REPORTER: Jen Peedom
In the shadow of the world's tallest mountain, sleepy climbers are receiving a morning wake-up call. When Mount Everest was first climbed in 1953, some Sherpas were angry and feared that there would be no more expeditions and therefore no more jobs. How could they have known that, half a century later, they'd be delivering tea to a new generation of climbers?
Sherpas are the indispensable men of these mountains. Few expeditions would get far without their help. But their contribution has largely been overlooked. There's even confusion about what the word 'Sherpa' means.
TASHI: Actually, Sherpa is one of the caste from Nepal. Like me, my name is Tashi, Tashi Sherpa. Everybody has the last name Sherpa. It is our family name. So most of the people, the Western people, think that Sherpa means 'porter'. No, this is wrong.. Only in mountaineering Sherpa means porter. Sherpa is a caste.
This is base camp, 5,200m above sea level. In order to find out more about the contribution Sherpas have made to climbing in the Himalayas, I've joined a commercial expedition to the north side of Mount Everest in Tibet. I'll spend nearly a month on the mountain, climbing the 27km from base camp to advanced base camp and then to the North Col, which is only 1,500m from the summit itself.
There are 20 foreign climbers on this expedition, and the ratio of Sherpas to paying clients here is 1:1. The foreigners pay US$6,500 each for the trip to North Col. An expedition to the summit costs US$35,000.
REPORTER: It's a very dangerous sport. Why do you think the Westerners come here?
TASHI: It is very difficult to say, I dont know why. Some people like to be on top of the world. And they come many times - not one time, two times - they want to make summit many times and sometimes I think they are crazy.
If we don't have these people, we have no jobs, you know. So I don't know - it's very difficult to understand.
The foreigners will need to spend a week at base camp adjusting to the altitude, before they can go higher. Meanwhile, after performing Buddhist rites at a stupa they have built, the Sherpas will head further up the mountain to set up higher camps.
The expedition leader is New Zealander Russell Brice. He's been travelling to the Himalayas for 30 years, and this is his 14th trip to Everest.
RUSSELL BRICE, EXPEDITION LEADER: By coming here for so many years, I've had quite a lot of experience with the Sherpas. These are my family, really, and I have been working with some of the same Sherpas - some of them have been on 22 expeditions with me - so I know them pretty well. They know me pretty well.
After acclimatising at base camp, the rest of the expedition moves 26km up the Rombuk glacier to advanced base camp. The climb itself is not difficult, but up here at 6,500m, the air is only half the density of sea level, and the body begins to succumb to the effects of altitude.
Most foreign climbers will experience symptoms of acute mountain sickness - dizziness, nausea, loss of balance, persistent coughing and sleeplessness. Initially, they can do little but rest and force down as much food and liquid as possible.
Each climber needs 7 litres of water a day to stay hydrated at this altitude. The Sherpas busy themselves preparing food and water in difficult conditions. Tashi Sherpa has been working on expeditions since he was 14 years old. He's moved his way up the ranks from porter to cookboy and to head cook.
TASHI: On the expedition, I have to mostly... I have to cook. I am trying to cook very good food, but I don't know how they like it. Sometimes it is good, you know.
At base camp, 5,000m, it is easy to cook, but over 6,000m, that we are now 6,300m, so everything is frozen and it takes time to cook, not very good.
For most Sherpas, expedition work means they will be away from their families for at least one third of every year, with little or no contact. Tashi has a wife and two young sons across the border in Nepal.
TASHI: Everyone here we'll be away from home for four months, in spring two months and in autumn two months, so for that period we don't know with each other what's happening, what's the condition of... we don't send letters, we don't have telephone to call them, so after, when we get back to Kathmandu, then we know are we now - with our family. We know only at that time when we meet with each other, we miss them, yes.
The Himalayas are the Sherpas' spiritual home. They perform Buddhist rites on every expedition to ask for safe passage on the mountain. They believe that Mount Everest should be approached with humility.
TASHI: We are mountain-going Buddhist, our religious, so the mountain is our God. Before we step onto the God, we make a prayer for the God. "Sorry, but we are stepping on you, on the body of the God."
Tashi says that some foreign climbers don't show the proper respect for the mountain they've come to conquer.
