2008 Nepal Kang Nachugo Expedition

A Sherpa Adventure Gear team is heading into the Rowaling Himal in Nepal to attempt the unclimbed peak Kang Nachugo (6,737 meters) on the Nepal/Tibet border. Follow team members Joe Puryear and David Gottlieb on their adventure at www.climbnepal.blogspot.com.

Kang Nachugo:

Outdoor Retailer Trade Show Summer Market 2008

Come see us at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market. Booth #36181 in the Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. August 8 - August 11, 2008.

Lhakpa Rita and Chhewang Nima successfully summit Everest!

Sherpa Adventure Gear Lead Ambassador Lhakpa Rita Sherpa has summited Mt. Everest on May 24 at 7:00 a.m., successfully guiding clients with his Alpine Ascents expedition. This is Lhakpa's 11th ascent of the world's highest peak. Also with him was Sherpa Adventure Gear Athlete Chhewang Nima who has made his 16th! summit of Mt. Everest.

Congratulations Lhakpa and Chhewang from all of us at Sherpa Adventure Gear!

We'll be awaiting more news as they make their way down the mountain.


Photo of courtesy Lhakpa Rita Sherpa.

Two Seattle-Based Companies Team Up to Raise Awareness of, and Support for, the Underprivileged Sherpas of Nepal.

International climbing guide firm Alpine Ascents has contracted with Sherpa-Owned Outdoor Clothing Company Sherpa Adventure Gear to Outfit Their
Rainier Guides for the 2008 Climbing Season.

(Seattle, Wa – May, 2008) For the 2008 climbing season, all Alpine Ascents climbing guides on Mt. Rainier will be outfitted in clothing from Sherpa Adventure Gear. In addition, Sherpa Adventure Gear will be providing product to Alpine Ascents for use as client gifts. By doing this, the companies hope to create more awareness of the Sherpas themselves, as well as the Sherpa Adventure Gear (SAG) Brand, which donates a portion of all proceeds to Alpine Ascents non-profit Sherpa Education Fund.

Although climbers pay tens of thousands of dollars to climb peaks like Everest, and the Sherpa play a critical role in the success of most climbing teams, they rarely receive the type of notoriety and wages foreign guides are accustomed to. Many live in or near poverty, and their families and children suffer when a Sherpa guide is injured or killed on a climb. Currently, tourism accounts for approximately four percent of this desperately poor country's GDP.

Both companies have a long history of working to support the Sherpa people and raise their profile in the US in a variety of ways. In addition to running the Sherpa Education Fund, Alpine Ascents regularly takes climbing clients to the top of Everest and other peaks in Nepal (and worldwide) with the help of Sherpa guides.

Sherpa Adventure Gear was founded in 2002 by Tashi Sherpa, nephew of one of the Sherpas on Sir Edmund Hillary’s famed Everest climb, specifically as a way to help raise awareness for, and give back to, the unsung Sherpa heroes of Everest. In addition to donating a portion of proceeds to the Sherpa Education Fund, the company maintains offices and manufacturing in Nepal, purchases products directly from Sherpa artisans in Namche Bazaar, and supports a team of Sherpa Athletes and Product Ambassadors.

Alpine Ascents was founded in 1986 by Todd Burleson out of his love of traveling and climbing, and knack for guiding. Today, the Seattle-based company provides international guiding services to climb many of the toughest peaks in the world including the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on each of the seven continents) as well as their Alpine Ascents Mountaineering School. Their non-profit foundation raises funds for schooling Sherpa children from remote areas of Nepal, where access to education is extremely limited.

To learn more about these companies visit www.sherpaadventuregear.com and www.AlpineAscents.com. For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Tashi Sherpa (SAG) at (425) 251-0760 or Gordon Janow (Alpine Ascents) at 206-378-1927.

Chhewang Nima Sherpa

Sherpa Adventure Gear signs on our new Brand Ambassador Chhewang Nima Sherpa!
Chhewang has climbed Everest an astounding 15 times and is currently on track to make another successful 16th summit this spring.
He is part of the 2008 Alpine Ascents Everest Expedition team which also includes Lhakpa Rita Sherpa our lead ambassador.


Photo by Joseph Puryear.

Giving "Sherpa" a New Identity

By Tashi Sherpa of the New Business Age Magazine
Tuesday, 01 January 2008
From www.newbusinessage.com

Up until now the word ‘Sherpa’ has always evoked the image of a mountain community legendary for its skills in mountaineering. Tashi Sherpa however has taken the name further by using it in his brand of outdoor clothing and gear, Sherpa Adventure Gear.

