Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa

Sherpa is the name of Sonam it is also that of his ethnic group Because the Sherpas are not only porters guides as is often believed They are first of all one of the 105 ethnic groups that populate the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas above the town of Lukla gateway to the Everest trails It was there in Pangom perched at 2800 meters that he was born in a stone house with a wooden shingle roof without running water or electricity At school Sonam Sherpa learned to read write count and speak Nepali not just Sherpa anymore Nothing predestined him for his exceptional career At 16 after the premature death of his father he fled Pangom on foot in hiding from his family I did not have money Fortunately a neighbor helped me I discovered at that time that in town everything is paid for At the beginning in Kathmandu he misunderstands everything he sees He first worked for a trekking agency set up by his older sister took English cooking and French lessons stood on his own two feet came to France worked there found new clients there Very quickly Thamserku his trekking agency gained momentum made famous by the organization of expeditions for professional mountaineers It has become the most important in Nepal while showing concern for the respect of local populations their culture and the environment Working as a family he also owns lodges and two airlines Yeti Airlines 16 planes and Tara Air 55 of the domestic flight market This rise was made despite the tragedies After the death of his elder brother carried away by an avalanche after that of his father Sonam had to face the death of his first wife Pasang Lhamu Sherpani like him with whom he had had three children To show that Nepalese women could inscribe their name in history and be the equals of men she had after several attempts conquered Everest in the spring of 1993 A storm took her on the way back she was elevated to the rank of light of Nepal and children learn her story in schools First devastated by grief Sonam Sherpa eventually recovered his children and his business needed him Then he remarried Anita had a fourth child There is something incredible about this success of a Nepalese peasant son but it is neither haphazard nor undeserved Sonam created a foundation that helps the widows of Sherpas he created a pension fund for porters a hospital in Lukla then a kind of social security he is working to electrify his native village to install running water He works in the heart of Nepal where you have to negotiate with the royalists the Maoists the conservatives He sometimes works in the middle of a battlefield that has claimed ten thousand lives in ten years and has rubbed shoulders with the greats for years Messner Lafaille Escoffier Kammerlander Dacher Habeler Kaltenbrunner