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BFF-21
HEALTH-VIRUS-PANDEMIC-NEPAL-MOUNTAINS
Coronavirus casts shadow over Everest
KHUMJUNG, Nepal, April 1, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The Himalayan hilltown of
Khumjung should be bustling ahead of Everest’s climbing season, but the
coronavirus has forced the shutdown of the world’s tallest mountain and
threatened the livelihood of the famed local Sherpas.
While there are no reported cases in the town — home to many of the ethnic
Sherpas who dominate the industry helping climbers — the Himalayas have been
closed by the global shutdown of borders and air travel.
Phurba Nyamgal Sherpa — who has been climbing Everest and other mountains
since he was seventeen — is now worried about his future, like hundreds of
other guides and expedition workers.
Ropes and picks are still hung up in the Khumjung houses with their green
stone roofs. Hostels and tea shops in the region used by trekkers and
climbers acclimatising for the start of the 8,848-metre (29,029 feet)
ascension are empty.
Nepal suspended permits for all mountain expeditions on March 12,
effectively closing its peaks.
That cost at least four million dollars in lost revenue from climbing
permits. An Everest permit alone costs $11,000.
But Sherpa and other guides, who are often the sole breadwinners for their
families, say they face a more desperate problem.
The Everest season from early April to the end of May feeds his family for
the whole year.
Guides tend to earn between $5,000 and $10,000 during the season.
– Base camp ghost town –
“We don’t go to the mountains because we want to, it is our only option
for work,” Sherpa told AFP at his home in Khumjung, where he lives with his
wife and a six-year-old son.
Son of a yak herder, Sherpa, 31, has been to the top of Everest eight
times and helped dozens of climbers reach the summit.
“I think everyone is suffering from the same problem,” he said.
Sherpa would normally now be at the Everest base camp, setting up as
hundreds of mountaineering glory seekers head there to wait for a window of
good weather to set off a rush to the top.
Last year’s spring season saw a record 885 people summit Everest, 644 from
the Nepal side.
But the coronavirus has left base camp deserted.
Namche bazaar, the last town before it, is also empty.
The guides, porters, cooks and other support staff have had to walk down
the slopes home empty-handed.
“With the season cancelled, noone gets a job. From flights to shops to
porters, there is no work.
“Everyone is heading home,” said Pemba Galzen Sherpa, who has been to
Everest’s summit 14 times.
Damian Benegas, who has guided teams on Everest for nearly two decades,
said the porters and kitchen workers who keep expeditions running will be the
hardest-hit.
“Those people don’t have any savings back-up or any contracts that
expedition organisers have to keep,” Benegas said.
– Right decision –
It is not just the Sherpas who are being hurt. Tourism contributes nearly
eight percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product and accounts for more than
one million jobs, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Nepal, still recovering from a major 2015 earthquake, was hoping to
attract a record two million tourists in 2020. Those ambitious plans now lay
shattered.
But Everest region residents agree with the government’s decision. The
risk of infection is real. The spring season sees hundreds of foreign
climbers and trekkers snake through their villages. At base camp, climbers
and Nepali support staff have to live in close quarters.
As the air thins, breathing is already difficult at higher altitude —
adding to the medical risks if there is an outbreak of any kind.
Renowned mountaineer Phurba Tashi Sherpa, who has climbed Everest 21
times, said that coronavirus would wreak havoc if it entered Himalayan
villages.
“It cost us our jobs, but it is the right decision,” he said.
“In Khumjung we have one small hospital and not enough resources, imagine
if people started getting sick here,” said the mountain veteran.
“If the disease comes, then money can’t do anything. People are dying even
in developed countries, what will happen to us in Nepal?,” said Phurba
Nyamgal Sherpa.
There are still calls, unanswered so far, for the government to provide an
economic relief package.
“The government needs to find a way to support those who have not been
able to work, not just in mountaineering, in other sectors too,” Santa Bir
Lama, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1520 hrs