Sherpas

Mount Everest is the dream of every person who is interested in hiking but what happens behind every trip to reach the top of the world is unknown to most people. Before anyone can start its climb to the top of the mountain that person must pay a sum of approximately 11000 dollars (lowered from 25000 dollars in 2014) to the government of Nepal in order to get a permission to ascend. After the payment is done the hiker is able to meet the Sherpas, Nepal natives who dedicate their lives to take tourists safely through the ascension of Mount Everest. The Sherpas are an ethnic group mostly located in the Himalayas to the east of Nepal (the term Sherpa means people of the east), they are mostly Buddhist and are recognized as the best mountaineers of all.

The life of a Sherpa is one of danger since their job is to make safe routes for foreign mountaineers to climb the Everest and bring them back to the base camp. Around 240 people have died in Mount Everest from the years 2007 till 2013 and a third of said deaths are sherpas these makes the job of a sherpa be one of the most dangerous in the world even more dangerous than being an army soldier. These leads us to ask how well paid are sherpas? Well they earn an estimated sum of 5000 dollars a year paid by the government in order to keep the tourists coming to Mount Everest. 5000 dollars a year is a short amount of money to most people living in the first word but sherpas as the good buddhists they are they are happy with what they have and have no problem with their job.

Recently an avalanche stroke an important area between the base camp and the first camp of the ascension these zone is called the ice waterfall. These avalanche caused more than 30 deaths more than half of them where sherpas being the most deadly event in the history of the mountain till these day. After the avalanche stroked many families were left without sustenance and the government gave 500 dollars to each family in order to compensate for the death of the husband or father. The Sherpas had never complained about money till these historical amount of children were left as orphans.

It is hard to believe that one of the most dangerous occupations in the world is these little rewarding and taking into account the huge profit the government of Nepal makes with tourism is even harder to believe the little support they show to shattered families. For these reasons the Sherpas are now trying to get the government to help in a proper manner the shattered families caused by these disaster as well as getting the guarantee that if something happens to them they will be sure their families will be okay. The ascension to the highest point on earth can't be reached without the help of humble and generous people who risk their lives for their passion and their families and for that I dedicate my merit to them.