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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 23, 2018 - 10:53am PT
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Nima Jamgmu from Rolwaling Valley, Nepal, has climbed three 8,000 meter peaks in 25 days.
Lhotse - April 29
Everest - May 14
Kangchenjunga - May 23
A recent article in Nepal lamented that there was a shortage of experienced high altitude Sherpas so maybe the Sherpa women will step up to fill the gap?
https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/woman-climber-nima-jangmu-sherpa-sets-world-record/
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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May 23, 2018 - 10:59am PT
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Cool. For some reason this makes me think of Warbler.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Topic Author's Reply - May 23, 2018 - 12:38pm PT
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Easy to say when you come from the first world where climbing is an amusement. For Nepalese, making a name for themselves is the only legal way to escape poverty. Alternatives? Engage in the drug trade drugs or work in the Middle East where a Nepalese body bag is shipped on an average of one a week.
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i-b-goB
Social climber
Wise Acres
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May 23, 2018 - 01:14pm PT
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What's the rush, take time to smell the glaciers! Hee - Hee, Awesome!!!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Topic Author's Reply - May 23, 2018 - 01:19pm PT
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Robert, I'd be willing to bet that their fathers were climbers to earn the money to send their children to school so they could study to be nurses and chefs etc. Khumbu had nearly a 25 year head start on Rolwaling for economic development through climbing and tourism. They're ahead a full generation in development because of that. The Rolwaling Sherpas are ahead of the Sherpas of the Arun Valley in their development by about an equivalent amount of time. One doesn't go from being illiterate to being a nurse in one generation. In most places it also takes more than two generations.
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couchmaster
climber
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May 23, 2018 - 02:06pm PT
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Jan knows what she's talking about. Just heard Natong Sherpa came over as his daughter has graduated as a Doctor in Arizona. You can't easily equate what you think as a westerner and believe that Sherpas, who do not have any of your luxuries, believe. They don't have power, roads or running water in most of those locals. I doubt Natong believes it's a sad state of affairs that his daughter came over here and became a doctor. Move over there for a while Robert and maybe you'll have a better perspective.
Any, great achievement! Congrats to Nima.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 25, 2018 - 07:54am PT
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Thanks for posting this up, Jan!
To my mind, the whole issue of gender equity in the workplace and women's achievements in mountain sports is not a simple one to unpack. Generally speaking, I presume I can't easily know what it's like to be a member of a group that has been discriminated against, or of a minority group to which I do not belong.
My understanding of Sherpa culture is that they don't have the luxury to experience mountain climbing as a pursuit for its own sake and as a form of recreation or escape. I would guess that they do appreciate the wild spaces and the rarity of the summits, but I can only imagine they're seeing it from a completely different perspective than that of Westerners.
From what I've read, their perspective is one of engaging in a very hazardous job which pays better than other alternatives available to them within their culture. Now, add to this that Nima is a woman.
She said:
“I want to ascend all three highest mountains in a season to show the world that Nepali women are also endowed with courage and determination”
When I first read this, I too, perhaps like Robert, thought to myself: what about the intrinsic value? Why put a statement about proving something right up front?
Certainly, when Lynn Hill free climbed the Nose of El Cap, there was plenty of intrinsic value for her. She loves climbing for its own sake. But even she has stated that she wanted to show that women could achieve things in climbing equal to that of men. (That's a paraphrase.)
In climbing and adventure sports, outside of formal competition, there exists between most players some form of informal, socialized competition. This can happen between any of the players or groups of players, and also between men and women. Certainly, we all experience some form of competition in the workplace, and again, this crosses gender lines and it's still well-known and documented that men and women do not across the board achieve equal pay for equal work.
Perhaps this is why Nima feels the need to state her desire to show something to the world about the capabilities of Nepali women. Perhaps it's simply because Sherpanis are in the minority, and she wants to expand awareness of their growing involvement.
On this topic in particular, rather than holding well-formed opinions, I find instead that I hold something more akin to curiosity and a desire to understand.
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LuckyPink
climber
the last bivy
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May 25, 2018 - 02:13pm PT
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Nima Jamgmu set a world record.. RIGHT ON, she's 28 years old and just hitting her stride.
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L
climber
Just livin' the dream on the California coast
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May 25, 2018 - 03:13pm PT
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Are we to laud achievments when people are motivated to climb these peaks in pursuit of cash and acclaim? Kind of like marrying for money.
Robert, it is nothing like "marrying for money".
Your ethnocentric prejudice has blinded you to the fact that this young woman has accomplished something spectacular in the mountaineering world.
Try looking at Nima's feat in that light, as opposed to judging her (and her people) from your pearly Westernized throne, eh?
