By Dirgha Raj Upadhyay

Mingma Chhiring Sherpa, 53, has climbed Mount Everest 16 times. But his hunger for climbing the world’s highest mountain remains unchanged.

The dream of standing on the 8,848-metre summit is one that few people ever realise. Mingma is among those who have made it a part of their lives. Members of his family have climbed Everest 92 times.

Born on April 26, 1972, in Phortse of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality-4, Solukhumbu, Mingma is the seventh child of Nima Chhiring Sherpa and Dhaki Sherpa.

His father spent his life in the mountains. His elder brothers followed their father, and Mingma followed his brothers.

He went to school and studied up to Grade 2. Then he stopped going to school. He joined a monastery to study to become a lama and spent five years at Tengboche Monastery.

But he eventually left the monastery.

He then started following his elder brother Panuru. Mingma was only 15 when he began working as a porter for mountaineering expeditions.

He carried loads to different mountains and made many trips to Everest Base Camp with equipment for climbers.

His brother Panuru worked for International Mountain Guides, or IMG. Through him, Mingma also became associated with IMG.

Mingma grew up listening to his brothers talk about climbing Everest. Five of his elder brothers had already climbed the mountain several times.

Their stories planted the dream of climbing Everest in him.

That dream came true in 2002.

He joined an Everest expedition with IMG. Twenty members of the expedition reached the summit.

When Mingma first stood on the top of Everest, he was overwhelmed with happiness. Tears rolled down his cheeks before he even realised it.

‘There had never been a moment in my life when I was that happy,’ he says.

On his way back, he saw a foreign climber struggling near the South Summit after running out of oxygen. Mingma gave him his own oxygen and helped bring him down.

The climber survived.

That experience marked the beginning of Mingma’s long relationship with Everest.

He climbed Everest repeatedly until 2009. After spending two years climbing other mountains, he returned to Everest in 2012.

In 2014, he was climbing from the Tibetan side. From 2016 to 2022, he continued climbing Everest from the Tibetan side.

In 2014, he was returning from Camp 1 after carrying loads when he was caught in the Khumbu Icefall. He was buried in the snow.

He and two other climbers managed to get out with great difficulty. Sixteen people died in the avalanche.

While returning, Mingma saw a hand sticking out of the snow. He dug through the snow and pulled out the person buried underneath.

He saved the climber’s life.

In 2015, Mingma was climbing Everest from the Tibetan side when the earthquake struck Nepal. His expedition was cancelled and the team returned.

In 2022, he reached the summit of Everest with 18-year-old Lucy Westlake, who was then the youngest American woman to summit Everest.

Mingma came to the United States for three consecutive years, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, through the Khumbu Climbing Center.

He shared his mountaineering experience in the US and learned about climbing technology and the mountains there.

During that period, he also climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, which rises to 13,775 feet and is the state’s highest peak.

When he returned to the United States in 2023, he decided to stay. He has not returned to Nepal since.

But he did not stop climbing.

Along with his 16 Everest summits, Mingma has climbed Mera Peak, Khumbu peaks, the Annapurna Circuit, Manaslu, Cho Oyu, Kanchenjunga, K2, Grand Teton and more than a dozen other high mountains.

Mountaineering has taken him to many countries.

But the mountains have also given him painful memories.

‘Mountaineering is extremely dangerous,’ he says. ‘An avalanche can bury you at any time. You never know when the ground beneath your feet will give way.’

He says people need a strong heart to climb Everest.

‘People with a weak heart cannot even think about climbing Everest. Even those with a strong heart have to think many times before climbing. You may have a strong heart, but you are still a human being. Who is not afraid of death?’

The fear is not only about oneself.

‘Your family and your children’s future are also connected to you,’ he says.

Yet climbing Everest has become almost a routine for Mingma.

Every year, when the climbing season approaches, he prepares himself mentally for the mountain.

He grew up in the shadow of Everest. His father lived in the mountains. His brothers climbed mountains. He listened to their stories and watched them climb.

Eventually, Everest became part of his own life.

But his memories of the mountains are not only about success.

Once, while climbing towards the summit from the Tibetan side, a Sherpa from Khirikhola died at around 8,200 metres while changing his oxygen bottle.

Another climber gave him water, but he died soon afterwards.

His team left the body on the mountain and continued climbing.

On K2 in Pakistan, another climber with Mingma fell into a crevasse and died. The climber could not be rescued alive. His body was recovered later but had to be left on the mountain.

The climbers continued their journey.

Sometimes they had to step over dead bodies.

Mingma has experienced both the joy and the pain of mountaineering. At times, he has risked his own life to save people he did not know. At other times, he could not save people close to him.

There were times when he cried.

There were also moments when he watched a friend die in front of him and still had to continue his journey.

As he described these experiences, a question came to mind: do Sherpas have hearts like everyone else?

‘Are you afraid?’ I asked him.

His answer was immediate.

‘What is there to be afraid of in the snow? If I were afraid, why would I climb mountains?’

But what happens when a dead climber is lying right in front of you?

Does the heart not ache when you walk around the body, or sometimes even step over it?

Does the thought ever come that one day you could be the one lying there?

As Mingma spoke, these questions kept growing in my mind.

He continued telling stories of the excitement and pain of climbing mountains.

The exhausting journeys. The danger. The fear of death. The loss of friends.

Yet, he says, once you reach the summit of Everest, everything else is forgotten.

Mountaineers who bring recognition to their country are remembered while they are alive. But when climbers die and are buried under the snow, their families may never get their loved ones’ bodies back.

Mingma says the government also does not provide adequate relief or compensation to such families.

He has one expectation from the government.

‘The government should at least look into this,’ he says.

Photo: Mingma Chhiring Sherpa with Lucy Westlake at the summit of Mount Everest.