On April 18, 2014, on Mount Everest, the roof of the world, a group of people stepped on an iron ladder, clutched a rope, and tried their best to climb the mountain.
The scenery of miles of frozen ice, snowy rivers and wonderlands is breathtaking.
An avalanche suddenly struck, breaking the immediate silence, the sloping snow tide at the top of the cliff instantly engulfed everything in front of them, and the lives of 16 Sherpas ended in this senseless disaster, and since then, this day has also been called "the darkest day in the history of Everest mountaineering".
Scattered on both sides of the Himalayas, the Sherpas are devout Buddhists, brave mountain climbers, and "porters on Everest."
The extremely cold climate, the high-altitude environment, cast their lung capacity different from ordinary people, they adapt to the perennial lack of oxygen, excellent physical fitness, once able to carry eighty or ninety pounds of heavy objects up and down the mountain, in the wall of the snow peak to carry forward, is not an easy task, Sherpa people know better than anyone the danger of this work, but in order to support the family, they have no choice.
Originally from the village of Kunqiong, Puba is a native of Sherpas who has extensive mountaineering experience as a career guide.
He made his first ascent of Mount Everest in 1999 and so far he has made 21 successful summits, and if he climbs to the summit again, he will break the world record.
As the saying goes, "Where you can always walk by the river, you can not get wet shoes", and frequently climbing up and down the cliffs is nothing more than a battle with the god of death. In this regard, Puba's family is anxious and tired every day.
Puba's mother even said: Puba climbs the mountain countless times, and as a Buddhist, it is disrespectful to the gods to keep climbing. Even his children often complained that there were too few days spent with their father.
But Puba, who has always been stubborn, is reluctant to give up the job, in this remote village, the economy is not developed, and people can only live on agriculture.
In recent years, mountaineering has sprung up, and many young adults in the village will choose to be mountain guides, although they can only get a small cup of soup compared to the mountaineering company, but it is more than enough to make a living, and before each departure, the Sherpas will go to the temple to pray.
In their eyes, Everest is the mother earth and must be revered, and they believe that man is reincarnated and prays sincerely for nirvana after death.
As usual, after Puba finished praying, he embarked on the climb with the village "porters".
They are all employees of the Russell Mountaineering Team, who is a professional commercial mountaineering team leader who has been in the industry for 20 years.
Puba, who is usually the captain, needs to recruit team members, and then the team members are responsible for carrying the supplies needed on the way up the mountain, clearing the roadblocks, setting up camps, etc.
The boss Russell is mainly responsible for attracting customers from all over the world, and then taking them to the concentration base camp at the foot of the mountain, with the tacit cooperation of the two people, Puba recruited a total of 25 employees this year, and the mountaineering team led by Russell was also loaded and ready to go to the base camp.
In Kunqiong Village, there are 38 mountaineering companies like Russell, and the Sherpas will act as "porters" throughout the process.
Mountaineering enthusiasts can basically meet the daily needs, the service is very in place, the temporary station is also divided into toilet camp, leisure area, dining room, "bedroom", they also installed a TV set in the tent, bookshelves completely turned mountaineering into a "vacation".
Therefore, on the inaccessible Mount Everest, there will be an endless stream of "humanoid dragons" phenomenon.
Every year, 600 people come to climb Everest, and so far, more than 4,000 people have climbed the peak. For a time, the mountaineering industry became an important part of Nepal's economy, but this booming emerging industry was bought by countless Sherpas with sweat and even their lives.
Since the government does not allow air transport, all the supplies needed for mountain climbing are transported by hand,
In such a place, it is difficult to walk with empty hands, let alone carry weights, and in order to store these supplies in advance, they set up camps in order from low to high.
At the same time, for the Sherpas, training such as crossing ravines and climbing ladders is also essential.
Puba is teaching employees how to walk on the iron ladder, the thin iron ladder frame on the ice surface that may break at any time, and if you accidentally step into the air, you will fall into the abyss.
The dangers of climbing snow-capped mountains are much more so, with even more terrifying ice falls waiting for them on the way.
Ice falls are waterfalls formed by glaciers flowing out of a valley that fall without warning when exposed to sunlight.
It is understood that the Sherpas will pass through the Khumbu IceFall 30-40 times a quarter, while the mountaineers only need to go through 2-3 trips, so the sacrifice probability of the Sherpas is much higher than that of mountaineers.
No matter how dangerous and how hard it was, the Sherpas did not complain.
Early in the morning, employees brought hot water, towels and tea to hand out one tent after another. You know, it is very difficult to boil water on the plateau, and they even prepared hot tea.
But these towering climbers are not appreciative, some complain that there are only towels and tea in the morning, and some people ask for hot tea without sugar, they feel that they have paid the money, and the Sherpas are their "servants" who should obey.
This innate sense of superiority is growing, and the contradictions are accumulating more and more, and as we approach the top of the mountain, the conflict is on the verge of erupting, a European insults the Sherpas, the Sherpas who have been swallowing for a long time give each other a slap, the Europeans use vulgar words to insult themselves on Mount Everest, for the Sherpas, this is blasphemy, and no one can say filthy words in such a holy place.
In fact, the arrogance of these European and American tourists has a long history, and in 1953, a British mountaineering team, led by the Sherpas Danzeng, climbed Mount Everest, which was the first time that mankind conquered the roof of the world. However, at the awards ceremony, they were reluctant to answer head-on about who was the first to reach the top.
In the end, Dan only won the second prize, and obviously suffered unfair equality, but he still smiled and faced it, without sherpas, foreigners could not climb Everest.
After this storm, the climbers began to fear that the Sherpas would no longer be friendly, but the Sherpas did not care at all, and they were gathering to discuss how to avoid the icefall.
In order to ensure the safety of tomorrow's trip, they need to leave overnight to investigate, Puba is very worried about the safety of the team members, he decided to keep vigil, waiting for them to return safely, at the same time, the tourists have already fallen asleep.
On April 18, 2014, a day that all climbers and Sherpas don't want to remember, 14,000 tons of ice and snow collapsed from the necessary way to climb, taking 16 living lives in an instant, and the walkie-talkies were full of cries for help, blood, debris, and backpacks scattered on the ground.
After the incident, doctors, helicopters, and Yamashita's family all arrived at the base for rescue.
The ladder connecting the two ends of the glacier broke and the rescue became difficult, and it took about 5 hours before they found the last of the wounded, who tied the wounded to a helicopter with a rope and flew down the mountain for treatment, while the government announced that the search for the missing dead was halted, because in the Buddhist belief of the Sherpas, those buried in the ice falls could not hold funerals, and these poor souls could never rest in peace.
The Sherpas present could no longer remain silent, and they gathered to revolt.
They hoped that the relevant departments would raise pensions, cancel the mountaineering team, and immediately make a decision to "close the mountain", while asking the owners of the mountaineering company to reflect on it, but the government did not respond positively, and Russell's boss even called them "traitors".
After experiencing this avalanche with heavy casualties, Puba finally understood the good intentions of his family, and he returned home with a heavy heart, he asked his wife: How are you? The wife replied: I am fine!