“She’s gone” the choked voice of her daughter on the call from Auckland said it all. “Please can you tell her friends in Nepal?” As I caught my breath and gazed at the cloud-shrouded Annapurna peaks beyond the balcony, it dawned on me that a great lady had departed. Lady June Hillary died on 1 June 2024 surrounded by her daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren in the Auckland care home overlooking the green fields and leafy avenues of Cornwall Park. A tireless friend of Nepal, June was a supportive wife to Sir Edmund Hillary and played a significant role in his life and work. In her own right, she served for decades as Nepal Honorary Consul-General to New Zealand and was patron of the New Zealand Nepal Society, promoting cultural understanding and ensuring that Nepal's rich heritage and traditions were celebrated and appreciated in New Zealand. She chaired the Himalayan Trust New Zealand for several years after Sir Ed’s death, 16 years ago.&nbsp; Dinesh Khadka, the current Honorary Consul-General in Auckland wrote: “Lady Hillary was an exceptional individual whose contributions to Nepal and the Nepalese community in New Zealand were immeasurable." The Himalayan Trust New Zealand farewelled her on social media: "June was involved in the Himalayan Trust since its beginnings through her friendship with Ed and Louise. She had a deep fondness for the Himalaya and the people of Nepal.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070652_b1aee69338867a35c7b1045c01784d1a0ff5e398eea3038f5405601c6893d5cb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240605070652_b1aee69338867a35c7b1045c01784d1a0ff5e398eea3038f5405601c6893d5cb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Lady June Hillary NT"> <figcaption>Photo courtesy of Susan Hayman</figcaption> </figure>  As lamps were lit and pujas planned throughout the mountains, Himalayan Trust Nepal posted: “Lady June Hillary made significant contributions to the humanitarian initiatives to support the people of Nepal throughout her life. She was a very good friend of the Sherpas. Her dedication and compassion touched countless lives and will continue to inspire us all.” Effortlessly stylish in her trademark navy and flowing scarfs, never a hair dared escape her elegant silver chignon, even on remote trekking trails. From their home in Remuera Auckland, she accompanied Sir Ed on his punishing schedule of global public appearances, event openings and Himalayan Trust appeals. Perhaps most of all she will be remembered for her dogged dedication to the wellbeing of Sir Edmund Hillary, a great man in both stature and accomplishments who had been felled by the double disaster of losing his wife Louise and youngest daughter Belinda in the Kathmandu plane crash in 1975.&nbsp; June is credited with lifting her husband out of the devastation and deep withdrawal that followed this tragedy, Sir Ed’s saviour, his "steadfast support system". &nbsp;“June enlivened Ed's last decades, or maybe even more accurately she kept him alive after the accident,“ wrote Australian filmmaker Michael Dillon, who spent many months with the Hillarys.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070656_449daafceb96e7b336baf2a75e5e445cb329e78c153b10372226afed37ec9d41.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240605070656_449daafceb96e7b336baf2a75e5e445cb329e78c153b10372226afed37ec9d41" data-rendition-name="original" width="778" height="1128" loading="lazy" alt="Lady June Hillary NT"> <figcaption>Sir Ed and June Hillary, Richard Blum, Elizabeth Hawley at the consecration of Thyangboche monastery 1993.</figcaption> </figure>  Raised a catholic in post-war Wellington, June was first married to Peter Mulgrew with whom she had two daughters, Robyn and Susan. A close friend of Sir Ed, Peter was a dashing figure, a mountaineer and yachtsman, who had both feet amputated after a climbing accident on Makalu. The foursome were close friends, travelled together and helped during the early years of the Himalayan Trust. In 1979, Peter was killed in the Mount Erebus air disaster, a sightseeing flight lost over the Antarctic on which he was the celebrity commentator, ironically as a stand-in for Sir Ed. It was perhaps inevitable after these catastrophes that Sir Ed and June found strength and solace in each other. At Sir Ed’s side, June accompanied him to New Delhi during his four-year stint as New Zealand High Commissioner from 1985 – her unwed status regularised as his Official Companion. They only married after their return to New Zealand in 1989. It was during his frequent visits to Nepal as Ambassador that I first got to know June. I loved her caring tenacity, her feisty humour and especially her acerbic wit. June’s fierce and gallant commitment to Sir Ed’s best interests were not always well understood or appreciated, but we knew Sir Ed could not manage without her.&nbsp; Sir Ed was a towering figure, but Lady June was equally staunch at his side, discrete, always there, ever watchful. No stranger to controversy, newspaper reports of which she did not approve would be dismissed as “wrapping for tomorrow’s fish and chips” with an unhappy shrug. But as a grounded Kiwi, she deftly navigated the privilege and pitfalls of being married to a national hero and “the greatest New Zealander”. After a fundraising dinner in San Francisco, June twinkled: “Quite fun, being seated between Warren Beatty and HH the Dalai Lama.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070656_a52200f895b5fc8d7116243c1aabd64b5664abf3785236a961b5b56856218e27.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240605070656_a52200f895b5fc8d7116243c1aabd64b5664abf3785236a961b5b56856218e27" data-rendition-name="original" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" alt="Lady June Hillary NT"> <figcaption>Sir Edmund Hillary and Lady June Hillary. Lady June deftly navigated the balance of public and private life with Sir Ed. Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070656_f3f4d1e77fb4911ad911eefd18f78d02a9dc06d1838f3717fc0121952db86aef.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240605070656_f3f4d1e77fb4911ad911eefd18f78d02a9dc06d1838f3717fc0121952db86aef" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="844" loading="lazy" alt="Lady June Hillary NT"> <figcaption>Lady June with Sir Edmund Hillary, King Charles III and Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand.</figcaption> </figure>  As Jim Edward’s guests at Tiger Tops they joined us to present Elephant Polo trophies and party at New Year’s Eve in Chitwan between diplomatic duties and philanthropic trips to the Khumbu. Together they opened Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge in 1998, and June returned to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. The 50 year anniversary of the first Sagarmatha summit, 29 May 2003, was a hot day in the splendid British Embassy residence gardens. Live broadcasts anchored by TVNZ presenter Mark Sainsbury linked the Sherpa dancing and celebrity interviews with events in New Zealand. Ang Dooly was there to celebrate and remember Mingma Norbu, Kanchha, Pertemba, Lhakpa Norbu, Ang Rita and many others. As the sun beat down and guests sipped drinks, June passed the phone to Sir Ed and he spoke to his son Peter on Everest. I suggested perhaps they would like a break and a shower. “We’re not like that” June laughed it off, always the trooper. “We’ll just carry on.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024060702060_ff8c84dd4383c443e7920bddb3aecf683ff41234a3001c92350426870fb65f0b.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2024060702060_ff8c84dd4383c443e7920bddb3aecf683ff41234a3001c92350426870fb65f0b" data-rendition-name="original" width="640" height="391" loading="lazy" alt="Lady June Hillary"> <figcaption>Lady June in Nepal in 1961.</figcaption> </figure>  At Sir Edmund Hillary’s state funeral in January 2008, a visibly shaken Lady June sat swathed in black beside Prime Minister Helen Clark as the service was broadcast around the world. The iconic image of her touching the casket in farewell was entirely spontaneous, she told me afterwards. June had thought Sir Ed was being discharged from hospital, “but instead, he died that morning.” It was a moment she frequently recalled. Forever linked with Sagarmatha and the Sherpas, Lady June’s death comes just days after the 71st anniversary of Sir Edmund's historic first summit of Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay, and a week before the centenary of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine’s disappearance high on the northern ridges of Everest in 1924.&nbsp; But Lady June Hillary deserves her own accolades and recognition, independent of the Burra Sahib. A “classic lady,” she is remembered as “wonderfully funny, with a tremendous sense of style” and her own special brand of purpose and destiny. It was an honour to have known her.&nbsp;

Lisa Choegyal

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Lady June Hillary 1931 - 2024

Besides<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/dispelling-myths-about-climbing"> traffic jams in the Khumbu Icefall</a> and a spat between Nims Purja and the government over fixed ropes, it should be the cornice collapse near the summit of Mt Everest last week that killed 2 climbers that should be focusing everyone’s attention.&nbsp; It was a busy week on Chomolungma as climbers pushed for the summit in the narrow weather window 20-22 May. More than 500 climbers reached the top <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-season-in-the-nepal-himalaya">this season</a>, most of them last week.&nbsp; Inevitably, there was a bottleneck on the knife-edged southeast ridge near the top. Videos showed climbers queuing up on the fixed rope on top of an ice overhang that seems to have collapsed under their weight. Of the six climbers who were caught in it, two (a British and Nepali climber) probably died in the long fall down the Kangshung Face.&nbsp; Climber Vinayak Jaya Malla was on the summit at 6:00 am on 21 May 21, and witnessed the collapse on his way down. He wrote on Instagram: ‘The Everest summit ridge felt different than my previous experiences on the mountain. There was soft snow.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240529090540_ebf81b309687dd85a4dfc5e6dc941afe1221b9a43bb987262eb295441e88f558.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240529090540_ebf81b309687dd85a4dfc5e6dc941afe1221b9a43bb987262eb295441e88f558" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="2205" loading="lazy" alt="Everest expedition 2024"> <figcaption>Vinayak Jaya Malla at Everest.</figcaption> </figure>  Malla’s post has a series of photos and videos that shows a line of climbers making their way down the Hillary Step. Another longer line is inching up on the same rope on top of the cornice, a hardened overhanging mass of ice. After the collapse, some of the climbers are seen to be hanging by the rope and helped back up by others. They eventually self-rescued, pulling themselves up as can be seen in the video. The collapse could have been much worse, with delays causing climbers to run out of oxygen, had Malla not helped break a new route that allowed traffic to start moving in both directions. Malla is a veteran rock and ice climber and is one of only about 75 IFMGA/UIAGM (International Federation of Mountain Guides Association/Union Internationale des Associations de Guides de Montagnes) certified guides in Nepal, a process that takes six to eight years and one of the few non-Sherpas with that certification. Many of the comments on Malla’s posts despaired at the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">traffic jams on the mountain</a>, and called on the Nepal government to reduce the number of permits.&nbsp; Malla has a more pragmatic view, and told us: “There is so much money and so many people employed on Everest expeditions that reducing permits would reduce income. How do you tell one Sherpa he can climb and support his family but another that he cannot?”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240529090540_43b0e8a0a667bb708097b4074fd20a66f36a1facd5aa6f5ee234a6bc7a34dec5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240529090540_43b0e8a0a667bb708097b4074fd20a66f36a1facd5aa6f5ee234a6bc7a34dec5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1069" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="Everest expedition 2024"> <figcaption>Vinayak Jaya Malla is a veteran rock and ice climber.</figcaption> </figure>  Malla has other solutions like a two-way fixed rope, and also government flexibility on fixing rigid dates of the climbing season. If guides had been allowed to set up fixed ropes from 1 May instead of 11 May, as was the case on the North Face of Everest, there would have been a wider weather window. Malla also things there is no reason for the climbing season to end exactly on 29 May just because it is historically set, and it would be safe to extend it till mid-June. A proposal from other mountaineers is to spread climbs around other Himalayan peaks by pricing Everest higher. Malla had to work hard for his certification, and says: “It is the equivalent of a PhD in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/mountains-of-books">mountaineering world</a>. With it, guides will always have work in Alaska, the Alps and the Himalaya.” Many <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-in-business-class">high-end Everest expeditions</a> only hire certified guides, and some request one-on-one guiding too. Malla grew up below Dhaulagiri, and had no intention of being a mountaineer.&nbsp; But in the third year of his Bachelor’s of Business Studies while completing an assignment related to tourism that Malla wrote a report comparing three mountains, and was instantly hooked. After working six frustrating months as an investment intern, Malla decided that a desk job was not for him. He faced initial resistance both from family and friends when he started climbing. “When I proved my capability and started making money, those doubts fell away,” says Malla. He has summited Everest twice, Lhotse, Dhaulagiri, and Manaslu.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240529090540_63b9555303c918304db9ae9483db0ff484c401729767457fb0e2a8c2fe3de759.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20240529090540_63b9555303c918304db9ae9483db0ff484c401729767457fb0e2a8c2fe3de759" data-rendition-name="original" width="1360" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="Everest expedition 2024"> </figure>  His most memorable summit, however, was a first-ascent of the 5,911m Sisne Himal in remote Rukum based only on Google images. Just getting to the base of the mountain takes as long as climbing it.&nbsp; There are a lot of hurdles climbing in western Nepal, he says, adding: “Permits are never cheap, we need to assemble a team. Route conditions can change, and locals think the mountain gods will be angered. Yarsagumba hunters wonder if we are there to steal their business.”&nbsp; Due to his certification and skillset, Malla is often called upon on rescue missions. Some climbers have insurance, but no other financial rewards for rescues.&nbsp; Malla was also involved in the retrieval of 22 bodies when <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/pokhara-jomsom-flight-with-22-missing">a Tara Air flight to Jomsom from Pokhara crashed</a> into a cliff in Mustang in 2022. He says, “It has become a pretty normal thing for me to see a dead body, but I can’t let it get me emotional when I am carrying out a rescue.”&nbsp;

