Whispers Of Mountains

I sometimes imagine a different 29 May 1953. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary have just stood on the summit of Sagarmatha. But instead of inspiring the world to follow in their footsteps, they turn towards the valley below and say: "This was enough. Please do not climb again." Before Tenzing joined the expedition, the story goes, his father warned him that Chomolungma would not like it. She was their mother, and one should never walk on one's mother.

But history took a different turn. Himalayan communities have understood this for generations. Khumbila is revered as the guardian deity of Khumbu. These mountains are our water towers, feeding rivers on which more than three billion people depend. So I keep asking: who would step on their own mother?

Who would contaminate their own source of freshwater? Mountaineering in Nepal is relatively young. In 1950, French climbers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the summit of Annapurna I. Three years later, Everest followed.