- Namaste
Utahn seeks 19th ascent of Everest
Summit » Apa Sherpa, a 49-year-old Draper resident, dedicates climb to global warming education.
Updated: 04/06/2009 09:42:18 AM MDT
The signs of spring in the northern hemisphere are everywhere. Snow is melting, flowers are appearing and Apa Sherpa is preparing to climb Mount Everest.
It is a ritual Apa has undertaken and completed 18 times over the past 19 years, including the last seven years.
No one has been to the top of the world more often than Apa. The 49-year-old from Thame, Nepal, who has been living in Draper since December 2006, will again attempt to break his own record, peaking out at 29,035 feet sometime in May.
“I never had a plan to make a record. I never had that as a dream. It just keeps happening,” Apa told The Salt Lake Tribune last month before leaving for Nepal. After 16 trips to the summit as a guide, Apa has
made his past two summits in the name of causes to benefit his people. This time a spiritual leader has asked him to benefit all of humanity.
The fact that Apa Sherpa has summited Everest 18 times makes it seem like climbing the world’s highest peak is no big deal. But more than 200 people have died while scaling this treacherous mountain, with its subzero temperatures and risks of avalanche, ice breaks, high altitude sickness, hypothermia and falls.
For somebody like Salt Lake resident Dan Smith, who has attempted to make it to the top of Everest three times but never made it, Apa’s record and desire to continue climbing the tallest mountain in the world is unbelievable.
“It is incredible. To have that many summits and so consistently. He just keeps knocking them off,” said Smith. “The amount of patience he has to wait for the right weather window and focus that he is able to keep when others are stumbling around because they can’t think straight is amazing.”
Apa and his wife, Yangji, moved to the United States to provide a better education for their three children. But each spring since his move to North America, Apa has returned to the Himalayan foothills to prepare for what has become an annual sojourn to the top of the world. Apa and Yangji left Salt Lake City for Kathmandu on March 29 to prepare for the trek to a base camp for the Eco Everest Expedition.
Yangji will return home soon to be with the children, but Apa will miss milestones of the success he sought in coming to America: His oldest son Tenzing, 23, will graduate from Salt Lake Community College in business accounting in May, and 18-year-old Pemba will graduate as an honor roll student from Alta High School this spring. Apa will also miss several piano recitals by his accomplished 14-year-old daughter Dawa.
Apa — all of 5-foot-4 and 120-pounds — started climbing in the late 1980s because he, like many other Sherpa people, found it was a way to make money to support a family.
Apa made it to the top of Everest for the first time in 1990, leading a group of climbers. He quickly developed a reputation as a strong, wise climber and subsequently led 15 more groups to the top and back safely.
After moving to the Salt Lake Valley in mid-December of 2006, he became part of the SuperSherpas expedition. Teamed with Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, another Everest record holder for the fastest ascent to the top from base camp, and two Utahns, Apa headed back to his homeland in the spring of 2007. With no clients to manage, Apa and Lhakpa climbed to educate the world about the role of Sherpas in helping everyone else reach the world’s highest point.
Apa had not planned on making attempt No. 18 until an invite to join the Eco Everest Expedition 2008 organized by Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has known Apa since Dawa was a boy. Apa became passionate about the message of the Eco Everest Expedition — the threat global warming poses for the people of the Himalayan highlands.
Apa rejoins Eco Everest with a greater role this spring, but still will be climbing without the direct obligation of getting others up and down safely.
“We will bank on his huge amount of knowledge during our planning,” said Dawa Steven. “Having Apa with us is like a huge security blanket for the climbers. So, while he will not be involved in the nitty gritty of the planning, Apa will again be a very important part of our expedition’s
success in reaching the top and in educating the world about global warming.”
Living in Draper at 4,500 feet above sea level and riding in a car or taking TRAX to work — Apa has a driver license, he just doesn’t use it very often — is nothing like living at 12,500 feet in his home village of Thame, where there are no vehicles.
“I’m not worried about adjusting to the altitude again. I will be there for a long time before the final climb. I am a little worried about these muscles,” Apa said with a laugh while tapping his thighs.
After arriving in Kathmandu, Apa was asked by a monk from the famous Tengboche monastery to carry a sacred urn to the top of the mountain. Like other climbers hoping to make it to the top of Everest, Apa stops at the monastery in Tengboche to seek a blessing from the Buddhist monks.
