‘I See No Future’: Sherpas Leave the Job They Made Famous (2024)

It was a bring-your-child-to-work moment. The father’s intention, however, was not to inspire.

Kami Rita Sherpa, a renowned Nepali mountain guide who holds the record for most ascents of Mount Everest, took his 24-year-old son, Lakpa Tenzing, to the foot of the magnificent peak in late 2021 and told him this was as close as he should think about coming to it.

“It’s a struggle, look at me,” Mr. Sherpa recalled telling his son there. “I see no future.”

It is an increasingly common sentiment in a trade that has often been passed down through thegenerations, as the risk-to-reward calculation for more Sherpafamilies argues for abandoning the mountain.

The dangers of guiding climbers to the world’s highest peak, with the ever-present possibility of falls, avalanches and extreme weather, are evident. Nearly one-third of the 315 recorded deaths on Everest over the past century have been of Sherpa guides, according to the Himalayan Database, a mountaineering record-keeping body. Just last month, three Sherpas died when they were hit by a column of ice at a glacier near the mountain’s base camp.

The pay is also modest for all but those who make it to an elite and decorated club of guides, after years of grueling climbs and proven success. Sherpas early in their career make about $4,000, minus expenditures for arranging gear, for their once-a-season Everest expedition, which accounts for the bulk of their yearly income.