Kathmandu: Sanu Sherpa, a Nepali mountaineering guide, has completed ascending the eight-thousanders - 14 independent mountains that are over 8,000 metres - twice. He climbed Pakistan's Gasherbrum II last month and achieved the rare feat.
Only fewer than 50 people have managed to climb the world's 8,000-metre mountains. Sanu Sherpa has become the first to do it twice. He says it is just his job because he was guiding a paying customer to the top.
People across the world come to Nepal with the ambition of climbing Everest. While they get recognition for the adventure, it is often forgotten that people from Nepal's Sherpa ethnic group accompany them carrying the majority of the equipment, food, ropes, and ladders.
Sanu Sherpa began working as a porter and kitchen aid in 2006. After accompanying a Japanese climber to the Gasherbrum II, he told AFP: "I was just doing my job. What I have done is not something that is impossible. Sometimes I want to go and sometimes I don't want to. What to do except climb? There is no other job."
Growing up in the Sankhuwasabha district in eastern Nepal, he was farming potatoes and grazing yaks. His village is home to Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain at 8,485 m and many of his peers were working as mountain guides. At the age of 30, he decided to take up the same career in order to support his family of eight. Fulfilling his dream of wearing mountain gear was a motivation.
Sanu started his career as a mountain guide by climbing Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8,188 m. By 2019, he had climbed seven of the eight-thousanders twice. A foreign climber suggested that he try ascending the other half as well. He has also been to four of the peaks thrice. Setting the record has not changed Sanu's life. He is preparing to climb Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain at 8,163 m with a client.
Altitudes above 8,000m are considered a "death zone" because there is not enough oxygen to sustain human life for long periods. Around 14 people die annually in these mountains and a third of them are Nepali guides and porters. The risks Sherpas take to help their clients have gone unrecognised until recently. Many filmmakers are now drawing attention to the lives of Sherpas.
Nepal's culture and tourism minister Jeevan Ram Shrestha said Sanu Sherpa's double ascent record is an inspiration for climbers around the world.