Himalayan Expedition Remarkable Feat Of Sherpa Runners

Press, Volume C, Issue 29454, 4 March 1961, Page 6

Himalayan Expedition Remarkable Feat Of Sherpa Runners

[By DESMOND DOIG, Ojjlctal Correspondent with the Hillary ExpeditionJ

'T'WO normally unsung members of our expedition have just performed a prodigious feat with innocent unconcern. In cloth boots and without special highaltitude clothing they have made a lone crossing of the formidable Tashi Lapcha pass, 19,200 feet, at a time of the year when temperatures plummet far below zero and freezing winds can lift a man bodily off the exposed knife ridge of the pass. In Sir Edmund Hillary’s words, “This must be a record. I am deeply impressed. What they obviously didn’t realise, of course, was that they might have left their bones up there.”

No-one dares the Tashi Lapcha In mid-winter. In fact, it is only since foreign mountaineering expeditions blazed the way that the pass has been used at all by “locals ” other than during two months of high summer, since it has a reputation for treacherous snow conditions, avalanches, high winds, and lethal cold. Our expedition made the crossing in November last year, and only by lucky chance escaped unscathed from successive rock avalanches that destroyed some of our equipment and stores. Rin Norbu, aged 22, and Lakpa Tshering, aged 21 are two of our sherpa runners. Neither had been on expedition before, neither could be considered mountaineers in the sense that some of our experienced sherpas can, neither look particularly tough. In all, our expedition employs six runners who, until the establishment of a radio link with Katmandu a week ago, were our only contact with the outside world, carrying mail and essential requirements and eagerly awaited newspapers.

Dizzy Climbs And Descents Running in pairs, these men complete the 175-mile journey between our base camp at Mingibo <15,200 feet) and Katmandu <4OOO feet) in seven to nine days, rest two days, and then return—an accomplishment worthy of any Olympic champion, since the tortuous track switches back between 15,000-foot passes and 3000-foot valleys, and often necessitates three or more dizzy climbs and descents in a single day. Added to this is the danger of bandits in one particularly remote sector, where tales of murder and assault are as numerous as the ruined forts from which troops once operated against the outlaws, and the ever-present fear of illness or accident in areas far removed from medical assistance.

Normally the trek between Mlngbo and Katmandu takes 17 days: Edmund Hillary and I rushing out with the Khumjung “yeti” scalp and doing the easier down journey made it in nine and a half days. That required several gruelling marches.

Our runners, each carrying up to 50 lb loads, have done the round trip of 350 miles in 15 days and by contract are not expected to take more than 18. After a week’s rest, they repeat the performance, which means that each will have run about 3000 miles in our cause before we finally pay them Off. Extraordinary Stamina What Interests our physiologists is the extraordinary stamina and resistance to fatigue, temperature and altitude variations these sherpa runners demonstrate. True,

every run reduces them considerably and some have suffered rashes of pimples and skin complaints attributable to debility. But after a few days of rest they are baek to form again. • Their meagre diet is tsampa (ground wheat), occasional yak or goat meat and chang, the local brew made from potatoes or rice. The compelling motive be-' hind Rin Norbu’s and Lakpa Tshering’s epic run was mental anguish. Just before they were to leave Mingbo for Katmandu, Rin Norbu got news that his house in the Rowaling valley, separated from our area of operations by the TaShl Tnpcha pass,, had been

burnt down. His family may have perished in the blase. At Us” ' So without second thoughts, and persuading his reluctant companion with wild promises of compensation. Rin Norbu decided to cross the pass and visit his home in the run to Katmandu. He ’did just that, he and Lakpa Tsherlng mak-

tag the crossing on a fortunately bright day, in temperature and threatened continuously by gale-force winds. “We were almost lifted off the slopes,” the rather dazed Lakpa told me. “The wind screamed at us all the while, our faces froze and we thought we would die.”

Fortunately the cold which might have killed them came to their rescue, freezing solid the loose rock and shale that cause avalanches and providing bridges of snow between treacherous rock ledges. They carried only a fistful of tsampa each and chewed snow to quench their thirst. Crossing the pass, and spending a day poking in the ruins of Rin Norbu’s home, they still made the Journey to Katmandu in nine days—an extraordinary feat, even for the most experienced, well equipped and athletic mountaineers. They may not yet know that they now have a niche in Himalayan history and they may be quite unaware of having done anything more extraordinary than feel “very cold and a little frightened.”

[Copyright 1961 —by World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago. Distributed by Opera Mundi. Paris.]