Dawa Steven Sherpa
In 2008, he organised the Eco Everest Expedition to highlight the impact
of climate change on the region. He talks to Olivia Edward about Asian
toilet taboos and what it feels like to walk under an enormous, creaking
block of ice
It can be very scary walking across the glacier in the Western Cwm near Mount Everest. In some sections, there are these huge blocks of ice – seracs – completely mashed up and mangled, lying in all sorts of directions. It’s a very dodgy place to be. The ice is creaking and you never know when it’s going to collapse. It’s pretty frightening when you have to walk under a serac that looks like a frozen battleship hanging over you.
A couple of years ago, I was nearly caught in the middle of the ice fall. I had arrived at a section called the Football Field when some Sherpas warned me not to continue. ‘It’s super-dangerous right now,’ they said. ‘Something is just not right. Everything is creaking and crumbling, it’s about to go.’ They were right. Just an hour later, the entire area collapsed. If I had carried on walking, I would have been right in the middle of that collapse.
The ice shouldn’t have been breaking up at that time of year. That was in mid-May and the ice fall doesn’t usually happen until June or July. I knew it was to do with climate change and I went back to my dad and said we have to do something. At that point, I wasn’t thinking about the wider effects of climate change, I was thinking about the lives of Sherpas, and my own, I suppose.
I decided to organise the Eco Everest Expedition to tell the world that the Himalaya are melting because of climate change and it’s causing huge problems. Our snowfall
patterns are changing and our droughts are getting longer.
For the villagers, the most visible change is the melting glaciers. There was a frozen waterfall that stretched all the way down the mountain to the village. When the end of the waterfall began to break away, people would know it was time to plant their potatoes. Now that waterfall has completely disappeared; all of the permanent ice is farther up the mountain.
The Imja glacier is the fastest-melting glacier in the whole of the Himalaya. It’s melting at a rate of 74 metres every year. As the glacier recedes, it’s forming a huge lake, but its water is only held in by glacial moraine – sand and boulders. If there’s an earthquake or an avalanche, that water will break free and thunder down the valley. Most of the farms in the region are near the river. About 5,000 people would be affected, possibly killed.
Some of the older Sherpas can’t understand how the actions of the West are altering this little mountain corner of ours. One villager thought the problems were happening because we have moved from slate roofs to tin roofs, and this is reflecting extra sun onto the mountains. Another thought it was because we are lighting more fires to feed the increasing numbers of tourists and smoke is upsetting the gods so they’re punishing us.
Nepal has negligible carbon emissions. Only 0.02 tonnes per person each year. It’s completely insignificant on a global scale. We didn’t bring about climate change, but we’re bearing the brunt of it. At the moment, there isn’t anger towards the West as we’re still looking towards the West with a lot of hope, a lot of expectation. We still think something can be done. But if the opportunities aren’t taken… well, who knows?
Mountaineering is fairly environmentally friendly but [Everest climbs] have attracted a lot of criticism. That’s why I introduced solar cookers – they’re super-efficient – and organised a cash-for-trash project. We asked Sherpas to fill up their empty rucksacks with rubbish that has been discarded on the mountain. In one year, we collected 965 kilograms of garbage.
People go to the toilet everywhere on the way up Everest, so we also introduced toilet bags. They don’t leak or give out any odours. I was worried the Sherpas wouldn’t want to use them because poo is a taboo subject in Asia. But they welcomed them because their gods and goddesses live in the mountains and they had been feeling really guilty about making the area dirty.
I hope that the work we’ve done will act as an example to the rest of the world. We already have the high ground, now we’ll have the moral high ground too.
CV
1984 Born in Kathmandu, Nepal
1995–2002 Attended Kathmandu International Study Centre
2002–06 BA Hons in Business Admin at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
2006 Starts working for his father’s company, Asian Trekking
2006 Climbs Cho-Oyu (8,201 metres), the world’s sixth-highest mountain
2007 Reaches the summit of Mount Everest
2008–09 Organises two Eco Everest expeditions to highlight climate change in the region, clear up rubbish and test-drive eco-friendly methods of mountaineering
2008 Named one of the world’s top five young conservationists by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
2009 Becomes an ambassador for WWF’s Climate for Life campaign
It can be very scary walking across the glacier in the Western Cwm near Mount Everest. In some sections, there are these huge blocks of ice – seracs – completely mashed up and mangled, lying in all sorts of directions. It’s a very dodgy place to be. The ice is creaking and you never know when it’s going to collapse. It’s pretty frightening when you have to walk under a serac that looks like a frozen battleship hanging over you.
