is suspended even for one year, the mountains will get a breather and things will get better,” she concludes, as a dinner of dal-bhat (lentil and rice) and fresh greens is announced.

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6qpm2UiJh0

*Nidhi Jamwal is a Mumbai-based journalist who writes on environment, climate, and rural issues. Her handle on X is @JamwalNidhi 

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