• Success. 10 Sherpas take down the last frontier of mountaineering: the winter K2

  • Tragedy: Spanish Sergi Mingote dies while descending K2 with the historic expedition that has conquered it in winter

  • Profile: The story behind the photo of the traffic jam on Everest

The wind disappeared from K2, a phenomenon that only occurs two or three days each winter, and left the silence that surprised the group of 10 Nepalese Sherpas who arrived at camp 4 at 7,800 meters high at night. , to celebrate.

Hours before they had become the first to tread the second highest mountain on Earth in the harsh winter conditions and they deserved a party, not even a dinner.

But, along with the congratulations, the director of the expedition,

Chhan

g Dawa

, I inform you

of the death of his expedition companion, the Spanish

Sergi Mingote

,

and the joy disappeared to join the tranquility of heaven. The tragedy snatched the emotions of the historical milestone, but, despite it, the future will remember the summit that was the last great challenge of the 'eight-thousand-year-old' and, above all, that changed the mountaineering forever.

Now the 14 'eight-thousand' have already been trampled in spring or summer - a milestone that was completed in 1964 - and in winter.

Now you can no longer ignore the Sherpas in the list of the most outstanding mountaineers.

If the famous Poles

Krzysztof Wielicki

and

Leszek cichy

It was in 1980 the pioneers who climbed Everest under the intense cold, at the same height 10 Nepalese were placed yesterday:

Nirmal Purja, Gelje, Mingma David, Mingma Tenzi, Pem Chhiri, Dawa Temba, Mingma Gyalje, Dawa Tenzin, Kili Pemba

and

Sona

.

A true vindication of the Sherpas who live in the Himalayas and who, in just 10 years, have gone from being badly off the money that Westerners offered them to being the owners and stars of the business. "Before they were not valued anything, and although There are still people who do not treat them at all well, in recent times they have improved a lot technically. It is good for them that they have joined ", explains the veteran mountaineer

Carlos Soria

Like many, he is surprised at how fast things have gone.

25, 20 or 15 years ago, companies like Himalayan Experience or Adventure Consultant, both with New Zealand capital, dominated the expeditions;

now it is the Nepalese company Seven Summit Treks, with Mingma David as president, Chhang Dawa as director and media man Nirmal Purja as associate, that organizes everything.

How has the change happened? With training and demands.

The commercialization of Everest ascents that began in 1985 and exploded in the 1990s gave children in the Khumbu, Rolwaling and Makaku regions access to education that their parents did not have and climbing classes offered by centers such as the Khumbu Climbing Center did the rest.

When they grew up, the Sherpas who trod on K2 yesterday discovered that they, despite their many knowledge, received about $ 4,000 per expedition while Western guides could charge up to $ 20,000 and began to fight for their own thing.

First they created modest companies to organize themselves and then they decided to make a name for themselves.

The historical injustice that names the New Zealander

Edmund hillary

as the first man on Everest in 1953 without remembering that the Sherpa accompanied him

Tenzing Norgay

it couldn't happen again.

To the top, all together

Grouped in Seven Summit Treks since 2012, they began projects such as the one that led Mingma David and Chhang Dawa to become the first brothers to climb the 14 'eight-thousand', which made Mingma David the youngest in history to complete the list or the one

allowed Nirmal Purja to fly, which in 2019 trampled all 14 'eight-thousand' in just seven months

.

Their deeds demonstrated their very high level both as organizers and with mountaineers and raised the cache that will now skyrocket. "For a few years they are the ones who are in charge of commercial expeditions. They are no longer assistants or porters, they are the ones who are in charge and that's fine That has changed. They have been brave in setting up the expedition to K2 in winter because the risk is very high, although I also think that if there had been a normal year on Everest, if the coronavirus had not paralyzed everything, they might not have sought this ascent ", he commented a few days ago

Alex Txikon

, now in search of the top of Manaslu, who often works with Seven Summit Treks and the Sherpas on their adventures, highlighting their union in recent times, a union that was demonstrated yesterday with a gesture before completing the summit.

Just 10 meters from the top of K2, the former Sherpas decided to wait for the latter to climb all together.

They had reached the mountain in separate groups and crossed separately some of the most difficult areas of the ascent, such as the Bottle Neck, a narrow corridor with a drop of up to 60 degrees, but success did not belong to any of them, it belonged to your future, your past.

Some of them are children or even grandchildren of early Sherpas who endured extremely low wages, scorn, and even mistreatment from Westerners.

Now his role in the mountains is very different.

The last great challenge of the 'eight thousand' is already yours, mountaineering has changed forever.

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