DAWA TASHI SHERPA'S TALE

Sibuje is a tiny village in the Everest Region of Nepal at an altitude of 2,300 meters (7,500 feet). It is a typical Sherpa village far from the tourist trails and remains underdeveloped.

​

Dawa Tashi Sherpa was born there on 17th May, 1991 to a farming family. From a very early age he worked the farm with his parents as many children do in the remote areas of Nepal.

​

In such a small village, education beyond primary level was not available, so Dawa had to move away from home at a young age to further his education. This was very difficult as he was separated from his family for long periods. At the age of 12 he decided to drop out of school to start work as a porter.

​

The work of a young porter is very tough. Porters are paid by weight so it is not unusual for even young boys to carry up to 50kg on their backs, a common sight on the trails in the Khumbu region. Despite this, the work and pay are better than can be expected from subsistence farming and Dawa has always been ambitious to improve himself and his family.

​

After six years working as a porter, Dawa began higher education and mountaineering training and started to gain work in the burgeoning tourism industry in Nepal. Over the years he worked his way up the ranks to the highest level of skill as a high-altitude Sherpa. In the Spring of 2013 he summited Mt Everest for the first time, and the following year repeated this ultimate climb.

​

In 2014, he was again with the British Everest Expedition team as a climbing Sherpa, like other Sherpa climbers his role was to assist climbers with transferring gear and supplies to the various camps.

​

The first ascent from Everest Base Camp passes through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, where the ice is constantly on the move. It is the job of Sherpa teams to determine the path and rig ropes for their climbing clients following them.

​

On 18 April  2014 the mountain was crowded and there were many Sherpas from different groups working systematically together to navigate the Icefall with climbing ladders.

​

In the midst of all this, disaster struck. The Sherpas heard a huge blast followed by the roar of an avalanche and knew that they were in serious danger. Dawa was roped with 13 others and had nowhere to go and no choice but to stay with the group.

​

In minutes, the group was swept away by the cascade of snow and ice as hard as rock. Dawa lost consciousness and when he came to he was half buried in the ice and was unable to see anything. The buried safety rope was holding him down, and he realised that he was the only one of the 13 men roped together that had survived.

​

Not long afterwards another group of Sherpas that had been in a safer zone and had not been hit by the avalanche were returning to Base Camp. They found Dawa and extricated him from the ice. His injuries were so bad they could not carry him down safely, so he was airlifted to hospital in Kathmandu with four broken ribs, a broken left shoulder and nose, and multiple tissue injuries.

​

The scariest moment for Dawa was when he looked in the mirror at the hospital and saw the extent of his injuries. He knew he had been very close to death. Recovery took almost a year, and although he is fine to work at lower altitudes, the very high summits like Everest will always be closed to him because of his injuries which make ascent above 6,000 metres very painful for him.

​

At the time there was a lot of media coverage.