Vishad Raj Onta

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Everest cornice collapse

<h2>Empirical climbing</h2> There have been many books and even films made about George Mallory and Andrew Irvine who disappeared below the summit of Mt Everest exactly 100 years ago.&nbsp; But on this centennary of their expedition, The Last Englishmen: Love, War and the End of Empire by the American biographer <a href="https://deborahbaker.net/biography/" target="_blank">Deboarah Baker</a> (<a href="https://asiasociety.org/converts-tale-exile-and-extremism" target="_blank">The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism</a>) puts the 1924 British attempt to climb the world’s highest mountain in political, geopolitical and cultural context. The Last Englishmen reads like historical fiction, but it actually a meticulously researched backgrounder on two main protagonists: a geologist and a surveyor — both siblings of famous British poets of the era. Geologist John Bicknell Auden is older brother of poet Wystan Hugh Auden (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_F6" target="_blank">The Ascent of F6</a>), and the map-maker Michael Spender is the brother of anti-Fascist poet Stephen Spender (<a href="https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-think-continually/" target="_blank">I Think Continually</a>).&nbsp; The cast of characters in Baker’s book seem to be suffering post-traumatic stress of World War I, and are drawn to the pristine tranquility of the mountains, the Himalaya in particular. Badly bruised by the loss of so many young men, Britain itself needed healing, and the conquest of the world’s highest mountain was seen as a way to redeem some of the empire’s tarnished glory. The fact that Mt Everest had to be accessed through India (because Nepal then was closed off) also meant that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/1921-rendezvous-mallory-pumori-and-everest" target="_blank">British could use a successful ascent</a> to prove that it was a civilisational force different from other European powers bent solely on extraction and exploitation of their colonies.&nbsp; India was going to be ruled differently, which is probably why Baker used the famous Jawaharlal Nehru quote (“I am the last Englishman to rule India”) for her title of this book. Other characters include other British explorers Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman (‘the terrible twins’ of mountaineering) who between them have at least four high Himalayan passes named after them across Nepal. Then there are the Bengalis in Calcutta, including the poet Sudhin Datta (of <a href="https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/curtains-on-the-adda-1502905694.html" target="_blank">Parichay Adda</a>) who caught between his Anglophilic disposition and the tug of Indian independence. It is easy to get lost in Baker’s story-telling because she multitasks — weaving so many strands into her tapestry. But at the epicentre of it all is Mt Everest and the British drive to get to the top first (before the Americans and especially the Germans) even amidst India’s independence struggle. Although The Last Englishmen came out in 2018, it is during the centennary of the most celebrated mysteries of mountaineering that it should be read because of Deborah Baker’s effort to give us the state of affairs in the period between the world wars. In one telling sentence, she summarises: ‘… the tortured conceit that Everest, a mountain that wasn’t even in India, was a proxy for England’s global domination.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240525030544_a8b6e203c4a84cb07caabc826b6a600685c40136a8b6ef082a065f3deab1639b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240525030544_a8b6e203c4a84cb07caabc826b6a600685c40136a8b6ef082a065f3deab1639b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The Last Englishman NT"> </figure>  <h2>Guiding Everest</h2> <a href="https://adventureconsultants.com/our-guides/guy-cotter" target="_blank">Guy Cotter</a>, a mountaineer and mountain guide whose father was a climbing buddy of Edmund Hillary, has been organising expeditions to the Himalaya for over 20 years.&nbsp; He was at Everest Base Camp during the tragic spring 1996 season when 8 climbers died in a blizzard near the summit. In fact, Cotter was talking on the radio to Rob Hall high on Everest and patching him to his pregnant wife back in New Zealand. The event was depicted in the 1989 film Everest and the 1997 bestseller by Jon Krakauer.&nbsp; Everest Mountain Guide is a guidebook on how mountaineering has changed (or not changed) since the military style assaults that began with the early expeditions 100 years ago. Cotter, now 58, took over the company <a href="https://adventureconsultants.com/" target="_blank">Adventure Consultants</a> after Hall died, and has himself climbed Everest five times. The book is a memoir of Cotter’s mountaineering career, from his first climbs in the New Zealand Alps to the Himalaya. Besides being a rivting story, it also gives us a behind-the-tent peek into the bureacuratic, technical and organisational challenges of leading expeditions to the world’s highest mountains. Cotter ends the book with self-reflection on the impact of large guided expeditions, the draw of the Himalaya that leads to overcrowding, and the media’s obsession with everything to do with the highest mountain in the world.&nbsp; In the meantime, foreign guides now have competition from Nepali-run companies like <a href="https://www.eliteexped.com/" target="_blank">Nims Purja’s Elite Exped</a>, Tashi, Mingma, and Chhang Dawa’s <a href="https://www.sevensummittreks.com/" target="_blank">Seven Summit Treks</a>, <a href="https://14peaksexpedition.com/" target="_blank">14 Peaks Expedition</a> of Kami Rita (who on 22 May climbed Everest for the 30th time), or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mingma.g/?hl=en" target="_blank">Imagine Nepal of Mingma Gyalje</a>. &nbsp; Cotter writes about them: ‘I have been amazed by the meteoric rise of many (Sherpa climbers) … during this ascendancy they have maintained their spirit and grace and unique character.’ But Cotter is critical of the absence of Nepal government oversight, and says this presents an opportunity for local stewardship of the mountains.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240525030544_0c7132339c521cb842518730c72d41322a0a92c06ae9e10fd2211bda1fb8a74d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20240525030544_0c7132339c521cb842518730c72d41322a0a92c06ae9e10fd2211bda1fb8a74d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Everest Mountain Guide NT"> </figure>  <h2>Unsung heroes</h2> Besides the debate about siege expeditions and pure alpine style climbing in the Himalaya is the related contention that while western climbers get all the attention and fame, the guides who help them get to the top are anonymous.&nbsp; The Ice Fall Doctors on Mt Everest, the teams that fix ropes right to the summits so that their clients can jumar up go largely unmentioned. Their work is much more dangerous because they are exposed to risky areas of the mountains for longer periods. The under-recognised role of Nepali climbers was highlighted by Nims Purja in the Netflix film 14 Peaks. Since then, Nepalis have started setting up their own expedition companies (see above) and many are not just high altitude guides but are world-class climbers themselves. Some of this historical injustice is set right by Canadian author of mountaineering chronilces, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/voytek-kurtyka-unleashed" target="_blank">Bernadette McDonald</a> in her latest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Alpine-Rising-Sherpas-Triumph-Climbers/dp/1680515780" target="_blank">Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges</a>.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.bernadettemcdonald.ca/" target="_blank">McDonald</a> digs into the history of mountaineering to find that behind every first ascent that made Western climbers celebrities is a Sherpa, Rai, Gurung, Balti or Hunza that made the climb successful.&nbsp; In Alpine Rising, McDonald, &nbsp;goes back to the early German expeditions in the 1930s to Nanga Parbat in which dozens of Nepali high altitude porters were killed. Maurice Herzog’s first 8,000er ascent of Annapurna is famous in mountaineering history, but McDonald says not many people know about Ang Tharkay Sherpa who not only helped carry loads to the peak, but physically carried the frostbitten Herzog down. More recently, Alpine Rising recounts the fist fights on the Lhotse Face between Sherpas and Simone Moro; how Pakistani climber Ali Sadpara is sidelined in expedition chronicles; and the high altitude guide Muhammad Hassan who collapsed on K2 and climbers stepped over him for their summits.&nbsp; But things are changing, and there were two iconic moments on K2: the 2014 ascent by three Nepali women climbers, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, Dawa Yangzum Sherpa and Maya Sherpa and the 10 Nepali climbers led by Nims Purja who literally marched to the summit of K2 singing Nepal’s national anthem in 2021 — the first winter ascent of the world’s second highest mountain.&nbsp; There is a tectonic shift happening in Himalayan mountaineering, and the tragic, happy and funny details from the earliest expeditions to climbing in the age of Instagram are in the pages of Alpine rising.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240525030544_219beda832b28e3e1321cafe787e10a0eaac3939ac226d2375019befc2cb9371.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20240525030544_219beda832b28e3e1321cafe787e10a0eaac3939ac226d2375019befc2cb9371" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Alpine Rising NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;