TASHI: Sometimes they want to take pictures naked near the mountain. That is very bad. We think those are very unlucky people, very bad people, we think. And sometimes they don't care about the mountains at all. This is only a mountain or something. They never think of God, they don't think this is our God - the Himalaya is God, the God-living place, God's house.
It's not been lost on the Sherpas that Western clients often forget their enormous contribution to mountaineering.
TASHI: Most of the European people, they don't want to show they got help from the Sherpas. They want to show they have done it all by themselves.
Last year we were with a movie group, film group, and everything was done by the Sherpas, but they never showed in the movie, Sherpas, not even one face.
The expedition now moves further up the mountain, where the climbing becomes much more difficult because of the altitude. But I'm not alone. My 28-year-old climbing partner, Dorje, shoulders my pack, leaving me to carry only my camera and tripod.
Sherpas are renowned for their aptitude at high altitude. They breathe larger volumes of air per minute than their sea-level counterparts and also have higher concentrations of haemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood.
However, this has created an unrealistic generalisation that all Sherpas will perform equally at altitude.
RUSSELL BRICE: I think that most people that come here seem to think that all Sherpas are very strong and superhuman and can run to the summit of the mountain and so on, and that is about it, really.
They don't immerse too much into their culture and their families, who is sick, who is not sick, who is capable of going high, who can't go high, so, to most people that come, everyone is a Sherpa who is superhuman, but that is not true.
Sherpas have paid a disproportionately high price for their association with this mountain. Several times more Westerners have climbed Everest than Sherpas, but Sherpas make up almost half of all fatalities. Contrary to popular opinion, Western commercial expeditions have actually improved conditions for Sherpas, but there are always exceptions.
RUSSELL BRICE: I am totally amazed at how badly some of the expeditions treat Sherpas. I think some of the bigger companies that use a lot of Sherpas and sell very cheap expeditions don't look after the Sherpas at all.
I've had an example where a Sherpa was very sick and I gave him oxygen and I paid for him to go back to Kathmandu and I go to the company to say "Well, you should pay for this." And they say, "Well, why did you interfere?" They were quite happy for him to die, and that's incredibly sad, as far as I'm concerned.
We're now at the North Col of Everest, 7,200m above sea level, which is as far as my climbing permit will take me. Up here our brains and lungs have swollen significantly. Some need oxygen to survive this high.
Two members of my team have already succumbed to the altitude and will not make it to this point.
The summit towers 1,500m above us and seems incredibly close. But for those pushing on, there's still at least three days of climbing to reach the top.
As the other North Col climbers begin to arrive, I realise the extent to which the Sherpas demonstrate both patience and strength in assisting their clients. Cheiko Sihmada is a real estate agent from Japan and she's in training. Next season she hopes to reach the summit.
Climbing Everest has been a lifelong dream for David Eaton from England. At the age of 69, he's achieved an amazing feat in making it this far, but clearly he wouldn't have got here without his Sherpa guide pulling him up the last section. It turns out I've also been in good company. My guide, Dorje, has achieved a feat not shared by many Western climbers.
DORJE: Last year I summit twice time - that's all.
I quickly realise that I'm surrounded by climbing legends - men who've scaled many of the world's tallest mountains but whose names are probably unknown outside of Nepal and Tibet.
DAWA SHERPA: My name is Dawa Sherpa. I live in Solo Kumbu in Portsi. I am climb Mount Everest this time also, and last year and many years ago. I am four times Everest summit and Cho Oyo five times.
I'm not the only one in awe of their efforts.
TIM DEAKIN: I couldn't have made it here without this lad. Carrying the pack, switching around all the anchor points, truly amazing. Thank you.
With our mission to the North Col accomplished, the Sherpas continue their work - preparing camp for the final summit push.
It sounds incredible, but, despite 80 years spent helping foreigners climb their mountains, the very idea of climbing is still a strange concept for Sherpas.
TASHI: This is our job, you know. This is our work. We have to climb the mountain. Sometimes we think why are they coming here? They have to spend a lot of money to climb the mountain, they get into trouble sometimes, it's crazy sometimes, I think, but if we don't have those people, we have no job.