A couple of years ago, I was nearly caught in the middle of the ice fall. I had arrived at a section called the Football Field when some Sherpas warned me not to continue. ‘It’s super-dangerous right now,’ they said. ‘Something is just not right. Everything is creaking and crumbling, it’s about to go.’ They were right. Just an hour later, the entire area collapsed. If I had carried on walking, I would have been right in the middle of that collapse.
The ice shouldn’t have been breaking up at that time of year. That was in mid-May and the ice fall doesn’t usually happen until June or July. I knew it was to do with climate change and I went back to my dad and said we have to do something. At that point, I wasn’t thinking about the wider effects of climate change, I was thinking about the lives of Sherpas, and my own, I suppose.
I decided to organise the Eco Everest Expedition to tell the world that the Himalaya are melting because of climate change and it’s causing huge problems. Our snowfall
patterns are changing and our droughts are getting longer.
For the villagers, the most visible change is the melting glaciers. There was a frozen waterfall that stretched all the way down the mountain to the village. When the end of the waterfall began to break away, people would know it was time to plant their potatoes. Now that waterfall has completely disappeared; all of the permanent ice is farther up the mountain.
The Imja glacier is the fastest-melting glacier in the whole of the Himalaya. It’s melting at a rate of 74 metres every year. As the glacier recedes, it’s forming a huge lake, but its water is only held in by glacial moraine – sand and boulders. If there’s an earthquake or an avalanche, that water will break free and thunder down the valley. Most of the farms in the region are near the river. About 5,000 people would be affected, possibly killed.
Some of the older Sherpas can’t understand how the actions of the West are altering this little mountain corner of ours. One villager thought the problems were happening because we have moved from slate roofs to tin roofs, and this is reflecting extra sun onto the mountains. Another thought it was because we are lighting more fires to feed the increasing numbers of tourists and smoke is upsetting the gods so they’re punishing us.
Nepal has negligible carbon emissions. Only 0.02 tonnes per person each year. It’s completely insignificant on a global scale. We didn’t bring about climate change, but we’re bearing the brunt of it. At the moment, there isn’t anger towards the West as we’re still looking towards the West with a lot of hope, a lot of expectation. We still think something can be done. But if the opportunities aren’t taken… well, who knows?
Mountaineering is fairly environmentally friendly but [Everest climbs] have attracted a lot of criticism. That’s why I introduced solar cookers – they’re super-efficient – and organised a cash-for-trash project. We asked Sherpas to fill up their empty rucksacks with rubbish that has been discarded on the mountain. In one year, we collected 965 kilograms of garbage.
People go to the toilet everywhere on the way up Everest, so we also introduced toilet bags. They don’t leak or give out any odours. I was worried the Sherpas wouldn’t want to use them because poo is a taboo subject in Asia. But they welcomed them because their gods and goddesses live in the mountains and they had been feeling really guilty about making the area dirty.
I hope that the work we’ve done will act as an example to the rest of the world. We already have the high ground, now we’ll have the moral high ground too.
CV
1984 Born in Kathmandu, Nepal
1995–2002 Attended Kathmandu International Study Centre
2002–06 BA Hons in Business Admin at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
2006 Starts working for his father’s company, Asian Trekking
2006 Climbs Cho-Oyu (8,201 metres), the world’s sixth-highest mountain
2007 Reaches the summit of Mount Everest
2008–09 Organises two Eco Everest expeditions to highlight climate change in the region, clear up rubbish and test-drive eco-friendly methods of mountaineering
2008 Named one of the world’s top five young conservationists by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
2009 Becomes an ambassador for WWF’s Climate for Life campaign