Kunda Dixit

Mountains of books

It is currently summit week on Everest, with strong pre-monsoon storms lashing the world’s highest mountain. Climbers and their Nepali guides alike are making their way up the mountain in the hundreds.&nbsp; Although there have not been traffic jams seen in previous years, there could still be bottlenecks on the southeast ridge on weather windows on the last week of climbing in May. And now there is a cyclone heading towards the Bay of Bengal right before the end of the spring season. There have been some first ascents, ultramarathons, rescues and even wingsuit dives planned off Lhotse.&nbsp; “When summits happen is absolutely dependent on the weather windows,” explains Khim Lal Gautam, Chief Survey Officer at Everest Base Camp, who has summited the mountain twice. &nbsp; Spring 2024 has seen fewer summits on Everest than previous years, but there have been some notable alpine style climbs on other Himalayan peaks with no bottled oxygen or Sherpa support. Even as the climbing season draws to a close, came word that Apple’s Tenzing Norgay biopic is set to star Willem Dafoe as John Hunt and Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary. Tenzing’s character has yet to be cast.&nbsp; China has opened its side of the peak for the first time since 2021, although it has kept Cho Oyu and Shishapangma closed. In comparison to Nepal side, the northeast ridge on Everest is usually less crowded, is open till mid-June and attracting ‘flash’ teams who go on very short expeditions of three-six weeks. Such expeditions require members to acclimatise at home in tents that simulate low oxygen conditions. &nbsp; The crowded south side route has some higher-end expeditions, willing to bear the cost of extra days at base camp to wait for traffic to clear up. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest (Pvt) Ltd</a>, Vishad Onta Preliminary permit data showed that the number of expeditions was much lower than in 2023, but the total has climbed to 414, with about 300 climbers and Sherpas having summited so far. Bhutan also put its first climber on the top of Everest. The 2023 season saw 18 fatalities -- a record. This season started out safer, but is slowly turning out quite deadly. There have been three deaths so far and four more are missing.&nbsp; Two Mongolians climbing without guides or oxygen died after summiting last week, and a Romanian climber died at Camp 3 on Tuesday. A British national and a high altitude guide were swept away onto the Kangshung Face when a section of ice near the Hillary Step fell away on Wednesday. A Kenyan national attempting a no-oxygen summit and his Sherpa guide have gone missing close to the summit, also on 22 May.&nbsp; Video footage retrieved from the phones of the Mongolian pair showed that they did in fact reach the top, although it does seem that they did end up having to use bottled oxygen. &nbsp;Their families, devastated at the news, are waiting in Kathmandu. Many Mongolians, however, have celebrated the pair for having accomplished what they set out to do. “Most likely what happened with the Mongolian climbers was that they ran out of oxygen on the descent,” said Alan Arnette, who has been covering Everest since 2004. “The Romanian death is, sadly, one of those expected that happen every season because of the harsh conditions and exertion.”&nbsp; Their story brings to mind the Mallory-Irvine expeditions exactly 100 years ago on the northeast ridge of Everest. They were last seen alive only 240m below the summit, Mallory’s body was located only in 1999 but there is no evidence that they reached the top.&nbsp; Besides the two Mongolians, others have also done no-oxygen climbs. Sirbaz Khan, from Pakistan, is collaborating with the Imagine Nepal team to complete his 11th no-oxygen 8000er. Piotr Krzyzowksi from Poland climbed Lhotse without oxygen, as did Hugo Ayaviri from Bolivia. Ayaviri also climbed without guide support and was thinking about doing Everest too. Currently, he has returned to Base Camp, slightly frostbitten. Jigme Pelden Dorje became Bhutan’s first Everest summiteer this week. &nbsp;Bhutan was the only Himalayan country without someone who had reached the top. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-70-years-on">Everest 70 years on</a>, Lisa Choegyal  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240525020552_81963cf18eade4bfdf2e4bb75a9d0008c07b1d06c0ddbd6e5d885afdbb65db30.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240525020552_81963cf18eade4bfdf2e4bb75a9d0008c07b1d06c0ddbd6e5d885afdbb65db30" data-rendition-name="original" width="1248" height="1397" loading="lazy" alt="Alpine style "> <figcaption>Everest from the South summit</figcaption> </figure>  There have been several individuals with multiple ascents this season, which is nothing new for the Sherpas but novel to climbers.&nbsp; Kami Rita Sherpa reached the top twice, beating his own record to notch up 30 summits – a record. Dawa Funzok Sherpa is attempting a fourth summit for the season, and photojournalist Purnima Shrestha is going for her third. Ukrainian guide Valentyn Sypavin scaled Everest twice, then climbed Lhotse, and now plans to do Everest again. “I don’t know if I would want to depend on a guide going on their fourth ascent,” said Arnette, “It is extremely draining to summit.” Questions have been raised as to whether one permit should allow for multiple summits. The government’s stance seems to recognise the first climb and deem the others unofficial, but not illegal. &nbsp; However, with Sherpa to client ratios growing, overcrowding is already an issue on the routes to the summit, especially from Camp 3 and up during the narrow weather windows. This trend could jeopardise the safety of other climbers, especially those on no-oxygen climbs. &nbsp; Nims Purja, the star of ‘14 Peaks’, has faced accusations of taking clients with cheaper Lingtren permits to Camp 3 on Everest, and of faking a rescue to take a chopper to Camp 2 from Kathmandu via Lukla. Earlier, Purja mounted an expedition to Shishapangma with a special permit from the Chinese to recover the bodies of team members who died in an avalanche on the 8,000m peak last autumn. The rescue team cut new routes to retrieve the bodies of American Anna Gutu and Mingmar Sherpa.&nbsp; Purja, an ex-British Special Forces member famed for climbing all 14 8000ers in six months and six days, called the recovery mission one of his most challenging climbs.&nbsp; Gutu had been competing with Gina Marie Rzucidlo, accompanied by Tenjen Sherpa--both of whom were also killed in an avalanche half an hour earlier. Both trying to be the first American women to complete all 14 8000ers and were on their last mountain. The competition led them to push for the summit too soon after a snowfall, when the snow isn’t bonded yet and avalanche danger is high.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-pushes-mountain-bike-tourism">Nepal pushes mountain bike tourism</a>, Vishad Onta <h2>Alpine Style</h2> In addition to non-oxygen summits, there have been other unique, trailblazing ascents. A Korean-Nepali team summited the unclimbed 6,591m Jugal I. The cluster of mountains around Jugal, located 35km north of Kathmandu were only opened to climbers last year. The group is now planning to climb Jugal II. Americans Patrick Johnson and Patrick Gephart climbed a new route on the Northeast Pillar of 6,487m Tengkangpoche in Rolwaling Himal on 23 April. Climbing strictly alpine style, the pair rated the climb a WI3+, a Water Ice climbing grade given to climbs with a near vertical gradient but good places to rest and place screws. Late last year, Tim Miller from Scotland and Paul Ramsden from the UK had completed a first ascent of Surma-Sarovar in Bajhang, having planned the summit with no more than images from Google Earth. It was an eight day climb, with four of the days dedicated to climbing the 2,100m north face. In Spring 2022, the same duo also were the first to ascent Jugal Spire alpine style, a feat for which they earned the highest honour in mountaineering, the Piolet d’Or. <h2>Other Adventures &nbsp;</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240525020548_e610e99ceaeb385bcd6a306eef6d21ed230562845afb17d559f05fd185b12e66.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240525020548_e610e99ceaeb385bcd6a306eef6d21ed230562845afb17d559f05fd185b12e66" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1750" loading="lazy" alt="Other Adventures on Everest NT"> <figcaption>Photo: FLEURY ROX</figcaption> </figure>  Besides climbing, there has also been some running. The Great Himal Race, a west-to-east marathon along the Great Himalayan Trail, is on Stage 42 out of 51. The runners are currently in Sagarmatha National Park at Chheplung, and are scheduled to finish at Kanchenjunga Base Camp on 31 May. A separate race, the Everest 135, was also held in early May. It is a gruelling 135-mile race that starts at Jiri and ends at Everest Base Camp.&nbsp; British alpinist and BASE jumper Tim Howell was attempting a wingsuit jump from Lhotse, which would be a record for the highest jump of its type. Howell and his team had been climbing new routes on Lhotse in order to find ideal launch and exit sites. Howell reached an unclimbed point on the Lhotse Ridge 8,200m high where he was to jump from, but he had to cancel as cloudy weather persisted. “Climate change is having a large impact on Everest, especially on the Khumbu Ice Fall. I see a point in time where climbers are forced to take the north route or helicopter rides to Camp 2 become a routine part of the expedition,” said Arnette. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/hurtling-through-the-himalaya">Hurtling through the Himalaya</a>, Vishad Onta

Peak season in the Nepal Himalaya

Nepal has not won a single official medal ever at the Olympics. With the Paris 2024 Summer Games two and a half months away, how might Nepal win its first bronze? Or silver, or even gold? &nbsp; Technically, there are two Nepalis who have won medals at the Olympics. The first is mountaineer Tejbir Bura, awarded a gold during the 1924 Winter Olympics for his part in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1922_British_Mount_Everest_expedition">1922 British Mount Everest expedition</a>. However, this was a joint honour given to a team of many nationalities.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024051413058_eb4aca051afe58cbf395da6726d0c6741c1365d7c6f12c16ce2c697a71ff3d56.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024051413058_eb4aca051afe58cbf395da6726d0c6741c1365d7c6f12c16ce2c697a71ff3d56" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="653" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal in Olympics mountaineering"> </figure>  The second was martial artist <a href="https://alchetron.com/Bidhan-Lama">Bidhan Lama, who won a bronze</a> in Taekwondo at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. However, this did not count as an official medal because taekwondo was only a demonstration sport back then. Demonstration sports were unofficial events at the Olympics before 1992. They were included to promote sports popular in the host country. Baseball, for example, was a demo sport at the 1984 Los Angeles games. Calling them ‘demonstration sports’ is misleading, as the athletes were certainly competing to win. There was another bronze awardee in Lama’s event, Enrique Torroella Sánchez from Mexico. Even today, some sports give bronze medals to both losing semi finalists. While Bura and Lama’s medals are significant achievements, the fact remains that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/ring-in-the-old-in-2021-h4iva3fc">Nepal has zero official Olympic medals</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240514130512_35e0532b83010d32480ef514d536bf889fb49ec6833ab1f7261ee1dd58065acb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240514130512_35e0532b83010d32480ef514d536bf889fb49ec6833ab1f7261ee1dd58065acb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1155" height="486" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal in Olympics taekwondo"> </figure>  To be fair, we have company. Seventy-one other countries, including Bangladesh and Cambodia, have never won a medal either. To some governments, job creation, providing basic needs and economic development are higher priorities than achievement in sport. “Doing well at the Olympics is all about how much you can invest. Sports is a business,” explains Chaturananda Raj Vaidya, vice president of the Nepal Olympic Committee. “Equipment, coaching, venues, diet, family structure all need to be correct to develop a medal-winning athlete.”&nbsp; The countries that have been the most successful at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/what-is-the-point-of-the-olympics">the Olympics</a> are the United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and Germany. All are countries that have historically had the resources to pour into sports development. The US is the overwhelming leader in total medals. “Countries like China and South Korea have started doing better because their economies got stronger, and India is going to start winning more too,” said Vaidya. Economic prosperity and investment are the obvious answers. But this seems some ways away for Nepal. But it might still be possible for a Nepali athlete to somehow win their first medal. The aim now cannot be 16 golds. Before that can happen Nepal must win its first bronze, &nbsp;which is a lot better than zero it clearly not easy to do. Nepal can take inspiration from three types of countries: 1. Countries that have just one or two medals at the games. These likely face a lot of the same problems Nepal does, but have already won that elusive first medal. 2. Countries with small populations that still do disproportionately well at the Olympics. 3. Countries that share a lot of the culture, topography, problems and genetics with Nepal. If they have won, how have they done it? Countries that have only one medal include Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guatemala and Iraq. Most singular medals are in individual sports such as athletics, martial arts, weightlifting, and sailing. The exceptions are Paraguay’s silver for men’s football in 2004, and Montenegro’s Silver for women’s handball in 2012. Athletics include the 20km walk, marathon and 400m hurdles. The martial arts are boxing and taekwondo. The medal in taekwondo is for Gabon. In two medal countries, athletics and combat sports still feature highly. These countries have won in triathlon, wrestling, judo, swimming and shooting. One interesting case is Afghanistan, a war-torn South Asian country that has won two bronzes in Taekwondo by the same person, Rohulla Nikpai, at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. These are clearly not athletes who were produced by strong, established systems because there is only one or two of them in their countries. They are outliers who have succeeded despite the system and not because of it. There is probably genetic luck, circumstance, family, and childhood at play in some of these cases, but they do show that struggling countries can still win a medal. Also, sport investment should focus on individual sports to make that first podium happen faster. Countries with small populations that produce exceptional results must have excellent systems to develop athletes, like Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, and Cuba. Hungary, with a third of Nepal’s population, is ninth on the summer Olympics all time list with 511 medals.&nbsp; The Olympics must become a part of the country’s culture, to have many athletes pursuing sports wholeheartedly, there needs to be honor, money and security in doing so. It needs to become a credible career path. One thing the four smaller high performing countries have in common is doing uniquely well in some sports. For Hungary it fencing, although they also lead total medals in pentathlon and water polo. The Netherlands excel at cycling, Romania at gymnastics, and Cuba at boxing. This outsized return must be the result of some combination of focused investment from the governments and the presence of exceptional coaches who established systems to develop medal winning athletes. The lesson is that even as economic progress increases, Nepal should focus on one particular sport. Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh do not have any medals either. Sri Lanka has two silvers in athletics. Pakistan has ten, of which eight are in field hockey. India has 35. Like Pakistan, India has done well at field hockey but its individual golds are interesting. One of them is in shooting, and the other was in Tokyo 2021 in javelin. Winner Neeraj Chopra trained for many years in India, before going abroad to polish his skills in Germany, Sweden and Turkey under the best coaches. That could be another path to the first Nepali medal. A Nepali passport holder who is able to access high quality training abroad could work around the problem of a lack of infrastructure in Nepal. Perhaps one path to the first medal is mountain biking, especially if races like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-pushes-mountain-bike-tourism">Enduro Ratnange</a> get Nepali kids to start biking at early ages. Nepalis have been successful at trail running of late. Ultra-runner Sunmaya Budha recently beat the world number 2 in a 70km race in China. The problem is that trail running is not currently in the Olympics, although it was a sport 100 years ago, when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics#Highlights">the Olympics venue was also Paris</a>. With breakdancing now an official sport, surely there is an argument for trail running. A week ago British runners finished running 455km, from London to Paris, to campaign for the inclusion of the sport. There are different possibilities of winning at the Winter Olympics too. A lot fewer countries take part, and Nepal has the snow and terrain for athletes to practice winter sports year round. &nbsp;&nbsp; “To make a winter Olympics medal a reality, it is necessary to have high quality training facilities,” says Vaidya. “In the west, countries have skiing camps with air lifts solely used by athletes who can spend a lot of training time on the slopes.”&nbsp;