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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May 25, 2018 - 06:31pm PT
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In the final you tube clip of John Meeks interviews with Pratt, Chuck mentioned that before he guided, he thought getting paid to guide was the equivalent of a climber being a whore, but then he tried it once, earned $80 for his labors, and said, "Hey, this isn't so bad after all." Plus he said that he liked teaching others how to climb. If you haven't looked at the 7th clip where he talks about it, definitely worth watching. With his self-depreciating sense of humor he talks about being a "prostitute climber", really good stuff.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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May 25, 2018 - 06:52pm PT
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LoL for f*#ks sake worry about own reasons for your climbs. Kudos to the climber. To do such a feat you must have a deeper love for the mountains than getting #instafukinfamous
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steve s
Trad climber
eldo
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May 25, 2018 - 07:58pm PT
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Proud accomplishment no matter what.
On a side note....what’s wrong with marrying for money?
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Topic Author's Reply - May 27, 2018 - 09:59am PT
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I just had dinner last night with three people from Nima's village and learned a little more about her. She's definitely not chubby, but does have a thicker padding of subcutaneous fat under her skin than most Sherpas even. This is one of the several traits that enable them to endure cold better than others and I suspect it was a factor in her success. I was told last night that no one in the world has climbed more than two 8,000 m. peaks in one season and so it was even more of a feat that a woman has become the first. Between them, Everest, Lhotse and Kangchenjunga are the three highest peaks in Nepal.
Nima comes from one of only two traditional Sherpa families left in Rolwaling, who still move from camp to camp following the yak in the summer and earning their living from agriculture only. Her father lost all ten fingers to frostbite on an expedition many years ago and their family is large, so they can not divide the land among the children and still make a living. Nima has been living at 13,000 feet helping her family, but her prospects for finding a husband and living anything but a lonely and isolated life depend on her leaving the valley at least temporarily and making her own way as all but two families from Rolwaling live in Kathmandu and other countries as well.
The climbing Sherpas of Rolwaling are very aware of the fact that their children whom they have educated with their hard earned expedition money, will not move back to their valley. Yet it is a sacred valley, very important in Buddhist tradition. Right now they are sponsoring a school in Rolwaling with expedition money, to give poor children from other regions, including non Sherpas, a traditional monastic education in the hope that some will stay in the Valley year round and maintain the temple and sacred landmarks. We discussed the possibility of religiously oriented tourism there as a method of reviving the population. Clearly, the Rolwaling Sherpas are well aware of the ironies of their success.
From an ecological point of view, no one lived year round in the area Sherpas inhabit until 500 years ago and Rolwaling until 175 years ago. It was settled only after more habitable valleys had filled up. It thus seems possible that Rolwaling will revert to what it was before that - a remote religious retreat for hermits. Khumbu by contrast, is blessed with much more land that is cultivable and more accessible to the outside world, and will no doubt remain inhabited.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 27, 2018 - 10:23am PT
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This is really enjoyable & informative reading, Jan!
Yesterday, I was pondering your original statement:
A recent article in Nepal lamented that there was a shortage of experienced high altitude Sherpas so maybe the Sherpa women will step up to fill the gap? I can imagine that in 10, 20, 30 years, a state of affairs may come to be where Sherpa women, particularly Sherpani guides would actually equal or even outnumber men.
Think about it, perhaps this sounds like science fiction: but women have more subcutaneous fat, good for staving off cold as you just mentioned, and maybe a benefit to high-altitude endurance? They may also tend toward a more empathetic, client-centered risk analysis schema, less prone to taking more flagrant risks as we men have been known to do, which could put them, as a group, in higher demand overall.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Topic Author's Reply - May 27, 2018 - 11:01am PT
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Thanks Roy! Another scenario is that due to an all round labor shortage, Everest might in 10-30 years revert back to what it was before. Then western climbers would again have to be skilled and do their own expedition work. We might come to see Everest as we do the many abandoned Colorado mining towns, places that made a few people rich who then moved on.
Here's a video of Nima's welcome home afterwards. It's clear the whole community supported her, but especially the women. In fact, the Rolwaling people had all contributed money for her expeditions. The support a person receives as a member of a tribe is wonderful, but the Rolwaling Sherpas in particular are known for being united and cooperative.
https://www.facebook.com/mingmanurusherpa.sherpa/videos/10215166934625070/UzpfSTExODM3Mjg5OTE6MTAyMTUxNjY5ODg1MDY0MTc/
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i'm gumby dammit
Sport climber
da ow
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May 27, 2018 - 02:34pm PT
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Excellent well done.
As far as her being chubby goes, you can't spell subCUTanEous without cute.
mebbe that was a bit of a stretch.
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