In the shadow of the world's tallest mountain, sleepy climbers are receiving a morning wake-up call. When Mount Everest was first climbed in 1953, some Sherpas were angry and feared that there would be no more expeditions and therefore no more jobs. How could they have known that, half a century later, they'd be delivering tea to a new generation of climbers?
Sherpas are the indispensable men of these mountains. Few expeditions would get far without their help. But their contribution has largely been overlooked. There's even confusion about what the word 'Sherpa' means.
TASHI: Actually, Sherpa is one of the caste from Nepal. Like me, my name is Tashi, Tashi Sherpa. Everybody has the last name Sherpa. It is our family name. So most of the people, the Western people, think that Sherpa means 'porter'. No, this is wrong.. Only in mountaineering Sherpa means porter. Sherpa is a caste.
This is base camp, 5,200m above sea level. In order to find out more about the contribution Sherpas have made to climbing in the Himalayas, I've joined a commercial expedition to the north side of Mount Everest in Tibet. I'll spend nearly a month on the mountain, climbing the 27km from base camp to advanced base camp and then to the North Col, which is only 1,500m from the summit itself.
There are 20 foreign climbers on this expedition, and the ratio of Sherpas to paying clients here is 1:1. The foreigners pay US$6,500 each for the trip to North Col. An expedition to the summit costs US$35,000.
REPORTER: It's a very dangerous sport. Why do you think the Westerners come here?
TASHI: It is very difficult to say, I dont know why. Some people like to be on top of the world. And they come many times - not one time, two times - they want to make summit many times and sometimes I think they are crazy.
If we don't have these people, we have no jobs, you know. So I don't know - it's very difficult to understand.
The foreigners will need to spend a week at base camp adjusting to the altitude, before they can go higher. Meanwhile, after performing Buddhist rites at a stupa they have built, the Sherpas will head further up the mountain to set up higher camps.
The expedition leader is New Zealander Russell Brice. He's been travelling to the Himalayas for 30 years, and this is his 14th trip to Everest.
RUSSELL BRICE, EXPEDITION LEADER: By coming here for so many years, I've had quite a lot of experience with the Sherpas. These are my family, really, and I have been working with some of the same Sherpas - some of them have been on 22 expeditions with me - so I know them pretty well. They know me pretty well.
After acclimatising at base camp, the rest of the expedition moves 26km up the Rombuk glacier to advanced base camp. The climb itself is not difficult, but up here at 6,500m, the air is only half the density of sea level, and the body begins to succumb to the effects of altitude.
Most foreign climbers will experience symptoms of acute mountain sickness - dizziness, nausea, loss of balance, persistent coughing and sleeplessness. Initially, they can do little but rest and force down as much food and liquid as possible.
Each climber needs 7 litres of water a day to stay hydrated at this altitude. The Sherpas busy themselves preparing food and water in difficult conditions. Tashi Sherpa has been working on expeditions since he was 14 years old. He's moved his way up the ranks from porter to cookboy and to head cook.
TASHI: On the expedition, I have to mostly... I have to cook. I am trying to cook very good food, but I don't know how they like it. Sometimes it is good, you know.
At base camp, 5,000m, it is easy to cook, but over 6,000m, that we are now 6,300m, so everything is frozen and it takes time to cook, not very good.
For most Sherpas, expedition work means they will be away from their families for at least one third of every year, with little or no contact. Tashi has a wife and two young sons across the border in Nepal.
TASHI: Everyone here we'll be away from home for four months, in spring two months and in autumn two months, so for that period we don't know with each other what's happening, what's the condition of... we don't send letters, we don't have telephone to call them, so after, when we get back to Kathmandu, then we know are we now - with our family. We know only at that time when we meet with each other, we miss them, yes.
The Himalayas are the Sherpas' spiritual home. They perform Buddhist rites on every expedition to ask for safe passage on the mountain. They believe that Mount Everest should be approached with humility.
TASHI: We are mountain-going Buddhist, our religious, so the mountain is our God. Before we step onto the God, we make a prayer for the God. "Sorry, but we are stepping on you, on the body of the God."
Tashi says that some foreign climbers don't show the proper respect for the mountain they've come to conquer.