How to win Nepal’s first Olympic medal

Till 4 April, there were only 7 expeditions with 86 mountaineers who have got permits to climb Mt Everest this spring climbing season, much lower than the 47 expeditions and nearly 478 foreign alpinists in spring 2023. It is not clear why the Department of Tourism starts processing applications for Everest climbs only in March when expeditions prepare for years before they plan to climb the world’s highest mountain. It also seems insensitive to include total royalties collected in its tables which suggests that it is only interested in cash and not mountaineering. &nbsp; The Department has been updating its list of expeditions almost every other day this week, and the latest one shows that besides the seven expeditions on Everest, there are three on Ama Dablam, and another three on Annapurna I. Smaller peaks like Himlung (7,126m), Jugal III (6,184m), Putha Hiunchuli (7,246m), and Khangri Shar (6,811m) have one permit each.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/hurtling-through-the-himalaya">Hurtling through the Himalaya</a>, Vishad Onta “It is too early to speculate if there is a drop in numbers,” says Dawa Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking. “Many expeditions sign up at the last moment, anyway.” Surprisingly, Manaslu (8,163m) which is usually the most popular mountain after Everest does not have a single expedition in the Department’s list. In 2023, there were 23 expeditions with 266 foreign climbers on Manaslu. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/dispelling-myths-about-climbing">Dispelling myths about climbing</a>, Edward Morgan  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240404120412_bb56c0680db45c35795b8d76a47c0e05798207c0d1c5095fa48fd9bd4fa3fb04.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240404120412_bb56c0680db45c35795b8d76a47c0e05798207c0d1c5095fa48fd9bd4fa3fb04" data-rendition-name="original" width="775" height="754" loading="lazy" alt="Where have all the mountaineers gone? Nt #1206"> <figcaption>Source: DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM, HIMALAYAN DATABASE</figcaption> </figure>  The drastic drop this year also translates to a big decrease in the total number of climbers, and the amount of royalty the government collects from climbing fees. This spring's 19 expeditions total only 171 climbers, compared to last year's 61 expeditions bringing 512 foreign climbers. Despite this, the average number of members per expedition this year (9.00) to last year (8.14) is comparable. While the difference in number of expeditions and peaks is stark, mountaineering experts think there is no need for premature fretting.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd?amp=1">Mt Everest (Pvt) Ltd</a>, Vishad Onta Everest summiteer Alan Arnette, who has covered Himalayan climbing for 20 years, agrees that the numbers could pick up: “There is a trend for teams to arrive later and later for Everest. Some start with Annapurna, others just get their permits later. It will pick up.” Nepali mountaineering companies have become more efficient. Ten years ago, an Everest expedition used to be eight weeks long. Now, it takes three weeks and many expeditions climb Annapurna, Dhaulagiri or Cho Oyu early before moving on to Everest, trying to &nbsp;climb two eight-thousanders in one season. March-May is when most mountaineers try to climb Everest because of gentler winds and higher temperatures on the slopes. Sometimes weather windows are open in May for only a few days, leading to traffic jams near the summit. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/without-sherpas-there-is-no-mountaineering">“Without Sherpas, there is no mountaineering”</a>, Bhadra Sharma

Where have all the mountaineers gone?

It has been a century since Mallory and Irvine may or may not have reached the summit of Mt Everest. Mountaineering in Nepal has changed a lot since that first British expedition in 1924. Everest gets bad press for traffic jams at the summit, garbage and frozen corpses below the peak. But such is the draw of the world’s highest mountain that climbers from all over the world just keep coming. The main reason for frequent gridlocks on Sagarmatha is due to a tectonic shift in the business of mountaineering from foreign to domestic operators. Before 2013, Nepali guides were largely just ground handling agents for international expeditions. That was also the year ‘<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Mountain,359" target="_blank">The Everest Brawl’</a> took place at Camp 2, when one hundred Sherpas had the world’s highest fistfight with three European mountaineers climbing Alpine style. After that, Nepali high altitude guides started working directly with international clients, building and marketing their own brands through the Internet. Such direct contact brought down prices because of lower wages, operating costs and liability requirements compared to international companies.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240223030236_1cd924d83b285cd95e71155c8d40562e97a1dcc737ce1145e2a9bdff5fd7cb4b.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240223030236_1cd924d83b285cd95e71155c8d40562e97a1dcc737ce1145e2a9bdff5fd7cb4b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1286" height="809" loading="lazy" alt="Figures: ADAPTED FROM THE HIMALAYAN DATABASE/EDWARD MORGAN"></figure>  “Local companies have vastly improved,” says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/covid-climate-crises-hit-everest-region" target="_blank">Dawa Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking</a>. “Nepalis are no longer exclusively in the servant-porter role, with Sherpas now being highly trained, world class mountaineers.” Social media has also changed the Sherpa-climber dynamic by keeping dishonest mountaineers in check. They can no longer go home from expeditions and claim public hero status for carrying out a rescue, when in fact it was the Sherpas who are the saviours<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nims-purja-does-it" target="_blank">. Nims Purja’s Netflix film 14 Peaks</a> established Nepali guides as being world class. Mountaineering is an expensive sport, and lower prices have made it accessible to a much wider range of climbers, and the clients are no longer just from the West but from China, India, Southeast Asia and Nepal itself. Many Chinese climbers prefer to climb from Nepal as requirements are much stricter on the north side of Chomolungma in Tibet – they must have climbed at least one other 8000er before. Most Nepali operators offer expeditions to clients with much less experience. An increase in inexperienced climbers comes with greater risk of fatalities. In fact, Spring 2023 was the deadliest season on Everest with 20 deaths over the season. “People should not be learning how to abseil on Everest,” says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/billi-bierling-s-life-cycle" target="_blank">Swiss-German journalist and mountaineer Billi Bierling</a>, adding that previous climbing experience makes everything safer for everyone.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240223030228_cb001859c2eccde76cc25431104f44a17fc008e7d29cb08aad19049ab49bce26.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240223030228_cb001859c2eccde76cc25431104f44a17fc008e7d29cb08aad19049ab49bce26" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Lhotse NT"><figcaption>HIMALAYAN VERTICALS: One of the most challenging routes left in Nepal are on the South Face of Lhotse, 8516m. Photo: KONSTANTINOS SOFIKITIS</figcaption></figure>  Everest summiteer and mountaineering blogger Alan Arnette, recommends that climbers scale at least a 7000er before aiming for Everest. He is also for limiting the number of permits, since problems come up due to overcrowding high on the mountain. Along with more rescues and fatalities, there is also added risk of theft of oxygen bottles and other supplies. Inexperienced climbers also need much more assistance from high altitude guides, and the ratio of Sherpas to climbers on Everest is higher than it has ever been. This does mean more employment for locals, but it also means more trash and more risk for porters on the Khumbu Icefall. The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality announcement this month that all expeditions will be required to bring down their poop from Everest made headlines around the world, and provided material for comedy shows. But many decades of frozen human waste thawing due to climate change is an issue. Waste Alleviation and Gelling (WAG) bags are now mandatory equipment for expeditions. Long used by soldiers, these poop pouches are lined with deodorising powder. There are doubts about how the new rule can be enforced and monitored. Consolidating waste in drums at Camp II and flying them to Base Camp by chopper has been proposed. Says Arnette: “Tourists paying $100,000 for an expedition are unlikely to bring back their own waste, and it becomes a question of dignity to ask Sherpas to do so for them. The use of these bags comes down to personal responsibility.” The Municipality where Everest Base Camp lies recently announced other rules: each climber on Everest is required to also bring back 8kg of other garbage. Expeditions currently pay a $4,000 deposit which is refunded only after proof of significant trash being brought down. <div class="embed-block"><iframe title="Climbing Permits by Peaks in Nepal Himalaya (in 2023)" aria-label="Donut Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-l6c4n" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/l6c4n/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="600" height="439" data-external="1"></iframe></div> “Officials are quite ready to give this deposit back because, frankly, they don’t know what to do with the money,” notes Dawa Sherpa, who says it is a myth that Nepal’s mountains are dirty. “They are a hell of a lot cleaner than they were.” Sometimes, there are valid reasons to leave garbage behind, such as when a camp is buried by a storm or avalanche. Also, when team members are sick or dying, the priority is their rescue. Many feel that the tradition of assigning liaison officers on paid leave from their civil service jobs to every expedition by the department in Kathmandu is obsolete, and is driven by kickbacks. Liaison officers earn $5,000 worth of daily allowances and most also depend on expeditions even for their sleeping bags and jackets. Many do not even bother to stay at base camp. “How does it make sense that they are policing us when they are reliant on us?” questions Sherpa who says they are a financial and physical burden for expeditions, often requiring more attention at Base Camp than climbing clients. The Municipality has also released a new policy <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/chopper-vs-chauri-below-everest" target="_blank">limiting helicopter ferries</a> and the ‘luxury’ at base camp. The guidelines titled Base Camp Management Procedure 2024 was issued at the start of the spring climbing season, and are seen by many as “eleventh hour media stunts” that simply cannot be enforced. Luxury dome tents with en suite bathrooms are now supposedly banned at Base Camp, so are bakeries, cafes, and even massage tents. There is more: a climber henceforth cannot occupy more than 7.5sq m per sleeping tent, and 1sq m per person in the dining tent.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240223030240_df8ddc7b5551025f5bce6b5d3e529e1a2793ca36da39bd49e9c9464ef4018822.png" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20240223030240_df8ddc7b5551025f5bce6b5d3e529e1a2793ca36da39bd49e9c9464ef4018822" data-rendition-name="original" width="944" height="672" loading="lazy" alt="Expeditions by elevation range"></figure>  The policy also caps expeditions at 15 climbers plus 15 guides to reduce the ecological footprint at Base Camp. But Dawa Sherpa thinks 15 climbers need at least 30 support staff -- one Sherpa per client, kitchen teams, doctors, physios. Sometimes family members want to spend a few days at Base Camp too. Arnette is a proponent of a free market on mountains, and thinks agencies should be allowed to have 5-star expeditions if they want to. “It does increase each climber’s personal footprint per climber, but bigger changes would come from limiting total numbers,” he says. Many of the record high 20 deaths last year on Everest were avoidable had climbers not pushed forward when they should not have, and a larger proportion of the fatalities were on cheaper expeditions with less well-trained members. Despite this, preliminary data shows that the total number of climbers on Everest will surpass even last year’s 683. China is finally opening up the North East Ridge route to foreigners, and this is the last year before a 37% increase in Everest permit fees by Nepal. Currently, climbers have to pay $11,000 royalty from the Nepali side or $18,000 from the Chinese side. Nepali Permits will cost $15,000 per expedition from 2025. Despite many negative stories about Everest, Billi Bierling points to the bright side. “Everybody has their own reason to climb, and the vast majority of people on the slopes are working together.” Arnette concurs: “Everest is a big mountain that can handle hundreds of climbers at a time. Guides need to cooperate to prevent overcrowding on any particular day.”

