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1921 Rendezvous:  Mallory, Pumori and Everest

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121144/636a41889c7e80680e04a67ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="964"/><figcaption>THOSE WERE THE DAYS: Kancha Sherpa (circled, above) in a group photo taken after the first successful ascent of Mt Everest in May 1953. Standing (5th, 6th, 7th from left) are Edmund Hillary, John Hunt and Tenzing Norgay.</figcaption></figure>In 1952, when a Swiss expedition camped out at <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/capital-of-sherpaland-gets-a-makeover/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Namche Bazar</a> on its way to climb the world’s highest mountain, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-season-of-summits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kancha Sherpa</a> was impressed with the climbers’ gear. They looked glamorous, and their Sherpa guides had swagger. It made a deep impression on the 19-year-old, who ran away from home to Darjeeling to join Tenzing Norgay, who was preparing for the 1953 John Hunt expedition.As a teenager, Kancha Sherpa used to work as a porter, crossing Nangpa La to Tibet with loads of paper and bringing back up to 40kg of salt to barter for maize or rice. When he was offered Rs8 per day to join the Everest expedition, with a bonus for going above Camp 7, it felt like a windfall.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-season-of-summits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The season of summits</a>, Lisa ChoegyalDespite having no previous climbing experience, Kancha was trained to use ropes and crampons and set out for the icefall with heavy loads of oxygen cylinders for the higher camps. Being better acclimatised than western climbers and used to carrying heavy loads, Kancha made a good impression on the ‘sahibs’.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121144/636a418b9c7e80680e04a67fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1201" height="1500"><figcaption>Kancha Sherpa at 87, in his home in Namche Bazar this week. Photo: SHARAD OJHA</figcaption></figure>Kancha made it to the South Col at 8,100m with his load, and remembers <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3247#.XOUP1FIzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tenzing Norgay</a> trying to lift the spirits of young Sherpas like him who were not used to the dangerous mountaineering on the steep ice of the Lhotse Face. Kancha portered for other expeditions in the Himalaya, but after his brother Jangbu died on the slopes and following a 1973 tragedy in which 11 <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/hypoxia-inducible-factor-genes-of-sherpas,1741" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sherpas</a> were killed in an avalanche, he was convinced by his wife to give up climbing.She was right: one-third of deaths on Mt Everest alone have been among Sherpa guides, who are much more exposed to avalanches on the Khumbu Icefall because they go back and forth many more times than their employers. Kancha Sherpa openly admits he worked as a high altitude porter and later as a trekking guide for the money -- he had no real desire to reach the top.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121144/636a418e9c7e80680e04a680jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427">Kancha Sherpa set up the Nirvana Lodge in Namche and did well thanks to the trekking boom of the 1980s onwards. He educated his two sons and two daughters, who are scattered in Kathmandu and Denmark. Grandson Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa is a climate scientist and part of a <a href="https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2019/04/11/national-geographic-society-launches-2019-everest-expedition/">National Geographic expedition</a> this season to study the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">impact of global warming on Mt Everest</a>.Just as Edmund Hillary returned after his 1953 first ascent to help the Sherpa people with schools and hospitals, Kancha set up a <a href="https://kanchhafoundation.org/about-kanchha-sherpa/">foundation</a> to support fellow Sherpas pursuing higher education.He has been featured in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/04/19/google-everest/">This is Home</a>. The story is included in <a href="https://earth.google.com/web/">Google Earth</a> Outreach’s StoryCycle, which has a new interface called Voyager featuring map-based stories from the Khumbu.https://youtu.be/fG1Oz9u0cTUAs the last living Sherpa of the first expedition to climb Mt Everest 66 years ago, Kancha Sherpa says he has no regrets, adding that the 1953 climb and changes to his homeland since then seem like a dream. He recalls: “It used to take two weeks to walk from Namche to Darjeeling; today I can take a helicopter to Kathmandu from a nearby helipad.”Kancha Sherpa retains his respect and reverence for the mountains, and believes their sanctity should not be defiled. “They are gods, it is not good for anyone if they get angry. We should keep the mountains clean, and prevent the snows from melting.”

