tags:
women in the mountains |pasang lhamu sherpa |first women to climb k2 |first women to climb k@ |dawa yangsum sherpa
Last week I snagged 20 minutes with Pasang Lhamu Sherpa and Dawa Yangsum Sherpa, two of the three Nepalese women who summited K2 in July 2014. Leslie Hittmeier Photo
In 2008, three Nepalese women decided that they wanted to climb K2–the world’s second tallest and most difficult mountain. They overcame stubborn husbands, dangerous travel through Pakistan, days of walking in the desert, and endless obstacles on the mountain to eventually achieve what no Nepalese woman had ever done before. In July of 2014, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, Dawa Yangsum Sherpa, and Maya Sherpa danced (seriously, they danced) their way up to the summit of K2 and back down to base camp safely. Only 18 of the 376 people who have climbed K2 have been female, and these girls wanted to climb it. Why?
They wanted to test themselves and their capabilities, they wanted to raise awareness about climate change in the Himalaya, and they wanted to inspire the women from their country and around the world.
I snagged 20 minutes with Pasang and Dawa and learned so much about their incredible feat. These two women are experienced climbing guides, athletes for Sherpa Adventure Gear, and true lovers of the mountains. They talked to me and answered the same questions they've answered a hundred times before with enthusiasm in their voice and bright smiles on their faces, just as if they had gotten down from K2 the day before. They were a delight and a refreshing contrast to the burly tough-skinned mountain man.
How did it all start?
Pasang: I’ve been climbing since 2002. I’ve climbed Everest and lots of other big mountains. But K2 is a different mountain, a killer mountain. I wanted to see for myself and to feel how hard it was. We have all climbed together before and we wanted to do an all girls trip because women understand women. We just gathered together one day and were like, “Ok, let’s just go.”
How did your make it happen:
Pasang: It wasn’t that easy to just go climb K2. In Nepal, being a woman means you have a lot of responsibilities. And we are all married. The norm is that once you get married, you can't go off and do things anymore. We’d also never done any sort of fundraising before. The fundraising was almost harder than the climbing! It was also very hard on our families for us to leave. My husband, who is not a climber, said, “You can climb 6,000 meter peaks, 7,000 meter peaks and I am supportive, why do you choose K2?! It's the hardest one!!”
Dawa: My husband is a climber and guide like me. He told me, “Every wife has to stop her husband from going to climb mountains, but for us it’s the opposite.” He wants me to climb easy mountains. He supported me, but tried to trick me into not going by making me very busy. Every single person in our lives was so worried.
The best day on K2?
Pasang and Dawa on the summit. Photo courtesy of Sherpa Adventure gear.
Pasang: The summit! And getting back to base camp. Getting to the summit is so good but you are only half way. So much can still happen. So getting back to base camp felt really amazing. We could finally tell our families we were safe.
Scariest moment?
Dawa: When we were climbing up from camp three, there was so much rock fall. Rocks the size of my fist were just flying by my head, and there was nothing we could do about it. We were very lucky we didn’t get hit. Traversing under the serac on the bottleneck was also very scary.
Most memorable moment?
Pasang: Everything!
Dawa: The whole climb was memorable. There were many moments of happiness and many moments where I didn’t have the energy to even laugh. We tried to enjoy every moment because we knew we might not come back.
Pasang: We danced a lot. We danced at base camp to Bollywood and Indian music and we danced on the summit push.
Dawa: We danced because we knew maybe this was our last day and we have to enjoy everything.
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About The Author
stash member Leslie Hittmeier
Leslie is a freelance writer and photographer. Storytelling is her focus and she spends her time following badass skiers and climbers around in their natural habitats. As an obsessed skier and climber herself, she plays and trains in the Tetons.