Mt Everest (Pvt) Ltd

Last spring, I climbed a couple of easy 6,000ers in Nepal with Howard Lister. When we returned to Kathmandu, we had dinner with Richard Salisbury and Rodolphe Popier of The Himalayan Database.&nbsp; For them, Nepal’s 2023 spring climbing season had not been very interesting. Although there was a record number of climbers on Mt Everest and many more on the other 8,000ers in Nepal, almost all fall into what László Pintér calls ‘of only statistical value’ -- commercial expeditions repeating the ordinary routes on 8,000ers.&nbsp; It could seem like Himalayan climbing (defined as making new routes and early repeats) is in decline. There are a couple of myths about Himalayan climbing, that should be dispelled: &nbsp; Myth 1: The Himalaya is Crowded The record numbers of permits given for Everest and the famous images of queues of climbers on the South-East Ridge might make a casual observer think that the Himalaya is crowded. This is far from being the case.&nbsp; In the 2023 pre-monsoon season, 1,176 climbers were granted permits for the 374 ‘open’ mountains, making an average of only three climbers per mountain. That does not sound too crowded, but the distribution of climbers is indeed unbalanced. László writes about ‘guided summit collectors who seek fame’, and these were massively concentrated on 8,000m peaks with 41% of the climbers on Everest. Even there, they were almost all on the South Col route.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest (Pvt) Ltd</a>, Vishad Onta Another 31% were on normal routes on Nepal's six other 8,000m peaks. Of the remaining 329, a quarter of the climbers were on Ama Dablam and a fifth on Everest’s near neighbour, Nuptse.&nbsp; That left another 187 climbers spread amongst 365 peaks, of which 346 had no visitors at all. If you want solitude in Nepal, it is not difficult to find. The magic 8,000m line has a massive influence on the choice of climbing objective. Whilst 847 people tried mountains of above 8,000m, with the exception of Nuptse, there were no attempts on any of the other 23 mountains between 7,500m and 8,000m.&nbsp; Myth 2: There Are No Climbing Challenges Left ‘Guided summit collectors’ tend to make up increasingly contorted claims to fame (‘first left-handed Zimbabwean’ or the ‘oldest dyslexic dentist’ to climb Everest). The casual observer might assume this is because there are no real climbing challenges left. That is absolutely not the case.&nbsp; Let us start with Lhotse, which essentially has three faces and three ridges. None of the ridges have ever been climbed, and almost all ascents have been by a single route on the North-West Face. The South Face was climbed 33 years ago, and waits for a repeat. This is a very wide wall on which multiple different lines would be possible. The North East Face of Lhotse has not even seen an attempt. Some of the other 8,000ers have had the most obvious routes picked off, but there are other climbing objectives to last a few centuries at the current rate of progress. The high 7,000ers in Nepal are mountains which differ from the 8,000ers only by being slightly below an arbitrary height line.&nbsp; Read also,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/without-sherpas-there-is-no-mountaineering"> “Without Sherpas, there is no mountaineering”</a>, Bhadra Sharma Gyachung Kang, the world’s 15th highest mountain, is less than 50m short of being an eight thousander, but it has only had 10 ascents and no attempts for 18 years.&nbsp; Next is Annapurna II, which has been climbed only 5-6 times. For some Annapurna II may sound like a minor sub-peak of Annapurna, but being 30km away from Annapurna I and with a prominence of nearly 2,500m makes it indisputably a separate mountain.&nbsp; But these days hardly anyone attempts Annapurna II. There were 16 expeditions to it in the 1980s, three in the 1990s and three in the 2000s, but only one since 2008.&nbsp; Dhaulagiri, like Annapurna, is a name given to a series of mountains in a massif with Dhaulagiri II, III, IV and V -- all above 7,600m. Dhaulagiri III, IV and V may be considered subsidiary tops of Dhaulagiri II, but Dhaulagiri II is every bit as independent as Annapurna II, yet has received only 10 ascents, the last in 1986. None of Dhaulagiri III, IV or V have been attempted since the 1970s.&nbsp; If you Google ‘what is the most dangerous mountain in the world?’ you will get an answer based on the somewhat nonsensical measure of dividing the number of deaths by the number of successful summit climbers. It is declared to be Annapurna I followed by K2 and Nanga Parbat.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/letters-from-everest-base-camp-1-vfqcer0e">Letters from Everest Base Camp 1</a>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240223060240_e4eb40276b95d06a98879c513b6e2d327ace35092e7b108b61497887e9fade3f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240223060240_e4eb40276b95d06a98879c513b6e2d327ace35092e7b108b61497887e9fade3f" data-rendition-name="original" width="595" height="842" loading="lazy" alt="Dangerous mountain"> </figure>  This is wrong because it only looks at 8,000m peaks. Annapurna is often quoted as having a ‘fatality rate’ of 32% (although the large number of commercial climbs in the last few years have brought this down to under 20%).&nbsp; That certainly does not make it the most dangerous mountain in the world. Twelve climbers have summitted Dhaulagiri IV, but 14 have died while trying, so the fatality rate on that peak is 117%. But Ngadi Chuli (Peak 29) is the world’s 20th highest mountain at 7,871m. It has had only two summiteers, but five people have died while trying, giving it a fatality rate of 250%. It has not even been attempted for more than 40 years. There is plenty of scope for new routes on all of these mountains. Excluding variants, Annapurna II has been climbed by two routes, Peak 29 by two, Dhaulagiri II by only one.&nbsp; And then there are mountains that have never been climbed like Shartse, a 7,591m peak on the East Ridge of Lhotse Shar.&nbsp; There are still some bold climbers making fantastic ascents, like Ukrainians Nikita Balabanov, Mikail Fomin and Viacheslav Polezhaiko on the South-East ridge of Annapurna III in 2021.&nbsp; The French pair of Boris Langenstein and Tiphaine Duperier last year explored the possibility of ascending the huge and untouched North East Face of Dhaulagiri II. Their plan to climb up and ski down was thwarted by route finding difficulties and bad weather, but this was a real pioneering attempt.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/chopper-vs-chauri-below-everest">Chopper vs Chauri below Everest</a>, Bhadra Sharma One of the finest climbs on a high 7,000er was the alpine style ascent of a partially new route on the daunting North Face of Jannu by Americans Matt Cornell, Alan Rousseau and Jackson Marvell last autumn. If we compare the proportion of expeditions to the seven 8,000ers and the highest seven 7,000ers in the Nepal Himalaya by decade, we can see the picture very clearly. Mostly non-guided climbing of 7,000ers, making new routes and first or early ascents, peaked in the 1980s and has been much lower since, while 8,000m climbing, mainly by commercial expeditions, is growing almost exponentially.&nbsp; While ‘real’ Himalayan Climbing is not dying, it is declining and carried out by a relatively small number of highly talented climbers.&nbsp; That situation is masked by the large numbers of climbers on commercial routes on Everest, the other 8,000ers and a handful of popular mountains and by the publicity these climbs receive. The lack of such ‘adventurous climbs’ is not because there are no worthwhile objectives. Himalayan climbing is dangerous even on the heavily populated and well equipped mountains, and it is even more so for those who venture away from well-trodden paths to seek new challenges.&nbsp; Anyone who attempts such exploits needs to make their own mind up about the risks and difficulties involved. But if anyone believes there are no climbing challenges left in the Himalaya or that all mountaineering in Nepal involves long queues on fixed ropes, then they are absolutely wrong. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/himalayans-on-the-frontlines">Himalayans on the frontlines</a>, Ang Tshering Sherpa  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024022306024_d9a02bfe0967c9647b5d4d02aef5eb4ee985c7b16e8f142fc176c5e07080c8b5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2024022306024_d9a02bfe0967c9647b5d4d02aef5eb4ee985c7b16e8f142fc176c5e07080c8b5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Edward Morgan Book Details"> </figure>  Edward Morgan is the author of Lhotse South Face – The Wall of Legends. &nbsp;

Dispelling myths about climbing

The last sentence in French climber Maurice Herzog’s mountaineering classic, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Annapurna-First-Conquest-000-Meter-Peak/dp/1599218933">Annapurna</a>, after his first ever ascent of an eight-thousand metre peak in 1950 was: ‘There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men.’ To this, Arlene Blum would add: ‘… and women.’ Blum led the first all-women expedition to the world’s tenth highest mountain in 1978, and as she recounted in two books, Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life, getting to the top was only a small part of the challenges women still face in life as well as in mountaineering. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Trail-Climbing-Arlene-Blum/dp/0156031167">Breaking Trail</a> was Blum’s frank and introspective memoir in which she weaved circumstances of growing up in a Russian Jewish émigré family in Chicago with experiences of her mountaineering career. A bigger challenge than climbing, it seems, was overcoming sexism.&nbsp; Blum was accepted for a PhD at Harvard, but dropped out after its mountaineering club said it did not accept women members. She went to MIT instead, where her first research adviser in molecular structure refused to admit her because he did not “take girls”.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/peak-performance">Peak performance</a>, Tulsi Rauniyar She finally ended up at a Berkeley lab, and escaped frequently to climb in the Sierras, the Andes and Mexico. But when she wanted to join a trek to Nepal, the professor leading it said no because they did not have a separate tent for a woman. Another expedition to Afghanistan turned her down because a female climber would create ‘excretory’ complications at high altitude. The American Alpine Club (AAC) denied her all-women expedition to Denali. (“Chicks? Climb Denali? No way dames could ever make it up that bitch.”) But Blum went anyway, and also joined women climbers in British Columbia, the Pamirs and Kashmir.&nbsp; The first-ever female ascent of Denali was ignored by America’s climbing community, and Blum writes: ‘It was too early for the idea of an all-women’s team to capture public attention.’ Indeed, it was not enough for women climbers to be as skilled as men, they had to be stronger and more experienced than their male colleagues to be accepted. Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nepali-times-buzz/seven-summits-women-climb-again,1486">They climbed another mountain</a>, Matt Miller Travelling through India on an expedition to Trisul, Blum was shocked by the poverty and decided to change the trajectory of her research away from theoretical science to ‘help solve the planet’s problems’. After joining the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition in 1976, Blum returned in the autumn of 1978 with a group of 12 female climbers to take the route up the same face as Maurice Herzog had 28 years earlier on Annapurna I. But first, again, she had to fight an AAC decision not to endorse an all-women team, and one led by her. Finally, the American women arrived at the north base of Annapurna I in October 1978. The peak is 800m lower than Everest, but sections are more technical and avalanche prone. Four in every ten climbers on Annapurna has not made it back alive. The feminist movement brought change, but mountaineering still had a glass ceiling for women. The Annapurna expedition was as much an adventure as a statement highlighted in its cheeky t-shirt motto: ‘A Woman's Place Is On Top’.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240130090140_111031d690fd182ac2ef5ee914dff7d786c3a543628a83071af1bbd6a64fed5a.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240130090140_111031d690fd182ac2ef5ee914dff7d786c3a543628a83071af1bbd6a64fed5a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2120" height="1296" loading="lazy" alt="Arlene Blum"> </figure>  In her 1980 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Annapurna-Womans-Place-Arlene-Blum/dp/1619026031">Annapurna: A Woman's Place</a>, Blum admits that had she known of the post-monsoon avalanches on Annapurna she would have gone to another mountain. As leader, she also had to constantly balance the need to be a decisive leader, while taking decisions democratically. The expedition faced a strike by Sherpas, and perhaps they did not like taking orders from a woman leader. Eventually, after more storms, avalanches, and personality clashes, four members made it to the summit: two women and two Nepali male guides. Blum’s attempts to train Sherpani cooks to also climb were unsuccessful. Two other women climbers tried to make a second summit bid, but were killed near Camp IV.&nbsp; The deaths marred the expedition’s triumph, and there were naysayers dismissing the women’s achievement because Nepali male guides helped them reach the top. All-male expeditions are seldom judged like that, and even 45 years later, the controversy has not completely died down.&nbsp; After Annapurna, Blum returned to do the Great Himalayan Traverse from Bhutan to Ladakh in 1982 at the end of which she met Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Delhi just months before she was assassinated. She has since lived in Nepal for a year and visits often to hike.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19459">Seven women, seven summits</a>, Candice Neo “Nepal has changed a lot, it is more prosperous with farmers talking on mobiles,” she said last month after doing the Millennium Trek south of Pokhara. “It is also more crowded. When we bicycled along the Ring Road in Kathmandu back then, we used to think why did the Chinese build a road so far from town?” Blum has gone back to research that will make a difference to people and the planet, and heads the Green Science Policy Institute. Her findings made California ban fire retardant chemicals from children’s clothing and furniture because they can cause decreased IQ, infertility and thyroid problems. Blum’s activism also led to 30 countries banning harmful chemicals in the electronics industry.&nbsp; “I attribute our success to mountain climbing determination,” Blum told us recently in Kathmandu. “There are indeed other Annapurnas in the lives of women. There are now more female-led expeditions, half the students at MIT are women now. And you have women running your newspaper.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240130090140_8aec3415bb3762c7e67aa1c92c7a0484b011aaf64496e743d5c52491e04f3284.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20240130090140_8aec3415bb3762c7e67aa1c92c7a0484b011aaf64496e743d5c52491e04f3284" data-rendition-name="original" width="1152" height="850" loading="lazy" alt="Annapurna A Woman's Place"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240130090140_fdfc5205fed685fd8609779063df07b65385e91f5a1c6051c413e2b4f0f54add.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20240130090140_fdfc5205fed685fd8609779063df07b65385e91f5a1c6051c413e2b4f0f54add" data-rendition-name="original" width="999" height="811" loading="lazy" alt="Breaking trail"> </figure>  &nbsp;

