Senior tourism entrepreneur Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, who runs dozens of companies, including Thamserku Trekking — the leading trekking agency in Nepal — is a senior member of the family.
Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa feels the need to shift the Everest Base Camp to another place.
He has been able to summit the highest mountains on seven continents and achieved success in the Real Seven Summits.
In an interview with NepalNews, recently after returning from a successful ascent of Everest, Sherpa, Chairman of Nepal's leading trekking agency Thamserku Trekking Company and Yetis Group, told us that, about 3,000 people had gathered at Everest Base Camp this spring. According to the official report, it mentions that there were 475 climbers from different countries.
He further stated that one of the foreign climbers present there gave employment opportunities to about seven Nepali citizens. Sherpa argues that it is necessary and essential for relevant agencies to pay close attention to the fact about the number of people having to urinate in open places. Similarly, the excrement and feces in the base camp are also seen to be taken away by the porters according to the rules of the Everest Pollution Control Committee. But it is actually unknown, where they take it and who monitors it. Sherpa says it is important to pay attention to how much it has affected the environment there.
Moreover, in putting up about 1,500 tents at Everest Base Camp, the glacier is cut a few meters and made flat. And, if it is cut every year, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa imagines how it will affect the glacier, in the next 10 years. He said the government needs to focus on this matter and take experts to conduct deep research, keeping in mind its long-term effects.
In the Khumbu Icefall risk zone, Sherpas take a lot of risks, walking through the night carrying about 30 kg of heavyweight. He suggests that if a helicopter lifts the cargo up to Camp 2, there will be a way to minimize the risk and help the Sherpas.
Sherpa, a senior tourism businessman, has also given suggestions to reduce traffic on Mount Everest. There is only one rope that is seen fixing up to the top of Everest. The Sherpas fix those ropes by keeping themselves at a lot of risk. Therefore, Lhakpa Sonam suggests that if two ropes are hung to travel up and down, the issue of traffic on Everest will be solved immediately.
Sherpa informed that garbage seemed to have been shrunk in Everest, compared to before, and that the Everest Pollution Control Committee and Nepali Army have done an excellent job for this task.
Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa went to Mount Everest nearly after 30 years. Earlier, he had been there to the second camp of Everest in 1993.
Sherpa started working in the tourism sector at the age of 13. He has gained 50 years of experience in tourism, especially in the mountaineering sector. During this period, he was involved in many businesses related to mountain tourism. He has climbed Europe's highest peak Mount Blanc (1983), Mount Annapurna I (1985), Mount Dhaulagiri (1986), and Mount Thamserku (1987) in Nepal.
For a long time, he has been helping foreigners climb mountains of different heights, including Mount Everest and other mountains in Nepal. He has also helped climbers in China, India, and Pakistan.
Even at the age of 63, he has a desire to climb mountains again. In 2015, during the massive earthquake in Nepal, he injured his backbone while escaping from the office window. His backbone was then dislocated.
After many medical treatments, when there was not much improvement, on the advice of his friends, he ascended Mount Kilimanjaro, which is part of the Seven Summits, 27 years later without training. His back pain was gradually cured after the ascend. By January 1922, he climbed the highest mountains on six continents.
Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa has climbed Mount Vinson (4892 m) in Antarctica, Mount Puncak/Mt Carstensz in Oceania (4884 m), Mount Elbrus (5642 m) in Europe, Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 m) in Africa, Denali (6190 m) in North America and Akonwagua (6962 m) in South America.
Towering 4,884 meters above the landscape of Papua, Puncak Jaya, also known as the Carstensz Pyramid, is the highest mountain on the Australian continent. It's one of the Seven Summits of the World, which encompasses the highest peaks on the seven continents. He says that he faced many problems while climbing that mountain in October 2016.
The indigenous Papuan people live in the forest there. He said that they asked him for money and even threatened him. Despite that, he managed to climb the mountain. This incident led to the closing of mountain climbing in Mount Puncak Jaya. Mountain climbing has still not been opened to this day. He is the first Nepali climber to ascend that mountain.
Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, a senior tourism businessman, has informed us that his goal mainly is to publish the experience he gained while climbing the Seven Summits and write a book about it.
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