The mountain guide Kami Rita Sherpa has been to the highest point in the world 30 times. That’s a world record. But a lot has changed on Mount Everest, he complains.
The Nepalese mountain guide Kami Rita Sherpa has already fulfilled a lifelong dream for dozens of people: He has led them up Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world – and in doing so has now set a new world record. On Wednesday morning at 7.49 a.m. he stood on the 8,849-meter-high summit for the 30th time – more often than any other person before him, as a Nepalese official who is currently in the Everest base camp told the German Press Agency.
Nevertheless, the 54-year-old remains modest. “It’s never been about records for me,” he told the German Press Agency beforehand. “I’m simply feeding my family.” Mountaineering is just a job for him.
Kami Rita Sherpa belongs to the Sherpa ethnic group that lives in the Himalayas. And like many of them, he comes from a family of mountain guides. At the age of 24, he stood on Mount Everest for the first time. Back then, three decades ago, the world of mountaineering was different, said the man with a weather-beaten face somewhat wistfully. “There were few expeditions and we Sherpas had to prove ourselves with hard work to be hired as mountain guides,” he said. Back then, there were experienced mountaineers on the move, he said. People who wanted to discover new routes and who spent months on bumpy paths with a few Sherpas and yaks just to reach the base camp.
All-inclusive trips to the roof of the world
Today, however, extreme sports are big business. More and more expedition companies are offering all-inclusive trips to the roof of the world, which usually cost 50,000 to 100,000 euros per person. “You can land directly in the helicopter at the base camp and order any dish that you would get in a five-star hotel in the capital Kathmandu,” said Kami Rita Sherpa. “If you have money, you will receive comfortable accommodation, internet connection and medical care at the base camp.”
The packages also include equipment, oxygen tanks, accommodation and a Sherpa team to guide the route, carry luggage and cook, as well as a fee for an official climbing permit. The foreign guests can get used to the thin air at altitude in many hotels and teahouses and their expeditions last only half as long as before, with travel and acclimatization taking about 45 days, said Sherpa.
Anyone who wants to climb Mount Everest for the first time during the peak season in spring now has twice as high a chance of success as they did around 20 years ago, US researchers report in the specialist journal “PLOS One”. And the death rate therefore remained almost unchanged.
300 to 400 summiteers per year
With Sherpa support, 300 to 400 foreigners now make it to the highest selfie point in the world every year – adventurers, monarchs, billionaires and many record hunters. An 80-year-old Japanese man, a 13-year-old American and several amputees and blind people were also there.
“Mountain climbers don’t have to work hard these days,” said Kami Krita Sherpa. “They can just hang on to the ropes that Sherpas have anchored along the entire route.” According to the expedition archive “Himalayan Database”, more than 6,600 people have stood on the summit 12,000 times. They left behind broken tents, empty oxygen bottles, food packaging and other rubbish that has given the mountain the sad notoriety of being the highest garbage dump in the world.
“It’s good that Mount Everest is so popular now,” says Kami Rita Sherpa. “More tourism helps us all.” But the fact that more and more people without any experience are seeking the great adventure on the mountain worries him: “They are risking their lives – and those of others.” Including Sherpas like him. “Despite all of this, you need certain skills, good health and luck to survive the cold, the thin air, avalanches and other dangers.”
Mountain of Death
Some adventurers get frostbite or have their toes amputated. And anyone who wants to get to the top has to walk past corpses. Dozens of bodies have never been recovered – partly because it is expensive. According to data from the “Himalayan Database”, more than 300 people have died on the mountain so far – more than a third of them Sherpas. They have to carry the heavy loads and therefore climb up and down between the four high camps more often than their customers, who, on the other hand, often get more fame and recognition in the form of sponsorship or book contracts.
Meanwhile, many Sherpa mountain guides are giving up their jobs and looking for alternative jobs – for example as a mountain guide abroad or in a completely different profession, said Kami Rita Sherpa. For many mountain guides, the high risks are simply not worth risking their lives, despite being paid the equivalent of just under 3,000 euros to more than 10,000 euros per season, depending on experience.
And if something were to happen to you, your family would have little protection. To meet demand in the mountaineering business, expedition companies today hire mountain guides and porters with little or no experience, he said. This is a worrying trend. He wants to continue climbing Mount Everest for as long as his health allows. But he advises his children to get another job. His daughter Pasang is studying computer science and his son Lakpa is studying tourism management.