Other Annapurnas in the lives of women

In his short 35-year life, only 10 years of which he spent guiding Himalayan mountaineering expeditions, Tenjen Sherpa was known for his stamina and humility. Unlike most of Nepal’s famous Sherpa climbers, Tenjen was not from the Khumbu region below Mt Everest, but from the foothills of Mt Makalu, the world’s fifth highest mountain. He herded yaks and farmed potatoes on the steep terraces of the village of Walung, where he was born in 1988, the seventh of eight brothers. He never went to school, but attended a monastery and was therefore known by the nickname ‘Mantare Lama’, after the lucky number seven. Tenjen quickly mastered the methods of technical climbing at high altitude, and was much sought after by international expeditions to fix ropes to summits. For most Nepali climbing guides, this is a nameless and largely thankless job, while the foreigners they help to the summit get most of the attention and fame.&nbsp; But that did not bother Tenjen too much. He was not the complaining type, and the expeditions earned him money. But Tenjen also represented a new breed of Nepalis for whom climbing was not just a job, but an adventure he enjoyed and excelled at. Earlier this year, he completed climbs of 14 peaks above 8,000m in just 92 days helping Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila also accomplish the feat. They beat the previous 14-peak record set by Nepali-British climber Nims Purja for climbing the world’s highest peaks in the shortest time.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231121071136_b266a0133e4de4a95aaa824f53ad3ca0dd46386da7088ae76ee9cc5947d8ed5c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20231121071136_b266a0133e4de4a95aaa824f53ad3ca0dd46386da7088ae76ee9cc5947d8ed5c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="628" loading="lazy" alt="Tenjen and Harila"> </figure>  Perhaps even more remarkable than the record was the tale of Tenjen Sherpa’s struggle. He was married off when he was just 13. His father abandoned his family, and Tenjen had to help his mother take care of his siblings, as well as his wife and their own two sons.&nbsp; Financial hardship forced Tenjen to leave the village and seek his fortune elsewhere. Because he lacked schooling, there were only two options: migrate to India or work as a porter for climbing expeditions.&nbsp; Even as a child, Tenjen had seen expeditions to Makalu camp near his village and admired their climbing gear, flashy clothing and the money that some of his neighbours earned from being guides.&nbsp; Tenjen was inspired by the famous Sherpa guides he worked with, and was determined to become a high-altitude guide himself. He knew it was a risky job, but it paid well.&nbsp; Tenjen found a job with Seven Summit Treks, one of the new Nepali-run mountaineering outfitters that have been taking over the Himalayan climbing business from foreign companies in recent years. It is led by Mingma Sherpa, also from the Makalu region, and himself an accomplished mountaineer who has also climbed all 14 eight-thousanders.&nbsp; Mingma sent Tenjen with an expedition to Makalu in 2014, and despite having no prior experience at high altitude he reached the South Summit. Tenjen learnt fast to fix ropes, wear crampons, use bottled oxygen, and belay fellow climbers on steep sections.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231121071136_4b05955b11e8a5c3aa4d5fbdf06328a8589ecb3c10b8d97c264182fef9ae65e2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20231121071136_4b05955b11e8a5c3aa4d5fbdf06328a8589ecb3c10b8d97c264182fef9ae65e2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1948" height="2355" loading="lazy" alt="Tenjen Sherpa"> </figure>  In 2016, Tenjen was sent as part of a rope-fixing team to Mt Dhaulagiri and reached the top of the world’s seventh-highest mountain. Tenjen never looked back after that, successfully summiting every peak he attempted.&nbsp; By July 2023, he had climbed 35 of the world’s highest mountains, many of them multiple times. He had helped Harila become the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders after climbing Cho Oyu in May this year. After the monsoon, he was on Mt Shishapangma in China, guiding the American climber Gina Marie Rzucidlo who was competing with compatriot Anna Gutu to become the first female American to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, both had completed 13 peaks and had only one left. Rzucidlo had hired Tenjen at the last moment although he was not with her expedition company because he had proven to be a fast climber with Harila. On 7 October, at around 12:30PM a slab of avalanche swept away Gutu and her guide Mingmar Sherpa at an altitude of 7,600 meters. A few hours later, Tenjen and Gina were also hit by an avalanche at 8,000m on the north face of Shishapangma. Their bodies were never found. For Tenjen’s family, this was an added tragedy. Two of his brothers, Norbu and Phurba who were also climbers, had died earlier. Phurba died on Everest in the spring 2023, while Norbu died during the Covid-19 pandemic. Three of his other brothers had died at an early age. Tenjen’s eldest brother is the only one remaining in Walung, farming the family terraces. The youngest brother, Pas Dawa also works as a climbing guide. “I don't know whether to continue this job or quit," Pas Dawa told us in Kathmandu during a break between expeditions. "We cannot take care of our families if we do not work on the mountains, but it is a job that we could never return from."

Tenjen Sherpa, a tribute

One smoggy winter morning in February 2019, Ekta regretted coming to her sculpture class. It was the first day of her period, and the 19-year-old wished she was home, curled up in bed with a hot water bag to soothe her cramps.
Her class was at Kalapremi Ceramic Studio, a dark room on the ground floor of a house in Maharajganj, and Ekta’s teacher was the artist Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’, a noted sculptor.
Two other students were already there, using all their muscle strength to knead the sculpting clay. Ekta, now 24, recalls how Kalapremi asked her if she was feeling all right. She avoided him, as she did not want everyone to know she was menstruating.
Kalapremi repeatedly asked Ekta what was wrong. She finally muttered that she was having her period, after which he grabbed her hand and led her to a partitioned corner of the studio and sat her on a chair. Before she could stop him, he slid his hand under her dress, and started massaging her abdomen.
“I was horrified,” Ekta recalls. “I told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, asking me not to be shy, saying he knew how to relieve my pain. He stopped only after I protested furiously.”&nbsp;
The art tutor then said, “You’re like my daughter. I’m doing it out of love to make you feel better, but you’re so stubborn.”&nbsp;
“Instead of saying sorry he acted like I was the one having crazy thoughts,” remembers Ekta, adding that from April 2016 to August 2020 beginning the time she was 16, the artist sexually abused and harassed her on several occasions. &nbsp;
Now, Ekta and the artist’s other former students are finally sharing their experiences and some are pressing legal charges against him, hoping that others do not have to endure what they did.&nbsp;
Award-winning artist and teacher Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ (the name means ‘Art Lover’) is known for his ceramic art, sculpture, and contemporary pottery. He was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-house-of-kalapremi">profiled in Nepali Times after a collaborative exhibition</a>, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ at the Siddhartha Art Gallery three years ago.&nbsp;
His pieces, titled Gaalis, featured sculpted female figures with the heads of dogs, sheep, and donkeys (pictured) to depict derogatory terms for women. Some critics said the collection was a satire on feminists.
Kalapremi started his artistic and teaching career in 1983 and over the years taught at Bhanubhakta School, Kathmandu University School of Arts, Lalitkala Campus and at his private Kalapremi Ceramic Studio. He has also lectured at Jeonju University in South Korea and recently at Tabor Academy in the United States.
Seven of Kalapremi’s former students were interviewed for this story. Five female students said he touched them inappropriately in his studio or at Kathmandu University. Two male students said they witnessed him abuse and harass the women. In all cases, the students struggled to recognise the abuse when it occurred, and the lack of reporting systems left them to cope on their own for years.&nbsp;
Earlier this year, students shared a social media post hinting at Kalapremi’s history of abusive behaviour following which more students of the artist reached out sharing similar experiences. Some students spoke of abuse that happened as long as 20 years ago.
Kalapremi, 60, has denied the allegations. He told Nepali Times: “Some years ago, there was a movement encouraging people to hug and kiss. I used to do it purely out of friendship and love. But after seeing posts on social media last year calling out my behaviour, I realised my actions may have hurt some people. I understand now that I should have been more mindful.”
He added: “I am also an auxiliary health worker, so I know the exact points to massage to relieve menstrual pain. It’s not just menstruation, I take anyone who is ill to the hospital.”
Sexual abuse is much more rampant than reported given how difficult it is to prove it in court. The law defines sexual abuse as occuring when someone touches another’s private parts, coerces them into touching theirs, uses vulgar language, shows degrading images, or behaves indecently towards them without consent.&nbsp;
Ekta and her fellow students are consulting lawyer Suneeta Regmi Pokhrel, who says they know that even if the court decides in their favour, it is difficult to survive after speaking up, and influential men defend themselves saying they are being framed.&nbsp;
“They are in a lot of pain and weep when recalling how he abused them,” Regmi Pokhrel told us. “They are angry and have filed a case against him, but they are also terrified. They know he is a powerful man and they have seen how our society treats women who speak up against abusers. Unless people speak up, perpetrators will be emboldened.”
Art and academia in Nepal simply reflect the power imbalances in society where people with intersecting identities experience worse forms of abuse. Theatre actors Raj Kumar Pudasaini, Rajan Khatiwada, and Sunil Pokhrel were called out during the #MeToo movement in the Nepali theatre scene in 2019. Even after the allegations Pokhrel went on to receive national awards, while others continued to work without repercussions.
“If you speak up against abusers, you gradually get sidelined from projects,” explained a theatre artist who wished anonymity fearing professional setbacks. “The theatre scene in Nepal is quite small, you just have to make peace with the perpetrators and work with them if you want to sustain yourself.”&nbsp;
In academia there is a history of faculty members sexually harassing students and getting away with it. After Tribhuvan University (TU) lecturer Krishna Bhattachan was accused of harassing women students, the university said it would follow Nepal’s sexual harassment law and set up a reporting mechanism. But nothing happened to the professor, who had already retired. Instead, he counter-accused the students of 'attacking the indigenous people’s movement with baseless allegations' as <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/letters/2019/01/29/bhattachan-responds">he told the Kathmandu Post in 2019</a>. He continues to be featured as a prominent speaker including at TU.
Other faculty members previously accused of sexual harassment include Jagadish Murti Koirala from TU, Bishnu Prasad Acharya from Ratna Rajya Campus, and Bodha Raj Tripathee from Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya. A woman staff member from TU also filed a sexual abuse complaint against Dambar Chemjong from TU.
Prominent figures like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-nims-purja">mountaineer Nims Purja</a> have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/sports/mountaineering-sexual-harassment-abuse-nims-purja.html">accused of sexual assault</a>, and cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, actor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/celebrity-rape-case-spotlights-nepal-laws">Paul Shah</a>, and former speaker of Parliament <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mahara-arrested">Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> have been accused of rape, but society-at-large has let off the alleged perpetrators amdist a larger debate about justice for survivors and punishment of perpetrators.&nbsp;
‘Gaushala-26’ is the court name given to the 18-year-old who accused Sandeep Lamichhane, former captain of Nepal’s national cricket team and skipper of Biratnagar Kings in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/here-comes-the-nepal-premier-league">ongoing Nepal Premier League</a>, of rape. She left the country citing society questioning her character affecting her mental health while Lamichhane got an outpouring of support. In May, the Patan High Court overturned a prior verdict that found Lamichhane guilty of rape and had sentenced him to eight years in prison. During the 23-month legal battle to pursue justice, Gaushala-26 faced threats of gang rape and acid attacks.&nbsp;
Exhausted by the struggle, Gaushala-26 sought to “move to a new world” where she could live free without hiding her identity.
Actress Samragyee Rajya Laxmi Shah in an Instagram video now deleted detailed the harassment she faced from a filmmaker during a movie shoot. She did not name any name but veteran actor Bhuwan KC filed a defamation case against Rana, but the court ruled that the charge lacked sufficient evidence.&nbsp;
Former Kathmandu mayor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/theytoo">Keshav Sthapit also mocked the #MeToo movement</a>, calling accusations against him by journalists Rashmila Prajapati and Ujjwala Maharjan “a rape of men’s rights”.
Serial Abuse
Back at the Kalapremi Ceramics studio, another former student, 24-year-old Rajiv, says he felt the need to speak out after seeing his female classmates being abused.&nbsp;
“He frequently kissed them on their cheeks,” he told Nepali Times. “Whenever they walked into the studio he flailed his arms like a child asking for a hug. They awkwardly hugged him from the side, but he pulled them closer, held their chin, and kissed their cheeks.”&nbsp;
Rajiv says he also saw Kalapremi pull the women’s bra straps, touch their breasts, and slap their buttocks. The young students would freeze, not knowing how to react, and if they protested, he would say it was “normal in art”. Rajiv, 19 at the time like his classmates, remembers thinking perhaps the well-respected artist was right after all.
Another student, Luna, who took lessons at Kalapremi’s studio from 2020 to 2022 did try to confront the tutor after he made an obscene proposal to her. She recalls: “One day when the other students had left the studio and it was just the two of us, he told me that God had given him special artistic talent and he could transfer those powers to me. But to do that both of us will have to be naked, inside a dark room, and have sex.”
Luna, who was 18 then, was livid and told him she did not want any of his powers, but she says he laughed at her as if he was joking. She did not tell her family about the incident because she thought no one would believe her.&nbsp;
“They were all in awe of this famous artist and felt I should be grateful that to be learning sculpting from him,” she says. “I was scared to be alone with him in case he talked about sex again. My coping mechanism was to be rude so he wouldn’t try to come close to me.”
Seeing how some classmates were standing up to Kalapremi, Ekta too tried to push back against his advances, but she said he found ways to coerce her. Since Ekta, Rajiv, and Luna could not afford Kalapremi’s Rs30,000 monthly fee for lessons, he had offered them all a stipend to assist him in the studio.
“He had spondylosis and took me to his therapy sessions to learn massage techniques, then he often made me and other students massage him,” says Ekta. Whenever she refused, he would feign pain to make her feel sorry for him. “He would insist that I put my hands under his shirt so that I could massage him better,” she adds.
The art tutor often tried to “seduce sympathy” from Ekta by sharing how he had never been loved as a child and was “sexually frustrated” as an adult.&nbsp;
“At 7PM, he would pour himself Signature whiskey and immediately go off again about how he was sex-starved. I didn’t know how to respond. It took me time to realise alcohol was just an excuse to talk about sex,” Ekta says.
If convicted, Kalapremi could face financial penalty and/or a prison sentence of up to three years according to Section 224 of National Penal (Code) Act 2017.&nbsp;
Data suggests that victims of child sexual abuse on average take nearly 24 years to tell someone about their trauma, and some may never disclose it at all.&nbsp;
“In our culture, children are rarely taught about boundaries. They often react, show anger when adults pinch their cheeks. But adults insist they did it out of love, and force the children to accept it,” says Sita Lama, a psychotherapist at Manka Kura. “And even when someone touches them inappropriately they struggle to identify and verbalise it.”
When perpetrators claim to be “acting out of love”, Lama says survivors are likely to perceive it as something safe, rather than recognising it as abuse.&nbsp;
“It may take years for them to realise they were abused,” she explains. "And even when they become aware, the power imbalance with the abuser and the associated shame often prevents survivors from speaking up."
Other former students from the School of Art at Kathmandu University have also come forward years later, saying Kalapremi sexually abused them. As young adults, they felt his behaviour was off but were uncertain if it was inappropriate, illegal, or they did not know how to respond. After having understood that it was indeed abuse, they say they are speaking out now to protect others.&nbsp;
Amina Singh, a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, says there is no clause against sexual abuse in contracts of teachers, and there is no formal grievance handling mechanism for the students.&nbsp;
“So the only way students can to deal with sexual abuse is approach someone they trust,” she says.
Eight other former art students of Lalit Kala Campus and Srijana College of Fine Arts of Tribhuvan University and other private art studios in Kathmandu say they were also sexually abused by their art teachers. Three faculty members interviewed from these institutions said they saw the abuse, but felt it was futile to report it given how powerful the teachers were.
In the absence of a formal system, some longtime women artists warned each other about “problematic” artists. They shared &nbsp;a “heads-up” to be more cautious when collaborating with them, and avoided responding to their calls and texts after work hours.
To ensure art institutions are safe for all, galleries, museums, artist studios, and smaller art spaces need to develop policies on sexual harassment. This would include a code of conduct or studio policies that hold the leadership accountable and outline the principles of professional ethics.&nbsp;
Students and employees should inquire about accountability mechanisms for raising concerns, both formally and informally, advocates say.
Three years after Ekta left the ceramics studio, she learnt that Kalapremi had harassed many other women. Still trying to get a footing in the art industry, she attended a workshop in Kathmandu where women artists discussed ways to stay safe in the art sector.&nbsp;
Since it was a close-knit group Ekta opened up about how she felt violated and realised she was not alone, he had been abusing underprivileged students for years, and this was common knowledge among artists in Nepal.
Ekta says that even after she quit, Kalapremi continued sending her text messages like ‘I am thinking of you’, ‘Why have you stopped speaking with me’, or ‘I am waiting for your call’.&nbsp;
But what really forced her to act was when Ekta found out that he was sending similar texts to her younger sister.&nbsp;
“I’ve had enough,” she told us. “He abused me all these years but I won’t let him abuse my sister.” &nbsp;
Ekta, Rajiv and Luna are not the real names of the students.&nbsp;