During a special ceremony Friday in Kathmandu, Apa was asked to carry a sacred vessel to the top of Everest by a high-ranking Buddhist monk. The sacred vase, known as a bumpa, contains more than 400 ingredients including holy relics, medicinal plants and other spiritual elements. The Tendrel Nyesel Bumpa, as it will be called, underwent a lengthy blessing ceremony in the monastery in Tengboche before it was delivered to Apa.
“This will help to deal with all the spiritual and environmental negatives of the area,” Apa said by telephone from Kathmandu on Sunday of the vase, which he guessed weighs just over 2 pounds. “It doesn’t matter how much it weighs. I would have taken it to the top of Everest even if it was much larger. This is a very special thing for me to do.”
Rinpoche of Tengboche, Ngawang Tenzin Zangpo, also handed out three other bumpas to be delivered to other special mountain tops on Mount Manaslu, Mount Makalu and Mount Lhotse. The vases are intended to restore the sanctity of the sacred valleys of the Himalayan highlands and spiritually empower the people to cope with negative impacts of rapid environmental and social changes.
brettp@sltrib.com
1. May 10, 1990
2. May 8, 1991
3. May 12, 1992
4. Oct. 7, 1992
5. May 10, 1993
6. Oct. 10, 1994
7. May 15, 1995
8. April 26, 1997
9. May 20, 1998
10. May 26, 1999
11. May 24, 2000
12. May 16, 2002
13. May 26, 2003
14. May 17, 2004
15. May 31, 2005
16. May 19, 2006
17. May 16, 2007
18. May 22, 2008
Thank you to the MGIS Team.
We had a great time in San Diego at the MGMA Convention and representing your company.
Your company is providing the medical community with professionalism and opportunities that are needed in this industry and it was shown by your loyal customers.
Thanks again for all your support!
Kimbery and Apa at the MGIS Booth.
Reflections On A Glimpse Into The Life of Apa Sherpa
Posted by Jason A. Hendricks on June 3, 2008
Apa Sherpa is to Mt. Everest what Michael Jordan was to basketball. He has succeeded and excelled at every level. Mt. Everest is his NBA Finals. With finesse and strength, Apa Sherpa has slowly carved a reputation that will be very hard to surpass in the world of climbing. He has successfully summited the world’s highest peak an unprecedented eighteen times. An achievement that no other climber can lay claim to.
The Salt Lake Tribune recently had an opportunity to meet up with Apa Sherpa. It is an insightful and unglamorous look at how Apa, although the epitome of climbing on Mt. Everest, struggles to live in his second home, the United States.
In 2006, Apa Sherpa moved from his native country of Nepal to Salt Lake City, Utah. The move was due, in part, to Apa wanting to help out his family who remained in Nepal. He wanted to build a foundation that would help to keep his kids from having to embark on the same path that he chose on Mt. Everest, ushering up climbers to the top of the world’s highest peak. A job, that by all accounts, could very easily rank right up there with the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Apa Sherpa, while recently being afforded the opportunity to actually climb on his own merits, struggled for many years carrying up climbing gear, tents, and oxygen for many of the world’s top expeditions on Mt. Everest. The Sherpa people are known for their stamina and abilities to carry heavy loads at high altitude, offering many of them a steady job each spring. Most make more money in a month than what they could in a single year, in Nepal.
For the past ten years, many climbers from the western world have relished in an unabashed celebrity status upon reaching the top of Mt. Everest. Many have turned their successful summit into books, speaking engagements, and a whole slew of other means to earn a successful living after achieving what many consider the epitome of mountain climbing. Apa Sherpa wanted a piece of the pie for himself. Not just himself though, but for his family.
The article in the Salt Lake Tribune paints a picture that is insightful, yet a bit disturbing for someone of Apa’s stature in the climbing community. He will no doubt go down in the journals of Everest history as one of the best climbers of all time, yet, in Salt Lake City, Apa Sherpa walks around unnoticed and struggles to survive monetarily on a day to day basis. He lives with a close friend, Jerry Mika, who gives Apa room and board, as well as a job with his own company designing outdoor equipment.
