A Few Feet Short by Jamey Glasnovic

Author:Jamey Glasnovic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RMB | Rocky Mountain Books
Published: 2018-11-12T16:00:00+00:00

11.

JUNBESI

The Lamjura La is a significant physical barrier. Once over it, you experience a sense of accomplishment and relief. Not only have you overcome a major hurdle on the route to Everest Base Camp; you are also entering Sherpa country.

Sherpa is not a job, it is an ethnic group, and the distinction has been convoluted by modern mythology. The Western conception of sherpas, small s, as high-altitude guides, lodge managers, local trail information experts and conveyors of back-breaking loads is largely geographical in origin. It stands to reason that if your home is among the tallest mountains in the world, then when outsiders begin to explore your backyard in search of glory and adventure, they will enlist your help in the endeavour. Being exceptional at the task is going to earn you a reputation, but the average porter in this region is just as likely to be Tamang – guides come from all over the country in search of work, and nonfamilial lodge employees are often Rai.

Sherpa, big S, are the descendants of migrants from Tibet who settled in what is now Nepal over 500 years ago. They were farmers and traders who have since added hospitality, food and beverage and, most notably, mountaineering to their collective résumé. The Solu-Khumbu is their homeland.

The Solu-Khumbu district is what most Westerners who have never been to Nepal might recognize, perhaps not by name but certainly by reputation. Mother Goddess of the World to Sherpas and Tibetans, Mount Everest sits near the top of a popular valley in the district and draws the curious and intrepid alike with her undeniable power. After Kathmandu and the Annapurna region, it is the destination most often visited by foreigners, but after the airport at Lukla was established in 1964, the southern, or Solu, half of the district was destined to be a footnote for most. Khumbu gets all the attention. The airport was originally meant to improve freight transportation in the development of schools and hospitals for the people of the Khumbu Valley. Sir Edmund Hillary, through his charity, the Himalayan Trust, was instrumental in making the airport a reality, but inevitably it has transformed into a shuttle for tourists as much as a tool for moving supplies.

In his autobiography, Nothing Venture, Nothing Win, Hillary himself predicted the danger to local culture the airport might pose but also noted the Sherpa people were already being influenced by foreign climbing expeditions. They wanted better education and health care as part of their quest for a higher standard of living. Hillary committed himself to making it happen.

Like climbing, trekking in the Solu-Khumbu also began within a decade of Nepal opening its borders in the early 1950s, but it hardly took off as a destination in the beginning. The first group that were neither scientists nor mountaineers arrived in 1955, and in 1964 only 14 foreigners visited the region. The development of international tourism coincided with this slow transformation but was in its infancy back then as well, so

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