Sherpa Adventure Gear, the US company that Tashi owns , has its roots in the early 1980s when Tashi owned a clothing factory in Kathmandu. In 1989, he migrated to the USA with his family shortly after selling his interests in the business.

Looking back, Tashi feels strongly that the local industry might have been served better had we collaborated with either Korean or Hong Kong manufacturers. Their technical expertise and guidance would have eased the initial learning curve and given it the right impetus. “But that does not take anything away from the tremendous contribution of Indian importers who after all were the ones to kick start garment exports in Nepal.” he adds.

Those days, there was limited opportunity for growth with factories working mainly on overflow business. Profits were minimal and no creative control existed. Still, he invested and learned about product design and development, experimented with line systems when it was unusual for factory owners to venture too much out of their comfort zone. This led to orders from overseas retailers and really built the foundation for his eventual business model. It gave him the confidence to venture into direct business with retail chains. However, the end of the 1980s showed the first signs of an inevitable decline in garment exports from Nepal. While the other countries were opening up with better facilities and cost competitive advantages, Nepal’s inherent challenges of being landlocked and higher costs of production, would mean drastic cuts and slowdowns in the immediate future. “We were competing with ourselves on price. The same customer who bought an article from us for $ 10 would ask to reduce it to $ 7 because Bangladesh was ready to provide it for $ 6. It appeared there was no end to this sort of price cutting and that was a slippery slope,” he recalls. It did not help also that the quota regime was soon coming to an end and there would be no need for anyone to buy garments from Nepal.

So, in 1989, he moved with his family to Seattle, Washington. There, he once again started his import business from scratch right in the middle of the worst US recession, because, as he puts it, that was what he knew best and at the age of 36 it was not possible to start a career in a new field. In the early days, his fledgling company imported merchandise in small lots from Nepal and other neighboring countries. Now 19 years later, that business, under the name Duo-Wear has successfully managed to fill in the large private label volume needs of specialty stores and distributors as a producer and supplier of sportswear. He stresses that creative sourcing, pricing and cost efficient delivery are key drivers for this market.

Four years ago, he established Sherpa Adventure Gear, which was inspired by a simple idea. He is grateful for Duo Wear’s success, since this allowed him to leverage its resources into supporting the creation and growth of his current brainchild.

During all these years Tashi kept his connection with Nepal. His Nepal office, initially run by a few key personnel, is growing every day, all involved deeply in product development, preseason sampling and sourcing. He considers it a matter of great pride that initial production patterns are all prepared and sent from his Nepal office to vendors in China, Hong Kong and Korea. This system continues today, with quality control and technical details still being supervised and finalized from here. A design and merchandising team in the US oversees creation of new seasonal lines. International sales and marketing is managed by his daughter, Tsedo Sherpa, who is now Vice President. An experienced sales team covers the entire US along with distributors in Europe, Asia, North and South America.

To the question of how doing garment business in USA is, “Very tough,” responds Tashi. “The prices of mass merchandise are so low. In fact, the US is perhaps the cheapest market in the whole world. You can often buy garments in the US cheaper than in Nepal. Where else can you buy a big flat screen TV for $ 375?” he asks. The conclusion is that to be successful in the US in manufacturing, one has to have tremendous resources and resilience. One needs to create a niche and work at it.

The story of Sherpa Adventure Gear started in May 2003, when Tashi was walking down the streets of Manhattan, New York. He suddenly saw the picture of his uncle Ang Gyalzen Sherpa staring at him from the cover of a magazine’s issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first ascent on Mt. Everest. Now at the age of 90, Ang Gyalzen is the only surviving Sherpa member of the celebrated expedition that put Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on top of the world’s highest peak in 1953.

He was deeply saddened to read about the unsung Sherpa heroes who, in spite of their brave feats, spend their lives without the glamour and economic success enjoyed by Western climbers. These very climbers would never have been able to reach the summit of Everest without a Sherpa by their side.

After reading that magazine story, he felt the urge to do something for the Sherpas and tell their story to the world. Thus grew the idea of setting up Sherpa Adventure Gear, a company that would produce high quality climbing gear and clothing, tested and endorsed by world famous Sherpa mountaineers. In return they receive royalties based on sales.

