Sherpa Adventure Gear 2011 Spring/Summer ... - Cascade Images

C ONTENTS
SHERPA ATHLETES 2
MEN’S 4
Base Layer 6
Mid Layer 10
Lifestyle 12
Soft Shell 18
Hard Shell 20
Insulation 22
I NEVER MET SIR ED
A Tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary 26
WOMEN’S 28
Base Layer 30
Mid Layer 34
Lifestyle 36
Soft Shell 46
Hard Shell 48
Insulation 52
HATS 54
Sherpa reps & distributors 56
Sizing and color guides 57
Near the Nepal border, the stark Labuche Massif rises from the Tibetan Plateau.
Joseph Puryear
GOLDEN JUBILEE OF SHERPA EDUCATION
by Kunda Dixit
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AFTER
TAKING OFF FROM KATHMANDU,
YOU LAND IN LUKLA AND ARE
TRANSPORTED INTO ANOTHER
WORLD. THE AIR IS CRISP, CLEAN
AND SCENTED WITH PINE. THE
TRAIL NORTH TOWARDS NAMCHE
IS DOMINATED BY THE IMPOSING
PYRAMID OF KONGDE. DEEP GREEN
FORESTS LINE THE FROTHING DUDH
KOSI.
WE CAME TO SEE SOME OF THE
SCHOOLS SET UP BY SIR EDMUND
HILLARY. THE CHILDREN GREET US AS
WE ENTER THE 6TH GRADE OF THE
CHAURIKHARKA SCHOOL. The students
have on smart blue uniforms. They look
alert and happy. The sun comes slanting
down from a skylight, reflecting off
the pine wood tables and walls and
bathing the room in a warm, golden
light.
Having seen classrooms elsewhere in
rural Nepal, this is a pleasant surprise.
It restores my sense of optimism about
Nepal’s future. Our generation messed
up the country, but I am sure these children
will help fix it when they grow up.
Most of the students are from Sherpa
families, yet when we ask them what
they want to be when they grow up
none of them say “mountain guide”.
Their answers are instead: “Doctor”,
“Helicopter Pilot”, or “Teacher”.
The Chaurikharka School is one of 27
set up in the valleys below Mt. Everest
by Hillary’s Himalayan Trust. The first
school was put up in 1960 in Khumjung.
May 2011 will mark the Golden Jubilee
of an education project that has transformed
the Sherpa people.
Ang Rita Sherpa was from the first
graduating batch of the Khumjung
School and now manages The Himalayan
Trust. He says, “If Sir Ed hadn’t
climbed Mt. Everest, all of this probably
wouldn’t have happened. It was
because he came back to us and helped
us with education and health.”
The story of how it all started is now
part of Sherpa lore. Hillary had just
come back to the Khumbu after a world
tour following his first ascent, and he
asked the Sherpas what he could do for
them. One of his porters told him: “We
have eyes but we do not see. Please
help us educate our children.”
There is an old faded black and white
photograph of Hillary hammering at
a nail atop the roof beams of the
Khumjung school with Ama Dablam in
the backdrop. A modest man, Hillary
helped build many of the schools he
fund-raised for. “He was more Sherpa
than a Sherpa,” recalls Ang Rita, “His
philosophy was that educated Sherpas
should come back to uplift their community.”
Today, there are hundreds of graduates
of the Khumjung school scattered
across Nepal and the world. One is an
airline captain flying Boeing 777's in
Germany, several are medical doctors
in the US. There are Sherpas with PhD's
in conservation. Whatever field they
choose, Sherpas have excelled because
of their positive outlook on life, their
integrity and capacity for hard work.
There is also an increasing trend among
the graduates of Hillary’s schools of
coming back to Nepal to help their
society and nation. They are practicing
in hospitals in the Khumbu, they are
working as teachers across Nepal, and
they are providing valuable experience
in the conservation of the Himalayan
environment. Hillary would have been
happy his students are returning.
Nepal is changing. But perhaps it will
only really change for the better when
some of the children at the school in
Chaurikharka raise their hand to also
say, “I want to be a politician.”