For those who do not want to mountaineer, Newton's sentence may be changed to: If I ascend higher than others, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants. Yes, beneath their hard, icy crampons are those "husbands" who live at the foot of Mount Everest and who are poor, humble, live-and-death -
Nepal Sherpa back husband, sent a lot of supplies for the climbers
With tough shoulders, they brought countless supplies to the climbers from the foot of the mountain, and they also brought back countless trash and even dead bodies of climbers from the mountains. Without them, this 88,8 meters above sea level will not accommodate so many challengers. But they have no name, or only one name - Sherpa.
These husbands make us live like civilized people
"I do not feel anything wrong with my husband's work, and I rely on my body to feed my family, which is a decent job in Khon Joon ." His name is Purba Sherpa , Everest Campground (Nepal) ordinary husband. While he was saying this, he was leaning against the curb of the road smoking a cigarette, next to a 70 kilogram diesel generator - the big guy on his way in the next few days climbing three hours a day, To meet the needs of our pedestrians charging devices - such as Gopro, Canon SLR, laptops, and even a set of satellite equipment for Internet access, so that we live like a civilized man in this barren land. "
I know you spend a lot, but I only take the share of the money I deserve, there is nothing to say. I've worked for a lot of big companies such as the BBC, they have more equipment than you have, longer time to spend, and of course more for me. "
Pablo Sherpa, working for us
I know what he said is true, even though he smokes cigarettes is the cheapest in the area. At this point, we have been hiking for three days in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park from the Lukla entrance at 2,805 meters to the 5,300-meter EBC (Everest Base Camp, meaning Everest Base Camp ) Proceed. It has the deepest glacier valley in the world and has the most staggering views. Every year, it attracts numerous climbers, and in their hearts Everest is the symphony of life and the Mecca of the spiritual world.
Pobar Sherpa is only one of more than 30 Sherpas back in charge of our team transport, and they collectively bear more than 600 kg of supplies . Here, as long as you have money, they can go back anything. You know, in the 2016 Everest Mountaineering season, every climber customer spent more than $ 45,000.
In Everest base camp, climbers tent camping has been laid under the isolation of gravel glacier wood, also covered with thick wool felt and electric floor heating equipment to ensure that even at minus 20 degrees in the night, tent People still can wear a unlined to sleep. Red Fuji apples from China, Swiss imports of cookies, Russian vodka, French wines, the United States cola everything.
If you are willing to pay an extra fee, you can even eat seafood by air from Kathmandu by helicopter, one-way 5000 US dollars. Even at altitudes of over 7,000 meters above sea level, Sherpas can give you a bowl of steaming beef fried rice.
And Poba Sherpa, one person carrying a huge generator, it takes 6 days to walk from Lukla to Everest camp, and he got only twice the local ordinary work remuneration - dozens of dollars Only.
Even for the wealthiest people to work, Sherpa income is still meager
Today, many people think Mount Everest has gradually become a wealthy Vanity Fair, climbing is no longer a great sport, but more and more full of money taste. A small number of mountaineers spender their climbing methods and Sherpas back home meager income in sharp contrast - many people doubt the commercial mountaineering.
Jiang Mulin, son of mountaineer Tenzin Noghia, made a remark about this. "Mount Everest seems to have become a show in many countries, companies and even individuals. It seems that climbing itself does not matter."
However, the commercialization of mountaineering is like the gospel of God for the entire area of Khon Kaen. To know that the average annual income of Nepalese people is only a few hundred dollars, compared with several dozen dollars per day, sherpa's income is considerable.
"People who are now climbing Mount Everest are just too happy!" Said Mancha Sherpa, who lives in Namchi. He is 84 years old this year and has participated in the first human ascension of Mount Everest in 1953, completed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzin Nogai. Today, all the members of that great expedition are dead, and only he is still alive. "
You can not imagine the hardships of that time - we hired hundreds of yaks to carry supplies. At that time, there was no airport. All of them were going to the camp on thick cotton padded clothes. Every day, members of the team who dropped their arms because of the high reaction and frostbite were paid but pitifully paying only 8 rupees per day (equivalent to 0.5 yuan ) ".