“We started this without any concrete business plan,” he recalls though he does not recommend it to any budding entrepreneur. It was just sheer faith in the brand’s message. Over the past four years, it is paying off, he says. Explaining it, he adds: “I believe in the Toyota Way which says you have to learn by doing it yourself and making mistakes in the process. Continuous improvement is the only way.”

Tashi is happy with the way the brand and its story has resonated among customers everywhere. It is already being distributed in more than 10 countries such as the USA, UK, Austria, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, New Zealand and, most recently, Colombia. The growth in the business in the last couple of years has necessitated more capital investment for him. The plan is to invite like minded investors through private placements in the near future. The goal is to increase brand awareness for Sherpa Adventure Gear and establish a strong global footprint through distributors and company owned retail outlets in major cities. Two of his closest friends are the first outside investors in the company

Sherpa Adventure Gear believes in a win-win business philosophy by selling a superlative product to people who love the outdoors. Out of the sales, royalty is paid to the Sherpa brand ambassadors and a contribution is made to Sherpa Education fund from where scholarships are provided for poor Sherpa children.

One of the current goals is to increase sourcing from Nepal for Sherpa Adventure Gear. The idea that Nepal is only a source of cheap products is no longer true, at least for the Sherpa brand. “But this is only a plan right now. It may change if the situation in the country turns unfavorable again. Of course, the hope is that the climate for investment turns stable,” he clarifies. One has to have a plan in writing but must also be flexible enough to change as the situation demands.

“And this is the model that the Nepali export industry has to go for,” says Tashi. “Harping on the same old demand of subsidies and duty free entry for Nepali products is not going to get this industry anywhere. We have to do something that makes our inherent cost strictures and price challenges irrelevant and that can be done by creating a ‘blue ocean niche’,” he adds. Sherpa Adventure Gear products are not cheap because it competes with the best outdoor brands in the world. Its world class catalogues, which are printed twice a year, play a tremendous role in showcasing not only its gear but also the unique beauty and culture of the Sherpa landscape. Price is not the issue for this eponymous brand.

What about the complaint that Nepali workers are not so productive? Tashi does not agree. Their skills are on multiple levels and all it takes is a firm belief in the human spirit, be they Nepali or Chinese. Constant training, empowerment of the individual and believing in their ability, regularly teaching them new ideas, encouraging them and walking the floor, listening to their voice and winning their trust – these are the keys to success, he says. It is just not about fair wages alone. Nepal has a pool of skilled workers, versatile and very sharp in understanding what is needed,” he believes. “It is a rare skill these days to be able to sew complete garments and that is what our people here do. We just don’t sew clothing. Our people proudly make gear that perform in all weather conditions and which are as good as the best outdoor brands out there. This is a global brand and they help make it happen. They are our best kept secret and a tremendous asset for the company.”

Photo of Tsedo Sherpa and Tashi Sherpa by Joseph Puryear.

I Never Met Sir Ed

For a young Sherpa boy in the sixties, steeped in the lore of Tenzing Norgay and his good friend Hillary, it was nothing short of a miraculous visitation, when my mother surprised me with “Hillary Saab and Agu Tenzing are coming to our house this afternoon, so don’t go off tramping around, and make sure you are here to greet them”. Those were the magical days of my childhood in Kalimpong, 40 years ago. We were not wanting of heroes then. We read Zane Grey westerns and watched Audie Murhpy fight off injuns at the Kanchan hall, read snippets about the wizard Pele who dribbled past eight players and scored goals at will. But Tenzing was our own, someone we knew proudly and boasted of to my friends as my Agu (Uncle). He and Hillary had conquered the insurmountable and in a post world war era, they were the beacons of hope. Tenzing was a frequent visitor to our house and a great friend of my parents. I knew of Edmund Hillary only through Tenzing’s biography and to me he was this distant white giant that somehow was irritatingly always spoken of in the same breath when one asked about who was the first to climb Everest. We all desperately wanted Tenzing to be the only one and it irked me that we Sherpas had to share our glory with someone else.

I asked Amala (mother) about Hillary and she admonished me gently that all Sherpas called him Hillary Saab and that he was kind and unassuming and a great friend of the Sherpas and very tall. She went about taking out our best silver ware, the famous blue willow tea set which I remember seeing in full regalia only that one time.

It was too much for me that here were two heroes, larger than life, descending on us. I became nervous and a bit scared of making a fool of myself. It suddenly occurred to me that I maybe asked too many questions by Hillary Saab and his entourage. And so I did the next best thing. I ran away that afternoon.

