Scott, Amundsen and Pasang Lhamu

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa has been enshrined in Nepal´s national consciousness as an authentic heroine, her legend established: need anything more be said?

Decidedly, yes. The article in Himal of May/June 1993 suggests that Pasang Lhamu was hot a strong climber and her achievement relatively modest. There is more to the story. Nepal may need a national heroine, but not at the expense of its soul. ThaNs the price of this concocted story: a freshly-minted myth, has¬tily packaged, that js a perversion of the truth.

I am a writer who has travelled several times to Nepal. I was at Chomolongma Base Camp this spring with my husband who was a scientific member of the American Sagarmatha expedition. Pasang Lhamu´s story unfolded while we were there.

It has been presented as a drama of courage and determination: how a Nepali woman pursued her dream, and how through sheer grit she reached the summit, but then tragically perished with one of her "companions". The story bears an uncanny resemblance to the apotheosis of Robert Falcon Scott, the British explorer who ted an expedition to the South Pole in 1911-12. Arrogant, stubborn and intolerant of dissenting opinion, Scott´s blunders led his men to their death. (They were beaten" to the Pole by the Norwegian Roaid Amundsen, who returned safely with his whole team.) Scott´s widow doctored the records and suppressed the evidence; Scott was painted a hero and was revered as sucli by generations of British schoolchildren. Only recently has the myth of the noble Scott been debunked.

In Nepal this year, a similar icon has been created Yet, when the facts are reviewed, the Pasang Lhamu legend appears in a very different light. Instead of pluck and determination, we see greed, selfishness, incompetence and reckless disregard for the lives of others. The myth depends upon the suppression of evidence and the distortion of reality and is not healthy for Nepal.

Pasang Lhamu had made three previous attempts on the mountain. Non-Nepali expeditions are charged a "royalty" for climbing. The full royalty was waived (or greatly reduced) for Pasang Lharnu´s earlier climbs. Her expeditions, however, included European climbers. On her second expedition, in the fall of 1991, six European climbers participated, including the French woman climber Chantal Mauduil, who paid Pasang Lhamu U$ 5000. Maduit believes that the other Europeans paid at the same rate. On her final, fatal expedition, a Lithuanian named VJados Vitkauskas appeared on the membership list as a photographer, yet he reportedly paid Pasang Lhamu US 7000, and also had to bring his own oxygen suplies.

There were many signals that Pasang Lhamu was not interested in a team effort that would put a Nepali woman on the summit of Chomolangma. -The glory — and the rewards — had to be herV A group of Indian women had invited her to join them and form an Indo-Nepali women´s team, but she turned it down to form her own team — one that she would lead and thus control. She created this team by taking along two Nepali women, Lhakphuti Sherpa and Nanda Rai.

But even within her own team, Pasang Lhamu tried to minimise competition. She told Lhakphuti that Nanda Rai was not strong enough to summit. And so Pasang Lhamu´s only competitors for the victor´s laurels were Lhakphuti and Nimmi Sherpa, a strong and experienced climber from Pangboche, who was on the Indo-Nepali team.

Pasang Lhamu´s premature (in terms of weather) and somewhat clandestine rush to the summit, denying equipment and Sherpa support to Lhakphuti, betray her determination to summit alone at all cost. Why was the laurel wreath of such vital persona) importance? A mountaineering team normally represents a group effort to place at least one climber on a summit. But self-promotion rather than teamwork evidently marked the expedition from the start. The trekking company run by Pasang Lhamu and her husband would have gained much publicity advantage from her being the first Nepali woman on the top.

Lhakphuti had been assured that the expedition would provide all equipment req¬uired on the mountain, which is normal. But, Pasang Lhamu informed her that they did not have enough oxygen masks for everyone, and so Lhakphuti would have to be on the second climbing team. She justified this by saying that Lhakphuti did not have to compete with anyone, whereas she had to beat Nimmi Sherpa and the Indian team to the summit.

Of the six male Sherpas in the team, Pasang Lhamu announced that she would take four, leaving two for Lhakphuti and Nanda Rai. When Lhakphuti protested, she was told that she did not need more Sherpas — Nanda Rai could not make it to the summit anyway. As soon as the team began to ascend the mountain, reports came down about the Sher-pani who was being helped and almost lifted up the mountain by a small crowd of Sherpas^ Pasang Lhamu, her husband and Lhakhphuti climbed up tc* Camp Three for the purpose of acclimatisation. As they returned to Camp Two, Lhakphuti observed that Pasang Lhamu was extremely slow. Lhakphuti descended alone; Pasang Lhamu was helped down by two Sherpas and her husband.

When Nanda Rai showed signs of altitude sickness in Camp Two, Pasang Lhamu asked Lhakphuti to take her clown to Base Camp. Pasang Lhamu then climbed up to Camp Three, taking five Sheraps with her. Using a radio belonging to my husband´s expedition, Pasang Lhamu called down to tell Lhakphuti that if she wanted to buy oxygen,´ the Sherpas had "found" two oxygen bottles — this was Lhakphuti´s first notice that she would have to buy her own oxygen!

Meanwhile, Pasang Lhamu, began her summit bid with the five Sherpas. It was 22 April. The Spring had been stormy and there was still a great deal of fresh snow on the mountain. No other team would summit until 10 May. And Pasang Lhamu would not be seen again until her frozen body was dug out of the snow.
Lacking good technique, Pasang Lhamu took five hours to gel down to the South Summit instead of the normal 45-50 minutes. She refused to go, or was unable to go any lower. The fourth, Pern a Norbu, descended some hours later. Sonam Tsering stayed with Pasang Lhamu, giving her his remaining oxygen during their final bivouac.

There was heroism on the mountain in those few days, and grit and determination, among those Sherpas who tried to come to the rescue of Pasang Lhamu. These true heroes have not been named or recognised.
Sherpas who located Pasang Lhamu´s body have reported that Sonam Tsering´s pack was found wrapped around her legs. Her Sardar had apparently made her use it as a sort of a bivouac sack, as there was no other shelter or protection. The storm had been so ferocious that her body was found under one meter of snow. Sonam Tsering´s body was never found: it´is thought that after she died he tried to descend and fell.

What has been seen as Pasang Lhamu´s pluck and determination was in fact obstinacy, driven by ego and self-serving ambition. Tragically, this led to the death of another person, Sonam Tsering. He has been referred to in the press as her companion or comrade, but he was in fact her employee. As an experienced mountaineer who had already climbed Chomolongma four times, he was distressed when she insisted on pushing on to the summit so early. He had sensibly suggested a team of two women climbers and two sherpas, keeping two Sherpas in reserve at the South Col in case of emergency. Pasang Lhamu had vetoed this.

The true tragedy in all this is the fate of Sonam Tsering. Like Pasang Lhamu, Sonam Tsering also left three children behind, and his widow is pregnant with their fourth child.

Leiberman writes travel articles for The New York Times.