TASHI: Sometimes they want to take pictures naked near the mountain. That is very bad. We think those are very unlucky people, very bad people, we think. And sometimes they don't care about the mountains at all. This is only a mountain or something. They never think of God, they don't think this is our God - the Himalaya is God, the God-living place, God's house.
It's not been lost on the Sherpas that Western clients often forget their enormous contribution to mountaineering.
TASHI: Most of the European people, they don't want to show they got help from the Sherpas. They want to show they have done it all by themselves.
Last year we were with a movie group, film group, and everything was done by the Sherpas, but they never showed in the movie, Sherpas, not even one face.
The expedition now moves further up the mountain, where the climbing becomes much more difficult because of the altitude. But I'm not alone. My 28-year-old climbing partner, Dorje, shoulders my pack, leaving me to carry only my camera and tripod.
Sherpas are renowned for their aptitude at high altitude. They breathe larger volumes of air per minute than their sea-level counterparts and also have higher concentrations of haemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood.
However, this has created an unrealistic generalisation that all Sherpas will perform equally at altitude.
RUSSELL BRICE: I think that most people that come here seem to think that all Sherpas are very strong and superhuman and can run to the summit of the mountain and so on, and that is about it, really.
They don't immerse too much into their culture and their families, who is sick, who is not sick, who is capable of going high, who can't go high, so, to most people that come, everyone is a Sherpa who is superhuman, but that is not true.
Sherpas have paid a disproportionately high price for their association with this mountain. Several times more Westerners have climbed Everest than Sherpas, but Sherpas make up almost half of all fatalities. Contrary to popular opinion, Western commercial expeditions have actually improved conditions for Sherpas, but there are always exceptions.
RUSSELL BRICE: I am totally amazed at how badly some of the expeditions treat Sherpas. I think some of the bigger companies that use a lot of Sherpas and sell very cheap expeditions don't look after the Sherpas at all.
I've had an example where a Sherpa was very sick and I gave him oxygen and I paid for him to go back to Kathmandu and I go to the company to say "Well, you should pay for this." And they say, "Well, why did you interfere?" They were quite happy for him to die, and that's incredibly sad, as far as I'm concerned.
We're now at the North Col of Everest, 7,200m above sea level, which is as far as my climbing permit will take me. Up here our brains and lungs have swollen significantly. Some need oxygen to survive this high.
Two members of my team have already succumbed to the altitude and will not make it to this point.
The summit towers 1,500m above us and seems incredibly close. But for those pushing on, there's still at least three days of climbing to reach the top.
As the other North Col climbers begin to arrive, I realise the extent to which the Sherpas demonstrate both patience and strength in assisting their clients. Cheiko Sihmada is a real estate agent from Japan and she's in training. Next season she hopes to reach the summit.
Climbing Everest has been a lifelong dream for David Eaton from England. At the age of 69, he's achieved an amazing feat in making it this far, but clearly he wouldn't have got here without his Sherpa guide pulling him up the last section. It turns out I've also been in good company. My guide, Dorje, has achieved a feat not shared by many Western climbers.
DORJE: Last year I summit twice time - that's all.
I quickly realise that I'm surrounded by climbing legends - men who've scaled many of the world's tallest mountains but whose names are probably unknown outside of Nepal and Tibet.
DAWA SHERPA: My name is Dawa Sherpa. I live in Solo Kumbu in Portsi. I am climb Mount Everest this time also, and last year and many years ago. I am four times Everest summit and Cho Oyo five times.
I'm not the only one in awe of their efforts.
TIM DEAKIN: I couldn't have made it here without this lad. Carrying the pack, switching around all the anchor points, truly amazing. Thank you.
With our mission to the North Col accomplished, the Sherpas continue their work - preparing camp for the final summit push.
It sounds incredible, but, despite 80 years spent helping foreigners climb their mountains, the very idea of climbing is still a strange concept for Sherpas.
TASHI: This is our job, you know. This is our work. We have to climb the mountain. Sometimes we think why are they coming here? They have to spend a lot of money to climb the mountain, they get into trouble sometimes, it's crazy sometimes, I think, but if we don't have those people, we have no job.