The summit's significance no less than Armstrong left the human footprint on the moon. Since then, Everest ushered in countless summit. And they also bring new industries to the area. Roughly calculating, there are about a thousand Sherpas who make a living, but hundreds of Sherpas have died as a result.
"I was buried here last year when the earthquake was avalanche ... terrible!" My Sherpa Collaboration (Sherpa Helping Climbers to Get Ridged) Basang Pointed at a Gravel in the Southern Slope Camp Beach shook his head to me. The 2015 Nepal earthquake, coincided with Mount Everest climbing season, a major avalanche here, killing 19 people's lives. Basang was also buried in the tent at the time, but he suffered only minor injuries, but his five Sherpas were not as lucky as his friends, and they could not even find the body. As a collaboration, thousands of even tens of thousands of dollars will be paid if they can lead a team member successfully to Mount Everest, which is simply a good business for them.
"Human beings can never conquer nature, snow mountains are sacred, no one mountain will be conquered by us, and we can ascend the summit, just the gift of the mountain god to us without leaving us on top."
Basang was furious about the frequent word "conquering Mount Everest" in media reports. He asked, "Why do people think so naively that they can conquer the mountains and conquer nature?"
But when I asked him if he thought Mount Everest was damaging to the mountain environment and some were too commercialized, he shook his head and said, "Everest has existed for so long now that Everest brings me wealth I'm a Sherpa, and I really do not know what else I can do to make my family better if not climbing. (Mountaineering) This is the gift God has given us.
However, environmental issues facing Mount Everest today are still frustrating, including Basang, who also have to admit it. "Many of the abandoned oxygen bottles were still scattered in snow at 7400 m C3 or 7900 m C4 on the slope. climber to climb Mount Everest, the first task is to climb to the top, as the environment or other things are secondary. a lot of people summited will not come back, so they do not care about our lives The place is clean or fucking garbage dumps, and the only thing they care about is the summit. "
In fact, the Nepalese government authorities are not negligent in environmental governance, but these policies are not helpful to solve the most fundamental issue - for example, to climbers charge $ 150 / person's environmental protection fee, but the penny covers almost all camps Clean-up operations, including excrement removal - dumped the manure bucket back by the Sherpa (a work the government calls a "zero-droppit clean-up plan").
As a result, a few tons of rubbish will still be added to the Sagarmatha National Park where Mount Everest is located every year. According to the current rectification efforts, it may not be long before it will turn out to be beyond recognition.
Glacier doctor
Ordinary people watch mountaineering films, there will always be such questions: who climbed the mountain route out? Who is the lock on the cliff? At Everest, the answer to this question is SPCC and Glacier Doctors.
SPCC full name Sagarmatha Pollution ControlCommittee (Sagarmatha National Park Pollution Control Committee). The organization was established in 1991, the main responsibility is to deal with the region 2600 meters above sea level to more than 8000 meters of garbage. In addition to being responsible for rubbish clearance in Mount Everest, the organization is also responsible for the construction of glacier roads in Mount Everest C1-C2.
Glacier doctor, as the name implies, is a profession born to repair a glacier climbing path. These brave and fearless Sherpas open up a path where there is no road and fix a place where the road is broken. They give life-support to those who climb Mount Everest. And this protection, but it is these glaciers in exchange for their own lives.
Between the Khumbu Glacier Base Camp and Camp C2, there is a "notorious" khumbu glacier built on numerous ice cracks and unstable glaciers, and any one of the climbers can be as scared as they climb this path. Glaciers travel countless times in this annual climbing season, setting up relatively safe paths for climbers to provide them with maximum life support.
But for the Khumbu glacier, there will never be foolproof. The most recent catastrophe occurred during the 2014 climbing season, when the collapse of the Glacier claimed the lives of 16 Sherpa road users. The accident directly led to the termination of the climb on the southern slope of Mount Everest. In the center of Everest base camp, is the SPCC camp, neatly placed outside the tent glacier bridge with aluminum ladder, the ladder will be broken clutter of the Khumbu glaciers, has been leading to the peak, climbers said It is "the road to life."
