INDIA, July 2011, (by Meena Menon): Apa Sherpa is in Mumbai for the 10th Girimitra Sammelan, an annual gathering of mountaineers. He is a veteran mountaineer, who dropped out of school at 12 to work as a porter for expeditions to support his family. Now 51, Apa Sherpa said his 21st climb to the world’s highest mountain would be his last. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and teaches climbing skills. However, his association with Mt. Everest would continue along with Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been part of the Eco Everest Expedition since 2008 to clean up the mountain.
They have recovered five dead bodies and 33 tons of waste. He is also planning a clean-up expedition along the entire Himalayan Range in Nepal. Climate change has been most visible to climbers like Apa Sherpa who have noticed big changes since 2008. “Now the snow has reduced and it has become very dangerous especially on the Hilary Step, before the Everest summit. When you wear crampons for the snow and suddenly encounter rock, it gets very slippery,” he says.
Since 2007 the ice pinnacles in the Everest area have reduced in height and at the advanced base camp, there has been flowing water in the climbing season, a clear indication that ice is melting. “You no longer have to melt ice to drink water,” says Dawa Steven Sherpa. He too noted that the glacial Imja lake was growing bigger. It is upstream of the Everest Base Camp and above major village settlements. “Imja and its potential threat are in the forefront of everyone’s mind since the devastation could be huge,” he fears.
Apa Sherpa saw his entire village washed away in a massive glacial lake outburst flood of the Dig Tsho (Tsho-lake), in the western section of the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park, Khumbu HImal, on August 4, 1985.