Apa Sherpa is very intent on offering his own family a better means to survival. I recently covered a few items, most notably a Poisk Oxygen canister, that were being featured on Ebay. In the listing for this item, it was made very clear that all proceeds were going to help support Apa Sherpa’s family in Nepal. Apa is pretty open about his wishes, yet, in the United States, he is finding the road to be a bit more rough than say, a Conrad Anker or Ed Viesteurs. Both of these guys have been able to turn their love of adventure into full time jobs that goes to support even more adventurous expeditions.
Why Apa Sherpa has not been elevated outside of the mountaineering community to a higher status in the world, is actually quite dumbfounding. He still struggles with gaining sponsors for his climbs, and even at that, is still looking to Ebay to make a few bucks so his family can survive. This seemingly tells a tale of the difference between eastern and western climbers and how they are perceived in the media and the public. I am not going to go as far as to make this a racially biased issue, but perceptions going out in the world would suggest that climbers can make a decent living in the United States with companies just throwing money around to potential expeditions. This is just simply not the case for most foreign climbers who come to the United States in search of the ‘motherlode’ if you will.
All of this is quite sad, but does reveal some insight into the different perceptions that companies and the media place on ‘local’ climbers, as opposed to those that were foreign born. Even with 18 successful Mt. Everest summits to his credit, Apa Sherpa is still finding life to be quite tough.
In the past couple of weeks, most people in the United States do not even realize that one of the best climbers in the world, Inãki Ochoa, died on Annapurna. When Inãki first got into trouble, there was nobody around that could help the struggling climber at high-altitude. Within two days time a call went out to all climbers in the area. In the days that ensued, some of the top climbers in the world would race to Annapurna, risk death for one of their own, and still come up shorthanded. It was an amazing effort from all fronts. Even though the rescue was not a success, it did show us the heart and soul of many of the world’s elite climbers. In the United States press, this story of heroic efforts and dubious tragedy has not even garnered a mention. It didn’t feature American climbers or American Companies, so why would the public care?
The scope of all of this is really quite hard to understand. I cover all aspects of many of these climbs, including those of Apa Sherpa in 2007 and 2008, as well as the recent struggle and death of Inaki Ochoa. Many of my viewers come from all over the world, with it being almost a 50-50 split between American readers and those from foreign countries. Perhaps the companies that throw their money to the American climbing community could find a bigger audience, a more productive business, if they would just follow along and treat the international climbing community with the same vigor and thought that they do with the American climbers. In the United States, our climbers are thought to be the strongest in the world. If people would just open their eyes, many would get a very different outlook at how these statistics are being played out by the press.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel like supporting our own climbers, especially those that rank in the upper tiers of the climbing community, should be fully supported to continue doing what they do. On a different note though, how cool would it be to see Apa Sherpa, or a Ueli Steck sporting Nike shoes on the television? They emphasis the “Just Do It” philosophy perhaps even better than a Micheal Jordon or Labron James. On top of that, the money would actually be going to those who need it. People like Apa Sherpa.
We visited the Sawtooth Botanical Garden along with our friend Steve Wagner who took us to one of the most beautiful locations in Sun Valley, ID. Apa turned the prayer wheel many times. The Pray Wheel was blessed the Dali Lama which is one of only 2 Prayer wheels blessed by his Holiness in the United States. The garden was amazing and our host Jennifer explained to us how the garden was built and the meaning.
Jennifer gave us a card that read as we walked through the “Peace Garden” I relax and enjoy life . I know whatever I need to know is revealed to me in the perfect time and space sequence. As we walked Jennifer said we should take our time to relax and enjoy the peacefulness that the garden was made for. Thank you Jennifer for your hospitality.
THANK YOU PLUM TV AND THE CREW FOR THE GREAT INTERVIEW AND RECOGNIZING APA SHERPA AS A WORLD CLASS ATHLETE AND HIGH LIGHTING APA’S DREAM. THE INPORTANCE OF EDUCATION FOR THE CHILDREN OF HIS HOME VILLAGE AND THE REMOTE MOUNTAIN AREAS IN NEPAL.
http://sunvalley.plumtv.com/videos/everest_second_home
SAVE THIS DATE AND BOOK EARLY TICKETS GOING FAST!!
