Latest news from Makalu. Many female climbers at the top and the mysterious death of a Sherpa

The peak mountaineering season in the Himalayas has claimed its first victim. He was called Lhakpa Tenji Sherpa, he was 54 years old, was born in the village of Mahakulung, in Solu Khumbu. He worked for Seven Summit Treks, the leading agency for commercial expeditions in Nepal. Lhakpa is died at Makalu Camp III, after reaching the summit together with his clients. “He passed out while the other guides were taking him down“, he has declared Rakesh Gurungofficial of the Ministry of Tourism of Kathmandu, at the EverestChronicle.com website.

The death of Lhakpa Tenji Sherpa has occurred a few hours after Seven Summit Treks announced on social media the arrival at 8485 meters of Makalu, of a group of thirteen climbers made up of eight Sherpa guides and five clients. Nonetheless, the Kathmandu agency has so far not released any information on the causes of Lhakpa’s end, who had evidently felt bad higher up.

“The conditions on Makalu in recent days were very harsh. The lack of snow forced climbers to deal with ice and rock, as well as strong and relentless winds“, commented Angela Benavides at ExplorersWeb.com

“It was the hardest peak of my life, and it wasn’t easy to come down. So epic, so exhausted, so exposed. I reached the top around 3pm, now we are going down” he wrote on social media Allie Pepperthe Australian mountaineer who aims to climb the peaks of the 14 “eight thousand” peaks without respirators and tanks.

A few days earlier, together with the Seven Summit Treks team who equipped the Makalu ascent route, the eighteen-year-old reached the summit Nima Rinji Sherpanow at his twelfth “eight thousand”, accompanied by another Sherpa, Pasang Nurbu.

Also Nirmal Purja he announced that he had reached the summit with a group from his Elite Expeditions, but did not specify the date. The same goes for the Canadian Liliya Ianovskaiaa client of 8K Expeditions, climbed to the summit with the brothers Migma Dorchi Sherpa and Dawa Tashi Sherpa. The exploit of Pemba Sherpa was noteworthy, as he climbed to the top to place the fixed ropes, and returned a few days later with the Korean Cheol Hee Cho.

On May 8, Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism announced that it had issued a thousand permits to climbers so far, and that 412 of these were for Everest. It is still early to consider the list closed, but the decline in contenders for the “Roof of the World” is probably motivated by the reopening, confirmed a few days ago, of the Tibetan side of the mountain.

Interestingly, among the five Seven Summit Treks clients who arrived on Makalu on May 6, four were women. In addition to Alexandra “Allie” Pepper, an Australian, the list includes two Iranians, Shima Afsari and Afsaneh Hesami Farda doctor specialized in mountain medicine who has already climbed Everest and K2.

The Peruvian Flor Cuenca Blas also reached 8485 meters above sea level, born not far from the Cordillera Blanca, but who has lived for many years in Karksruhe, Germany. Like Allie Pepper, the Latin American mountaineer climbed to the top without using a respirator or tanks and carrying the load alone. The only male customer to make it to the summit was Ahmad Mohammad Mousa Bani-Haniofficial of the Jordan Tourism Board.

The day before, Naila Kiani, a mountaineer from Pakistan, had reached the summit and reached her eleventh eight-thousander on Makalu. “I have never had to endure so much cold. There was only rock and blue ice, swept by a very strong wind. I was impressed by the Sherpas, who never stopped smiling and singing,” Kiani said after returning by helicopter from base camp in Kathmandu.

The role of the Sherpas, however, brings us back to questions about the end of Lhakpa Tenji on May 6. “Why did he die? Was he okay? Did he have sufficient training? Was he under pressure to continue at all costs from customers or the shipping manager? We don’t know, but something has to change in the relationship between high altitude guides, their clients and the agencies that organize the expeditions”, comments Angela Benavides of ExplorersWeb.

It is too early to make comparisons, and the working conditions of the Sherpas are very different from those of Pakistani high-altitude porters of the Hunza or Balti ethnic group. The questions about Lhakpa’s death, however, bring to mind the avalanche that killed 14 Sherpas in 2014 on the Everest icefall (“a terrible accident at work” Reinhold Messner commented at the time) and the tragic end of the Pakistani porter Mohammed Hassan in August 2023 on K2. Sent to the most dangerous peak in the world without experience or adequate equipment, Mohammed died at 8400 meters after a flight caused by a small avalanche broke his respirator mask. That day, more than a hundred climbers passed him both uphill (when he was still alive) and downhill, without stopping to help him.