‘Art Lover’ accused of sexual abuse

It was 8:15 in the evening of 25 March 1968 when everyone in the village of Batulechaur near Pokhara heard a deafening sound like thunder as a bright flashing object hurtled down to land in a field.&nbsp; That field belonged to Kul Timilsina, and the next morning he retrieved a sheet of metal about 2m by 1m and carried it home with the help of a few others, thinking it would be useful for his buffalo shed.&nbsp; Before he died at age 83 three years ago, Timilsina had told photo archivist Sunil Ulak that the black metal sheet was not rectangular and had rounded corners. There are a few witnesses still alive who have a clear recollection of the object that fell from the sky that night.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="601" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>The field in Batulechaur belonging to Kul Timilsina where fragments of a flying object fell from the sky in 1968.</figcaption> </figure>  One of them is Timilsina’s wife Gyanu, who was 22 at the time. She had been at home, and remembers hearing the big bang and the sky becoming very bright. “We saw the thing in the field in the morning,” she told us. “It looked like a lid, a covering of some sort. The way it was stuck in the ground, it must have fallen from the sky. We thought we could use it to dry clothes on, and took it home.”&nbsp; Another witness is Kul Narayan Paudel. “I was only eight then. We ran to the field to see what had fallen. It was a four-sided metal sheet. The elders took it away, and I don't know what happened to it.” &nbsp; Ram Bahadur Baniya, a teacher at the local school, says he had heard the sheet had been brought to the school, and later handed over to the Zonal Commissioner at the time, Nanda Prasad Malla. “But that is all hearsay,” he says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="610" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Gyanu Timilsina, wife of Kul Timilsina.</figcaption> </figure>  There are two versions of what happened to Kul Timilsina’s metal sheet. One is that an American Peace Corp Volunteer teaching at the nearby Bindyabasini School took it, and another is that it was handed over to the government. Recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US State Department documents from the time say that the US Embassy in Kathmandu tracked down the object two years later and had it shipped back to the US. A telegram from the Department of State and Department of Defense tagged as ‘MOON DUST / Space Fragments’ dated 1 March 1972 stated: ‘1. Restored space fragment will be on board Embassy support flight 115 arriving Kathmandu on or about March 10. Fragment is packed in shipping crate (cargo no. 72-33365) marked in care of DAO.&nbsp; 2. State and Defense representatives examined fragments prior to shipment finding restoration acceptable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df" data-rendition-name="original" width="856" height="568" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Declassified CIA documents about the investigation into the object sighted in Pokhara. </figcaption> </figure>  The documents show that the US government, military and intelligence agencies investigated this incident thoroughly when it occurred, and have continued to revisit it ever since, as recently as five years ago. What is even more intriguing is that the object that fell in Pokhara was not the only unidentified space object that fell to earth that year. There were similar sightings of objects falling from the sky in Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan between 19 February and 25 March 1968.&nbsp; These mysteries were the subject of a CIA investigation in 1968 titled ‘<a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100070007-8.pdf">Sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects in Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan</a>’, and the report is part of the recent online declassification of 800,000 top-secret documents from the period.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have a connotation now of being alien craft, it could be pieces of satellite, missile, rocket or even aircraft. The CIA report documents six sightings in 1968 and quotes local sources as describing all of them having similar characteristics: bright blue or red streaks in the sky accompanied by loud sounds like lightning and thunder and objects falling to the ground. Aside from the metallic object that was found in Batlechaur, there were other items also found nearby in Tallakot, Tureypasal, Armalakot and Maidan. Whatever the object was, it seems to have disintegrated even before it hit the ground.&nbsp; The CIA report records the first sighting on 19 February 1968 in various parts of Sikkim and Olangchung Gola and Ghunsa in eastern Nepal. The light was said to be ‘long and thin’ and giving out ‘green and red light’. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb" data-rendition-name="original" width="892" height="596" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara "> </figure>  Two days later on 21 February, a soundless blue object was seen traveling fast across the sky above Thimphu in Bhutan. Then on 4 March there were multiple daytime sightings or white streaks in the sky at Chang La Pass, Fukche and Koyul in Ladakh. There were more sightings in Ladakh on the very day fragments fell near Pokhara on 25 March 1968.&nbsp; After the sightings in Pokhara, rumours started flying in Kathmandu that these were aliens trying to land on Earth, it could be Russian or Chinese spy planes or satellites, and some even say it as a sign from heaven that the end of the world was near. This was at the height of the Cold War. The Russians and Americans were testing their thermonuclear devices as well as intercontinental ballistic missile delivery systems. The Washington-Beijing rapprochement had not yet happened, and China was making quick progress testing atomic bombs. Within two years after its first atomic test, in 1966 China exploded its first hydrogen bomb at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, 3,000km to the north from Nepal. After neary six decades, what is still intriguing is that all the sightings within a few months of each other in 1968 were along the Himalayan arc bordering Tibet: from Bhutan, Sikkim Nepal, to Ladakh. The US military intelligence seems to have concluded that this was not a coincidence and there were frequent research trips to the site in Pokhara by American officials in the months after the incident. With the help of the Royal Nepal Army, the region north of Pokhara was thoroughly searched.&nbsp; A confidential memo dated 25 June 1968 by Jerry C Trippy to a ‘Mr Farley’ mentions that the US Air Force’s Foreign Technology Division had decided that the debris could be important because it may be related to a Chinese missile test or a Soviet ‘Vehicle Venik’ rocket.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  On 28 August 1968 the US Embassy in Kathmandu sent a letter to Washington DC saying that the object could be of Soviet origin, possibly from when the rocket carrying the ‘Kosmos 208’ satellite re-entered the atmosphere. But why were the fragments falling to earth several weeks apart, and in the same region? No one knows where the metal sheet that Kul Timilsina recovered is now. It was definitely packed in a crate and taken to the US, and although it is rumoured that it was returned that is not very likely. Archivist Sunil Ulak heard from the Timilsina family that CIA officials had returned to the site five years ago. &nbsp; Interest in UFOs peaked in the US in the 1950s, with the Cold War space race and tests of atomic weapons and delivery rockets. CIA and scientists were being sent to investigate sightings, both publicly and privately. Could the Pokhara fragments as well as the sightings in Ladakh and Bhutan actually be alien craft falling to earth? The renewal in interest in space travel in large part due to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, UFOs and sightings are again subjects of public interest.&nbsp; Even 57 years later, even if there was definitive proof about whether the Batlechaur fragment was from a Chinese missile or a soviet rocket, it has not been made public in documents declassified so far. We may never know.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598" data-rendition-name="original" width="642" height="320" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  Sunil Ulak speculates if the debris actually came from an American aircraft, perhaps on an intel mission upon China. “Which could explain why they were so thorough in collecting the fragments in Pokhara,” he says. But that still does not explain the multiple sightings weeks apart in 1968.&nbsp; Indeed, US military aircraft were at that time flying frequent night-time missions from air force bases in India to supply weapons to Khampa guerrilla camps in Nepal located north of Pokhara in Mustang. It could very well be that the Chinese shot down one such aircraft. The other sightings could have been contrails of US spy planes, or Chinese anti-aircraft missiles.&nbsp; There were quite a few developments regarding UFOs in 2024. In a US congressional hearing in July, former intelligence officer David Grusch claimed that the government had long been involved in a program to investigate and retrieve non-human craft crashes, and then try to reverse engineer them. However Grusch did not show any evidence.&nbsp; The UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 was signed into law by Joe Biden in December 2023. It plans to oversee the public disclosure of UFO information. However, there is a clause in it that prevents disclosure if it would cause threats to military defense, intelligence operations or foreign relations.&nbsp; It is unlikely that the declassified documents about sightings in the Himalayan will cause any real surprise about definite evidence of alien life even if it was found. It seems humanity will continue, at least for now, to wonder about curious lights in the sky and whether there is anybody out there.&nbsp;

