“The majority of expeditions in the Himalayas would not be possible without the sherpas, but we are still treated as servants for many,” he says Jamling Tenzing Norgayby video call. “There are mountaineers who pay $ 100,000 to get on Everest and expect five sherpas to do everything for them,” he continues. His complaint does not come from the periphery of the story, but from the center of it. The one who speaks is the Son of the first man to step on the highest peak on the planetSherpa Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary to the top of Everest, in 1953.
Jamling was also head of climbing of the famous IMAX expedition of 1996, a journey that was recorded in the film Everest (1998). In it, it portrays how the team had to make strength of weakness to face the Infamous snowstorm that caused the death of eight companions. Jamling’s team – which was below – maintained radio contact with the trapped and collaborated in the rescue work. In his book Closer to my fatherthat the Editorial Capitán Swing has just published in Spanish, the climber remembers that and other experiences that he lived in his rise to the roof of the world.
He does not do it as a physical feat – that, says, is a “very western perspective” of climbing – but as a trip of redemption and a tribute towards its legacy. That is what makes this book, originally published in 2001 and finalist of the “Books for A Better Life” award, is a rare jewel inside mountain literature: It is one of the few stories counted from the perspective of a sherpa. And not any sherpa. For sample, the prologue is signed by Dalái Lama and the introduction is of the journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer, who also witnessed the 96 tragedy.
Along the way, Jamling’s testimony puts an awkward truth in the foreground: Sherpas have been – since the first British attempts, in 1921 – the invisible heroes of the great expeditions. Those who load, open routes, install camps and, many times, risk life for others. “Yet, Sherpas deaths do not receive the same attention than those of customers, ”he claims.
His criticism becomes even more urgent when he remembers what this situation was like decades ago: «Until the 70s, Western climbers also helped, it was teamwork. Today they arrive by helicopter and leave the same, without having understood anything. They forget that this was a shared effort, ”he laments. Jamling also criticizes the “pseudospiritual” tourism that Nepal has invaded: “There are those who come with respect, and find something that transforms them. Others come only because of the photos and views … In the end, the Himalayas gives you what you are willing to receive, ”he smiles, peaceful, as the wise do.
Even so, Jamling maintains a hopeful look: «I believe in human compassion. Even in the worst people there is a bit. You just have to find it ». And remember that Sherpas, even knowing that they can die, many times they sacrifice their safety For saving its customers: «If a sherpa uploads Everest, you can win more than working a year in the field. That is why they accept the risk. But that does not mean that they do not suffer or fear. They do not do it by servility, he indicates, but for an ancestral ethic: “Helping the other is in our blood.”
The book is full of contrasts. On the one hand, the author denounces the economic and cultural imbalance between the rich climbers and the guides that risk their lives for them. On the other, he tenderly evoke the relationship with his father, the rituals, childhood in Darjeeling (India). “What was my motivation for climbing sincerely …?” Jamling in the book. «I wanted to understand my father. Only if he followed his mountain steps up, only if he reached where he had arrived And he ascended to where he had been, he could really understand it, ”he confesses. Because Everest is not, for Sherpas, just a summit. It is a divinity. «As my father said, he didn’t climb arrogance. He goes up as who enters his mother’s lap. The mountain decides if it allows you to get there. It is not you who conquers anything ».
Sherpa’s culture is different. Behind Jamling, through the screen, a Buddhist thankka hangs from the wall. It is a typically Tibetan tapestry, which represents different deities that keep the sherpas in their ascent to the mountain. “For us, climbing Everest is an act of respect, not conquest”Norgay points out, who reveals that he was not a practicing Buddhist before. “When he was little, with his father, he began to guess, visit monasteries and talk to the rhinpoche (monks) … But one begins to pray when he faces real danger,” he confesses. The mountain, he says, taught to pray, to respect, to look inside.
When climbing it, Sherpas must light candles in each temple They find along the way. It is another step of a ritual to honor the gods. Those details are what make Closer to my father Be a different story about Everest. Far from the genre of the chronicle of sports epic; Near the attention call, a voice that demands visibility and respect for the sherpas. It is the intimate story of someone who ascended to meet his father, with his faith and a part of himself that only appears when oxygen is scarce.
At the closing of the press conference, someone asked Jamling Why didn’t Everest climb again. His answer was as simple as devastating: «I am married. My wife did not let me return, ”he said with a laugh. But immediately recovered seriousness: «I did it as a pilgrimage. To pay tribute to my father and the mountain. I don’t need to come back. I was already closer to him than ever ».