Saturday, June 28, 2014

Kyashar: Mountaineer vs. Local

"Kyashar" [pronounced ke-sar] is one of the Sherpa names for a mountain (6769m) in the Khumbu region,  northeastern Nepal.  The local Sherpas to the south of the mountain call it "Charpate", meaning square, for the peak looks square.  The mountain has been climbed at least eight times since it opened officially, including three Japanese climbers first ascent of the difficult south-pillar, November 2012.  This climb was received praise from the mountaineering community in the world, as the team was awarded 2013 Piolet d'Or (golden ice axe).

When I visited the village to the south of the peak (Thaknag or Thangnang [4350m/14,270ft]), a local Sherpani lady narrated a frustration.  "Last October, three Japanese climbed the Charpate for about ten days.  And later, the lake below the mountain broke out and so some of the houses here partly broken, with a loss of crops.  That peak has long been a mountain to which lamas offered puja."  Temba, our team guide of the time, said, "that peak had been closed long ago.  But once opened, people climbed, and it flooded.  So people requested that the government had to close the mountain again."

The Nepalese government made it happen, as they put the peak off from the opened list, May 2014.

I am just confused what it would mean by some values such as "respect for the mountain" and "pass down to future generation", as the Piolet d'Or officially announces as its aim.  If these are defined solely by the mountaineers' terms, then, I think, this business has no meaning to the local who have no duty to learn mountaineers' language.  While mountaineers may have their own ideal, as I love to do, I just hope that they are pleased not to assume themselves be a true respecter of the mountain and of the future generation.