UFO over Pokhara

When Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president Rabi Lamichhane was arrested in October on charges of defrauding depositors of cooperatives, the party’s vice president Swarnim Wagle gifted him Fareed Zakaria’s book, Age of Revolutions.
Since then, Lamichhane has been shunted around from Kathmandu to Pokhara to Chitwan and back to Pokhara to attend police investigations and court proceedings. He was being flown to Birganj via Kathmandu on Buddha Air on Monday. There is another pending case in Janakpur.
Human rights groups and civil society have criticised the government for hounding Lamichhane with inhumane treatment that borders on physical torture. The two parties in the coalition, Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML, see Lamichhane’s RSP as a potentially formidable challenge to their power.
Even if the fraud charges against Lamichhane are true, the Nepali public is increasingly looking at the government’s actions through the police and courts as political vendetta.
Despite all the travelling, sometimes by plane and often by road at night, Lamichhane appears to be in high spirits, waving to supporters who often gather if they know he is going to be driven around. A social media video shows him giving high fives to fellow passengers on a recent flight to Pokhara.&nbsp;
In the past weeks, streets in Pokhara have erupted with parallel protests by Lamichhane’s supporters as well as depositors of cooperatives who lost their savings to the scam.&nbsp;
Although family visits are allowed, prison officials in Pokhara told Nepali Times that not many people visit Lamichhane these days. He added, “When he does get visitors, he asks them to bring him books.”
Lamichhane is currently Nepal’s most high-profile public figure in custody, and highlights the stark difference between how influential prisoners are treated compared to ordinary inmates.
There are six prison cells at Kaski District Police Office’s two-story detention centre, three on each floor. And while authorities pack prisoners into already overcrowded cells, Lamichhane has an entire room on the second floor to himself.&nbsp;
He has also been allowed to call his family every few days. Other prisoners are not permitted phone calls except for emergencies.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane’s former business partner Chhabilal Joshi, an ex-Deputy Inspector General of Police with whom he established his Gorkha Media Network, is in custody under the same charges in the prison cell next to him.
Lamichhane is accused of siphoning off depositors' money to the tv network in which he was part-owner and anchor. &nbsp;
Both Lamichhane and Joshi are able to buy food from the police canteen instead of being served the regular meal like other prisoners. Joshi has also given his statement to authorities in Rupandehi and Kathmandu for his alleged role in the scam. Lamichhane is yet to be presented in Kathmandu for questioning.
While he was in custody at the Kathmandu District Police Complex, Joshi expressed his desire to sleep in a police officer’s office, reportedly assuring authorities that he would not run away and he was entitled to certain facilities as a former officer of the law.
“He seemed to be under the impression that he is still a police officer,” says a source at the Kathmandu District Police. “We made it clear to him that as someone accused of a crime, he was not entitled to special treatment.”
Former ministers Balkrishna Khand and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, and ex-home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who were arrested in connection with the fake refugee scam last year, were similarly housed in the offices of law enforcement officials instead of prison cells. Khand has since been released after six months in jail.
While there is no legal provision to keep high-ranking officials in separate detention centres when they are arrested, authorities granting them special facilities is not uncommon. Law enforcement officials say VIP detainees expect preferential treatment while in police custody.
Among those is former Kosi Province minister Lila Ballav Adhikari, who was arrested from Biratnagar on 10 November over his alleged involvement in human trafficking and brought to Kathmandu. Adhikari had flown to Japan without government approval with three individuals on 29 October to attend a cultural conference, but had been sent back to Nepal from Narita.&nbsp;
His three companions were arrested at Kathmandu airport upon their arrival, but Adhikari was able to exit unscathed from the VIP lounge. Adhikari had resigned as the Kosi Province Minister for Internal Affairs and Law when it became public that his companions had been taken into custody, and was himself arrested shortly after. He has since been cleared by the courts.
Throughout his detention, Adhikari was kept separately from other inmates. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basant Rajouri, head of the Bhadrakali complex, says that while there is no separate detention area for VIPs, some detainees are kept separately depending on the nature of their crime.
However, sources say that arrangements were made for retired judges and others to visit Adhikari frequently worked at the office of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) during his time in custody.&nbsp;
“He used to constantly pester the authorities to let him sit outside in the sun, and to be able to use the police officer’s shower area,” added an officer.
Adhikari was released on 25 November after the government prosecutor’s office decided not to charge him in a move that was seen to expose the government’s double standards.
Over at Kathmandu’s Dilli Bazar Prison, former Kist Bank CEO Kamal Gyawali emerges from his prison cell into the courtyard of the prison’s ‘Ka (क)’ block every morning with a thick book in his hands, ready to give his daily sermon.
With his long beard, Gyawali, who is serving a prison sentence for banking fraud, looks the part of a religious guru as he implores his rapt listeners to “walk the right path, abandon bad thoughts and turn to scripture and spirituality”.&nbsp;
Afterward, the attendees gather to discuss politics and current affairs. Inmates at his daily sermons at the prison include other high-profile detainees, including former MP Ichchha Raj Tamang, who is in jail for money laundering and cooperatives fraud, former joint secretary Chudamani Sharma, who was convicted of corruption, as well as NC leader Chandra Bahadur Lama and Krishna Bahadur Upreti of the UML both of whom are on trial for embezzling billions of rupees.
Victims of the cooperatives scam that former lawmaker Tamang was involved in have made trips to the prison and requested visits, but he has refused to meet with any of them.
“Tamang often complains that the state has prevented him from returning the money to the victims by locking him up,” says a police officer at the Dili Bazar jail.
“All you hear every day from the VIP prisoners is that they have been framed,” adds the officer. “No one admits that they were involved in misdeeds.”
But while most high-profile prisoners complain about prison conditions, one exception is former provincial lawmaker Deepak Manange, who is serving a sentence at Dilli Bazar Jail for attempted murder.
“He is the happiest prisoner here,” says a warden. “Unlike the others, he doesn’t claim to have been framed, in fact he doesn’t seem to care that he is in prison.”
Manange is detained in the ‘Kha (ख)’ block of the prison complex, which he renovated at his own expense. The block previously housed female prisoners, but Manange used his influence to transfer them elsewhere. He faces no shortage of visitors, who range from political leaders to people from the underworld.
Along with Manange, other well-known prisoners in this block include Nepal Telecom Managing Director Sunil Poudel, and former executive director of the Surakshan Printing Centre Bikal Poudel, who are serving time for corruption.
Former prisoners at Dilli Bazar prison include ex-ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka and Shyam Sundar Gupta, NC leader Ganesh Lama, Maoist MP Balkrishna Dhungel, Nagarik Unmukti Party leader Resham Chaudhary, as well as former IGs Ramesh Chand Thakuri, Om Bikram Rana, and Hem Bahadur Gurung.
Section 54 of Nepal’s Prison Act assigns each prison’s internal administration the
responsibility of governing its prisoners, which means the more favourable the jail management is, the more comfortable it is for prisoners.
Dilli Bazar prison has been the prison of choice for many high-ranking prisoners, especially those convicted of white collar crimes, due to its more accommodating administrators. The prison, which has the capacity to house 700 inmates, is also less crowded than other jails.
Anuj Bhattarai, spokesperson of the Department of Prison Management, says that there is no legal classification in Nepal for felons to be assigned prisons based on the nature of their crimes.
“That Dilli Bazar Jail has a higher number of prisoners convicted of crimes like corruption is most likely a coincidence,” says Bhattarai. “There is no provision for influential people to be able to choose where they will be incarcerated.”&nbsp;
Translated by Shristi Karki from the Nepali original published in himalkhabar.com

What Nepal’s VIP prisoners do in jail

As soon as she milks her cow, 52-year-old Punam B K is off, pedaling her bicycle furiously along the highway with a blue milk can in the front basket.&nbsp; By the time she arrives at the Jaya Shiva Ganesh Dairy Producers Cooperative in Gopalganj village, others are already there, their bicycles parked on the roadside. The farmers are all holding on to their blue milk cans, and are chatting away.&nbsp; “We keep what is needed for the family, and sell whatever remains here at the cooperative,” says B K, as the volume, fat and non-fat solid content of her milk is measured. It is then poured into a bigger vat to be mixed with milk from other farmers. B K collects her receipt with the value of her milk, and prepares to head home. The farmers are reimbursed on a quarterly basis.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-family-that-works-together-stays-together">A family that works together stays together</a>, Sahina Shrestha “Everyone around here has at least a cow or buffalo to provide milk for the family, the cowdung is used for fertiliser, and we can bring whatever is left over to the cooperative,” says B K who, like the others, brings her milk by bicycle twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_0df32c0f6a572aef83eca02dc7a86f75ea5dbc88dc6c2390d42a44ab3cc93395.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241210081232_0df32c0f6a572aef83eca02dc7a86f75ea5dbc88dc6c2390d42a44ab3cc93395" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1275" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  All this may seem like nothing special, just an ordinary farmer selling her milk. But it has to be seen in the context of dairy farmers overcoming subsistence and increasing household income. Nearly 200,000 dairy farmers from over 1,200 cooperatives have not been paid by the government-run DDC for their milk for a year or more.&nbsp; The DDC has fixed a quota for buying milk from cooperatives that limits production even during the peak winter months. Farmers in Chitwan are so fed up, they have staged demonstrations in Kathmandu and even poured milk on the East-West Highway in protest.&nbsp; Punam B K’s milk ends up in Bhawani Dairy, a milk processing plant in Chitwan that buys milk from various cooperatives in the district. It was established six years ago by three entrepreneur cousins Devrath Baral, Drishya Baral and Subash Paudel and is now being supported by the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (CASA) project.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_4e3c65390b9c5345f807b10cbb8c36b006ef6d3cb972e07b5067f4b2db2be32e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241210081232_4e3c65390b9c5345f807b10cbb8c36b006ef6d3cb972e07b5067f4b2db2be32e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1102" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  This UK-funded project implemented by Swisscontact in Nepal has been supporting agro-businesses in 23 countries in Asia and Africa. They focus on improving the capacity of private dairy and vegetable farmers to find markets and build a sustainable supply chain for their produce. It helps dairies like the one in Chitwan with branding and marketing, as well to track business through a Dairy Management System (DMS) digital database.&nbsp; Bhawani Dairy also got support to conduct orientation for cooperative farmers to learn about new ways to boost productivity with breeding, cowshed management and hygiene maintenance. Many commercial farmers in Chitwan, some with up to 60 cows and buffaloes, have benefited.&nbsp; B K says she only has six cows, so not everything she hears at the orientation about increasing cowshed area is applicable. “We are just happy our milk is not wasted, and we can earn some cash from the surplus,” she says.&nbsp; Bhawani Dairy’s clientele is based entirely in Chitwan and in towns along the East-West Highway. But building on its success here, the company is looking to expand nationwide and target the Kathmandu market. Being a perishable product, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/nepal-s-milk-heartland-rebounds">diary business is challenging</a>. Businesses also need investment and technical support to diversify into value-added milk products like cheese, yoghurt, ice cream or powdered milk.&nbsp; “For now, the best thing we as a dairy business can do for farmers is to buy their milk at a decent price and pay them in time,” says Drishya Baral of Bhawani Dairy.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_6c06efb5674dbcd8679015af543bfda87030755383a13c9269e272af28e85953.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241210081232_6c06efb5674dbcd8679015af543bfda87030755383a13c9269e272af28e85953" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1275" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  Another agro-industry supported by CASA since 2018 is Himalayan Supervores, a venture that sources farm produce to supply vegetables and other foods to restaurants and hotels in the city, and even export Halal-certified produce to Gulf countries.&nbsp; CASA helped with cold chain management system to keep vegetable produce fresh so that the products earn trust about quality in the national and international market. Himalayan Supervores is already exporting to UAE and Qatar, and is targeting other Gulf countries next. “The guidance provided by the international expert was invaluable, we could not have bought that knowledge even with money,” says Nelson Shrestha of Himalayan Supervores. “It was not about fancy hardware, but how to minimise wastage, increase productivity, save time and money.”&nbsp; Though Himalayan Supervores collects vegetables from vegetable cooperatives, it indirectly works with a network of thousands of cooperative farmers. Its catchment area therefore is enormous, and it has enhanced their knowledge about organic farming methods, bio-pesticides, and the right way to handle and package vegetables. CASA’s most recent tie-up is with Pokhara-based Poshilo Foods, which specialises in increasing the shelf-life of local nutritional food items. During the Covid lockdown <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p3bparajuli/">Prithwi Kallyan Parajuli</a> saw an opportunity to supply nutritional foods that stayed longer, and set up Poshilo.&nbsp; It took traditional satu flour made from dry-roasted pulse, added more nutrients, and packaged it. Four flavours of satu with nutrient values differentiated for various age groups now line the shelves of supermarket chains like KK Mart, Saleways. Poshilo is now exploring the export market in India.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_a8dbea8c8d45ac4eff6c37fb47da7ff461989c662ba86d207a008381101acdcf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241210081232_a8dbea8c8d45ac4eff6c37fb47da7ff461989c662ba86d207a008381101acdcf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1275" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  In the five years of helping Nepali agribusinesses, CASA has already teamed up with 35 established companies. Parajuli heaps fulsome praise on the catalytic support and guidance he got early on, not just for product design, but to explore market viability, branding and marketing.&nbsp; He has participated in government-led programs before, but says those are one-off and focus only on technical solutions and do not pay much attention to the important back-end work with management and sales.&nbsp; Says Devrath Baral of Bhawani Dairy in Chitwan: “We would probably have eventually got to where we are now, but it would have taken years longer without CASA. And now we can share our experience with other agribusinesses in Nepal.”

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