I am not sure if Amala ever scolded me for that faux pas, but I know that I will forever regret bitterly that I was not brave enough to meet Sir Ed. How I wish I could turn back that clock to just say I shook hands with the greatest Sherpa hero that ever walked over Chomolungma. For, to me and all of us Sherpas, there is no doubt in our souls that he was a Sherpa more than anyone one of us can hope to be.

In the ensuing years, I went to college, but always followed this great man’s journey, through the sporadic news that came from newspapers and personal encounters with those who had the good fortune to work with him. I read and heard with deep gratitude on his selfless mission to better the lives of those in the Khumbu valley. I could immediately sense the deep reverence that my cousins from Namche felt for Hillary Saab. The brilliant careers of many Sherpas today owe it to Sir Ed’s drive and committed compassion to bring education and health to the Sherpas. I felt deep sorrow at his great loss when his wife and daughter perished in a tragic plane accident and marveled at his fortitude when he led an expedition through the Ganges in the seventies.

And then one day I read he had been knighted by the Queen. About time I thought.
Next thing I knew, Sir Ed was New Zealand’s ambassador. I am sure the honor was New Zealand’s more than anything else. Nepal finally had the good sense to make him a honorary Nepali citizen in 2003. Such goodwill and honor can only come to those who seek it least.

We live in a cynical world of instant bombast and gratification. Here in the US, where I reside, we are constantly fed with a barrage of nonsensical sound bites glorifying the social stupidities of those who are famous for being famous. Very rarely do we get to enjoy genuine heroes. With Hillary Saab now gone from us, our world has lost a lot more than we will ever know.

- Tashi Sherpa, President and Founder of Sherpa Adventure Gear


Photos:
Upper right Copyright 2006 Graeme Mulholland
Lower left Copyright Royal Geographic Society

Ang Gyalzen Sherpa

At age 90, Gyalzen Sherpa is the only surviving Sherpa from Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s historic first summit of Everest in 1953. He is also Sherpa Adventure Gear founder Tashi Sherpa’s uncle, and the inspiration for our company. When he was a child, Gyalzen did not grow up thinking of climbing the great peaks surrounding his home. Life in a small Himalayan mountain town was frugal at best. And he spent his time herding yaks and gathering firewood. “People were very poor. There were few houses. Most Sherpas from Kunde, Khumjung, Pangboche, Thame, everyone, worked as coolies transporting loads for the few rich traders that lived here. The expeditions changed that,” Gyalzen recalls.

Being the youngest in his family, he was expected to stay home and take over the family business of yak herding and salt trading. But the fancy clothes and wrist watches of Sherpas returning from expeditions attracted him to climbing. In 1952, he traveled to Darjeeling, India—the center of mountaineering before Nepal’s borders opened in the early fifties—in search of work as a porter that would pay all of 4 rupees a day (about 10 cents at the time).

When he got there, Gyalzen discovered that the Swiss expedition with the soon-to-be-famous Tenzing Norgay at the helm had already left for the mountain. Undaunted he ran until he caught up with the expedition, and was thankfully offered a position collecting firewood and carrying loads for the group. A dependable, honest and hard worker, when the expedition ran short of money and sugar, he was honored with the responsibility of traveling to Kathmandu to pick up 18,000 rupees (a princely sum!) and buy additional supplies. Since the money was in coins, he and his companions had to carry it in three big, heavy tins the almost fifty miles back to base camp.

On the way back he was waylaid by a severe storm in Thukla and began to rethink the wisdom of his decision to work for the mountaineering expeditions. Soon however, Tenzing promoted him to local porter. This allowed him to carry loads up to the higher altitudes and make additional pay. He was thrilled to also be given a complete set of mountaineering gear including jacket, pants and climbing shoes as part of his promotion. The shoes were what he treasured most since they allowed him to proudly walk the slopes with ease. Much to his dismay, all the gear was taken back by the team at the end of the expedition.

Gyalzen continued landing work as a porter, and in 1953, eager to earn a bonus offered to Sherpas who climbed the highest, he twice carried gear to Everest’s 26,200-foot South Col. He was also honored by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Medal for his part in supporting the famed Hillary expedition.

Though he never reached the summit of Everest, after more than 12 years hauling loads for eight major expeditions, Gyalzen finally saved enough money to retire from climbing. “Going on a mountain is like going to war,” he recalls. “You don’t know whether you’ll come back or not.” After retiring, he quickly turned to a safer and more lucrative occupation … carrying Nepali paper, butter and silver 3 days across the Nangpa Pass to trade in Tibet for rock salt, wool, and yaks. He also devoted time to the Sherpa community and was chosen as the Chorinba (community leader of the monastery), a role that he served in for 35 years.