But who is this life? I met here a few Glaciers doctors who are resting at camp camps, one of whom is Rakbas Sherpa. They are mainly responsible for the construction of the base camp C2 road, the most dangerous Khumbu glacier here. It was not too long before the time of the mountain disaster in 2014 - he was very fortunate that day because he was physically unimpressed to survive, but most of his friends were dead.
"The job is always someone's done, the accident is always unavoidable, and if you are afraid, do not come here." Lakbas Sherpa said smiling at the moment, and he did not seem to feel scared, maybe Dangerous work has blunted his sense of fear, or a sense of accomplishment shown by people in the dilemma of existence, or both, and when I want to learn more about the pay for this job, the person in charge Pugar snatched over and replied, "They will not tell you the specific salary. They are volunteered to take part in the work. The treatment given to them by SPCC is very good."
Obviously, what Purba deliberately hides. As far as I know, SPCC funds in addition to come from all countries mountaineering company, but also a large part of donations from non-governmental organizations. In Nepal, where corruption is a serious problem, and especially in Mount Everest, where money is "piled up", everything about money is especially sensitive.
Glaciers such as Raksabiru are obviously the most respected glaciers in the southern slope camp and every climber will have a good working relationship with SPCC camp staff as we all know that it is because of these The courageous glaciers doctors have reduced the risk of climbing Everest, they are the protection of climbers life, not the government and SPCC officials.
As a pedestrian who lives in the southern slope of Mount Everest for more than 20 days, we have been in contact with many Sherpas and climbers. In order to deepen the experience of climbers and glaciers doctors, we specially climbed the Khumbu Glacier With this experience, I just thought I had too one-sided thinking about mountaineering.
In this regard, our team leader, Wuhan University, Nepal students Tianba Sherpa said very pertinent: "I am full of respect for all the climbers, whether commercial or independent mountaineering.Because they are in their own way To realize their dreams, many people now question the difficulty of climbing Everest or the way of commercial climbing. Some people think that as long as you have enough money to climb Mount Everest, this is wrong!
It is undeniable that Mount Everest need tens of thousands of dollars to climb the cost of climbing there are frequent four or five days, there is no economic basis, there is no time guarantee is absolutely not work. However, when people simply think that money can climb Mount Everest, these facts are either inadvertently or deliberately ignored - that is, the climber's courage, endurance, determination, and their desire for a dream, which It is unfair to them. As for climbing Mount Everest, I do not think it is easy to succeed at any time, whether past, present or future. "
In response, Zhang Wei, founder of the fourteen mountain peaks of China's mountain climbing service providers, admits that climbing is a cruel sport. He had climbed Mount Everest several times and witnessed many people died. "Some are walking dead, some sitting dead, others lying dead, and all are waiting to die."
"Even now, commercial climbing is getting more mature, safety factor is higher and more advanced equipment, but when the climber rose to an altitude of 7,000 meters above the body carrying more than 10 kg heavy equipment, no one can at this time To help you carry, Sherpa will not, even if Wang Shi, too .In the 8000 meters above the death zone, the oxygen content of less than 1/3 of the sea level, low pressure headache burst, nothing is easy of."
When Babe Sherpa said these things, he deliberately extended his hands with only five fingers. This was his frostbite when he climbed Everest from Nepal in 1999. Eventually, he was unable to stop at 8820 meters because of his physical strength, only 20 meters above the peak. In 2001, he successfully climbed the summit from the northwestern slope of Mount Everest in the direction of China and became the youngest record-holder in Mount Everest, Nepal. He was 16 when he was interviewed by the king.
For the conflict between Mount Everest and climbers, the young sky, Sherpa, said: "You know, there are people there will be garbage when people face life and death or interests, all the moral and norms Will be left behind, which is often said by climbers, in the mountains will magnify people's good, but it will amplify human evil.
What we can do is to establish a better management system and to increase the clout of climbers themselves. In the mountains, no effort is superfluous, people would rather carry a heavy SLR camera to climb, but also do not want to bring some garbage down the mountain, this is a reality. "
(Finish)
Editor = Wang Zhe interview = Gao Chengwen = Gao Cheng + Wang Zhe photography = high commitment