THIS IS A PROGRAM CO-SPONSORED WITH THE LIBRARYThree Cups of Tea author to speak in Hailey on August 8, 2008.David Oliver Relin, co-author of Three Cups of Tea, will present a talk and slide-show with Apa Sherpa and Lahkpa Sherpa (the SuperSherpas – Mt. Everest record holders) on August 8, 2008, at 8:00PM at the Hailey Community Campus.Three Cups of Tea, which tells the story of Greg Mortenson’s journey and adventures building local schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has won numerous awards and prizes and remains on the New York Times bestseller list (100 weeks so far!).A book signing will follow the presentation, which is sponsored by Steve and Lila Wagner and the Community Library.A reception for David and the SuperSherpas will be held in a private home the afternoon of the presentation. The event will include refreshments and a signed copy of Three Cups of Tea. For more information, contact Steve Wagner at 208-788-4245.
Tickets for both the talk and slide-show at the Community Campus ($35) AND the private reception ($150) are now available at Chapter One bookstore in Ketchum (208-726-5425).
Proceeds from the two events will benefit a school-building project in Apa Sherpa’s village in Nepal. Currently, students in this village must walk 3½ miles to school if they want to attend classes beyond the sixth grade.
For more information about the SuperSherpas, visit www.supersherpas.com
For more information about the presentation at the Hailey Community Campus, contact Community Library Programming Coordinator Caroline Clawson at 208-726-3493, ext. 120.C o l l e e n D a l y
E x e c u t i v e D i r e c t o r
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Hot Chillys - serious performance base layer for serious fun.
If your idea of fun is climbing Mt. Everest
(a world-record 18 times, no less) what would you choose to wear?
He chose Hot Chillys.Apa Sherpa (left), on the summit of Mt. Everest (29,029 feet) for the eighteenth time, May 22, 2008.Hot Chillys is proud to sponsor Apa and the SuperSherpas in theirquest for conscientious mountaineering and education.Come by our booth at Outdoor Retailer for a meet and greet with theSuperSherpas on August 9th, from 5-6:00pm.www.supersherpas.com
THIS IS A PROGRAM CO-SPONSORED WITH THE LIBRARYThree Cups of Tea author to speak in Hailey on August 8, 2008.David Oliver Relin, co-author of Three Cups of Tea, will present a talk and slide-show with Apa Sherpa and Lahkpa Sherpa (the SuperSherpas – Mt. Everest record holders) on August 8, 2008, at 8:00PM at the Hailey Community Campus.
Three Cups of Tea, which tells the story of Greg Mortenson’s journey and adventures building local schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has won numerous awards and prizes and remains on the New York Times bestseller list (70 weeks so far!).
A book signing will follow the presentation, which is sponsored by Steve and Lila Wagner and the Community Library.
A reception for David and the SuperSherpas will be held in a private home the afternoon of the presentation. The event will include refreshments and a signed copy of Three Cups of Tea. For more information, contact Steve Wagner at 208-788-4245.
Tickets for both the talk and slide-show at the Community Campus ($35) AND the private reception ($150) are now available at Chapter One bookstore in Ketchum (208-726-5425).
Proceeds from the two events will benefit a school-building project in Apa Sherpa’s village in Nepal. Currently, students in this village must walk 3½ miles to school if they want to attend classes beyond the sixth grade.
For more information about the SuperSherpas, visit www.supersherpas.com
For more information about the presentation at the Hailey Community Campus, contact Community Library Programming Coordinator Caroline Clawson at 208-726-3493, ext. 120.C o l l e e n D a l y
E x e c u t i v e D i r e c t o r
T h e C o m m u n i t y L i b r a r y
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WBIR-TV - Knoxville,TN,USA
They’re two men who’ve reached great heights in their lives. Lahpka Gelu Sherpa and Apa Sherpa have both set mountaineering records that have left many outdoor enthusiasts breathless.
On May 22, 2008, Apa Sherpa broke his own world climbing record by reaching the top of Mt. Everest for an amazing 18th time. Apa, who was born in Nepal and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, works to spread humanity and educating the American Culture on the Napalese culture.
Lahpka Gelu Sherpa gained fame when he broke the record for the fastest ascent to the summit of Mt. Everest. He made the climb in 10 hours, 56 minutes (and 46 seconds)! He also lives in Salt Lake City.
The two men tour together as the Super Sherpas. They will appear at a special event hosted by Smoky Mountain Outfitters. It’s June 7 from 10am to 6pm at Winery Square on Highway 321 in Gatlinburg. For more information call (865) 430-2267.