The last of the first

<figure><img width="780" height="776" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/636903f09c7e80680e037cf2jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>HOME IN THE MOUNTAINS: Ted Atkins in Khumjung below three of the mountains he had climbed: Mt Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam.</figcaption></figure>Ted Atkins, a British mountaineer, entrepreneur and frequent contributor to Nepali Times on climbing safety in the Himalaya died on Tuesday while descending Civetta in the Dolomites.Atkins was an aerosystems engineer and a member of the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service and led the Mt Everest North Ridge Expedition in 2001. He summited Everest later from the Nepal side, and went on to climb Kangchenjunga, Makalu, Lhotse and Ama Dablam.He also set a world record for the highest ever boat ride by paddling a raft on a glacial lake at 6,300m below Everest. Colleagues remember him as a man who pushed the limits to get the job done, and was always trying out new adventures like <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/everest-skydive-nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">high altitude freefall diving</a>.After leaving the RAF, Atkins ran a thriving business selling bottled oxygen to Himalayan expeditions at a time where there had been several fatalities caused by faulty equipment. His cylinders had a new kind of delivery system that he invented himself. “Everything Ted did was to the max, he had so many adventures and epics it is hard to believe he fell on the way from a via Feratta near his home in Italy,”<a href="https://heavywhalley.wordpress.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> wrote a friend in a blog tribute</a>. <figure><img width="1500" height="1167" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/636903f39c7e80680e037cf3jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-oxygen-of-mountaineering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article he wrote for Nepali Times this year in May</a> recounted a close brush with death when his oxygen cylinder exploded before a climb. Many expeditions reported <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/new-records-oxygen-failure-on-everest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">malfunctioning cylinder regulators</a> procured in Kathmandu this year. In the article he blamed it on greed of unscrupulous businessmen. Atkins was working to make it safer with his company, <a href="https://www.gasworld.com/everest-oxygen-plant-first/2014746.article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Top Out Oxygeneering</a>.Atkins often lamented the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/outside-in/shooting-ourselves-in-the-foot/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commercialisation of mountaineering in Nepal in his columns</a> and also had suggestions for improving Nepal’s tourism image. For instance, he thought <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Outside-In/business-customer-relationship,388" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathmandu Airport gave a very bad first impression of Nepal to visitors</a>.Atkins seemed to have a premonition of his death when <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-oxygen-of-mountaineering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he quoted in his last coluimn in this paper</a> the words of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/i-want-to-live-my-last-among-friends/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upendra Devkota</a>, the neurosurgeon <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/upendra-devkotas-lives/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who passed away in June after battling terminal cancer</a>: “Death is not so important. What is important is what the dead person leaves behind”.Atkin’s last words in that piece were: ‘Wise words that make me wish I knew the doctor. What do we leave behind, did we make anything better, what will our children say about us? Think about the future, their future.’ <h2>“Always make things better”</h2> <figure><img width="778" height="545" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/636903f79c7e80680e037cf4jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Ted was killed while descending a mountain near his home in the Italian Dolomites. A mountain that he had climbed many times before.As a true engineer, his outlook on life was always to make things better. His contribution to Nepal, especially as a pioneer in the field of mountaineering oxygen systems, is immeasurable. He was always a patient teacher to me and humored me always in my ignorance. Many were the times we shared a plate of chips and a beer or sat in his ‘mad scientist lab’ and talked about the purpose of our lives. You always lived your life to the fullest, making the best of each day. In that same spirit, you have left us so very suddenly doing what you loved doing.Ted was more like family to all of us here at ASTREK. His zest for life always energised us and his incredible stories could put a smile on anyone’s face. You may be gone but you will never be forgotten. I will miss you sorely. Dhanyabad for the memories MeroSaathi. Rest In Peace My Friend.<a href="https://www.facebook.com/dawasteven" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dawa Steven Sherpa</a>, mountaineer and partner with Atkins in Top Out Nepal. <h2>“Spread positive energy”</h2> <figure><img width="855" height="570" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/636903f99c7e80680e037cf5jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Ted was an integral part of the mountaineering community in Nepal, greatly contributing to the development of oxygen systems and masks. With his Topout oxygen masks, he enabled hundreds of people reach the top of an 8,000m-peak in Nepal and fulfilling their dreams. Ted shall be greatly missed, not only for his incredible ability to come up with solid solutions to technical problems, his vigour to improve things and his expertise in many fields, but also for the amazing positive energy he spread around the streets of Kathmandu. It was always a pleasure to meet up with Ted, philosophise about life and the universe with him, listen to his adventurous stories and have a good laugh with him.Ted certainly lived his life, which sadly ended less than three months before his 60th birthday, to the full and enjoyed every moment of it. Thanks Ted for giving so much to Nepal and its mountaineering community. You have made your mark and you shall be greatly missed.<a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009403310129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Billi Bierling</a>, mountaineer and convener of the Himalayan Database

everest-expedition

1921 Rendezvous: Mallory, Pumori and Everest

The last of the first

Ted Atkins killed in climb