Today Gyalzen lives a quiet life with his wife of 63 years, Pemba Lhaki (age 93). Although he is widely regarded as the richest man in Namche Bazaar, he spends his days in prayer, living in the same house he grew up in. He is the last of the original Sherpa climbers.


Photos of Ang Gyalzen Sherpa and Pemba Lhaki Sherpa by Joseph Puryear.

Lhakpa Rita Sherpa

Lhakpa Rita Sherpa is a Seattle Sherpa, one of the world's elite mountaineers, 10 times Everest Summiteer, part of a small Sherpa immigrant community in Seattle, that is growing slowly. He is also brand ambassador of our small outdoor company Sherpa Adventure Gear. These facts, however, are incidental to my story here. I just wanted to share with you and your readers the story of a great hero and his selfless act of saving lives and truly showing the compassionate spirit that purportedly exists amongst the brethren of the rope.

You are right, Everest is a tired story. But lost in all the self congratulatory spirit and Guiness book benchmarking that ensues every season when the last five hundredth climber makes it to base camp is the quiet bravery and immensity of a samaritan Sherpa's compassion who sees fit that it is more right to save a fellow climber's life in danger, bring another sister climber's dead body down from the treacherous slopes of Lhotse. Lhakpa climbs because this is his living, but even here he does it without any of the self serving cycnicism that is now prevalent amongst the climbing community on Everest.

He did what he did at great risk to himself and I can imagine the toll to his spirit and body when in the space of so many days he had to challenge his own belief in what it all meant to be a climber. Very few people were there to help him when he organized the resuce for Usha Basnet the Nepali climber as she lay close to death around Camp 4. She was totally abandoned by her team at about 27000+ feet and it was he who made sure to get her down to safety along with his other two climber friends, Dave Hahn and another Sherpa. However, the foreign media hardly bothered to find out what really happened and true to their form swallowed and spewed out the standard glorification of a Western climber's role in the rescue. It did not matter to Lhakpa. what was important was that Usha was safe.

I believe there was an extensive interview by Kantipur publications in Kathmandu with Lhakpa. Usha Bista and her family arranged a huge family banquet to express their eternal gratitude to him and all he told them was that " I dont need your gratitude, what I want is that you should also be willing to help another fellow climber in the same situation..". No fanfare- just plain humility and a deep sense of doing what is right. We at Sherpa Adventure Gear are deeply honored to be associated with such noble heroes.

He embodies the essence and soul of the unsung Sherpa Hero just like Pemba Doma did, who died on Lhotse last month. None of the bragging rights that seem so commonplace now and less and less meaningful. Add to that the fact that he almost singlehandledly was instrumental in personally bringing down Pemba's body to base camp when NOBODY, none of the other climbing fraternity on the mountain, made any attempt to help him even after pleading for support. We are indebted to him for because of his heroic feat, Pemba's family was able to fulfill the last ceremonial rites and cremate her body and set her spirit at peace. It took him five back breaking days to harness the body down to Base camp. How painfully cruel it must have been for him to have witnessed Pemba's unfolding spiral to her death on Lhotse happen right in his view as he yelled in deep desperation from the Everest side urging her to get her pick axe out or to grab anything. The grief and guilt of not having been able to prevent her death sits heavy on him. To me, he is truly one of the last of a dying breed of Mohican Sherpas.

This is the best of the best Sherpas and he lives here right in our midst. It is a story that truly touches the soul and needs telling to the world by the right voice. I hope that you will be the one.

- Tashi Sherpa

Photo of Lhakpa Rita Sherpa by Joseph Puryear.

Congratulations Nuri and Lhakpa Rita - 2007 Everest Summits

SHERPA ADVENTURE GEAR ATHLETES REACH THE SUMMIT OF EVEREST AGAIN IN 2007!

This May, Lhakpa Rita Sherpa summited Everest for the tenth time, and Nuri Sherpa summited for the second time, both while guiding clients up the South East side. All of their clients also successfully made the summit.

In addition to being Sherpa Adventure Gear Brand Ambassadors and Athletes, and regularly testing and developing new gear for us, Lhakpa guides around the world for Alpine Ascents out of Seattle, Washington, while Nuri guides in the Himalaya for Climb High—the company started by the late Pemba Doma Sherpa.

Photo by Lhakpa Rita Sherpa.