Life on the edge: Review of ‘Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest’ by Ankit Babu Adhikari and Pradeep Bashyal

Summitting Mount Everest is a much-lauded feat. Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest by Ankit Babu Adhikari and Pradeep Bashyal keeps the reader’s focus firmly on the men who are “the climbers’ weather experts, technicians, medics… and anything else needed for survival.” Right from the first chapter, the authors plunge into what it’s like to live on the edge. Tenzing Norgay stories In ‘Revisiting Tenzing Norgay’, the authors meet Jamling, Tenzing’s son, who talks about his father’s passion for the mountains. He also addresses the controversy about who reached the summit first and recalls his father saying, “If I had known people would be this discourteous to our hard work and achievements, I swear I would have never gone there.” All this apart, the book also offers a view of lives in Sherpa villages, how modernisation has affected them and why they continue to risk their lives. As the authors put it, “They know the mountains can kill, yet they partake in someone else’s dreams of standing on the roof of the world, driven by the hopes and prospects of pursuing a better life for their families.” The next time you hear of someone summitting Mt.