Notes

1. The Discovery Channel released a one-hour documentary of the tragedy not long afterwards. It appeared on YouTube while I was still in Kathmandu, and I watched it in the courtyard of our hotel. I appeared for about three seconds, right at the start of the film. ‘A huge avalanche swept across the entire width of the Icefall,’ I croaked in an oxygen-depleted voice.

2. We find out later that the government offered derisory compensation of 40,000 Nepalese Rupees (around $400 USD) to each of the victims’ families.

3. Two years later I went to the cinema to see a documentary film about the tragedy, Sherpa – Trouble on Everest, and was surprised to see Dawa appear briefly, addressing a gathering at Base Camp.

4. I learn later that this is Pasang Bhote, who was working for one of the Nepali agencies. Our UIAGM-qualified guide Pasang Ongchu, who knows most people in the Nepali climbing scene, told me that he had never seen this man at an expedition base camp before. Nor did he know whom he was working for.

5. Pasang Sherpa, a representative of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA), not to be confused with Pasang Tenzing Sherpa, or our own Pasang Ongchu Sherpa.

6. Ramesh Dhamala, President of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN).

7. Ang Tshering Sherpa, President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA).

8. Pasang Bhote, whose status was unclear, but who appeared to be the leader of the protesters.

9. Although another argument I heard much later from people who worked closely with Sherpas, was that Sherpas often threaten to break each other’s legs without really meaning it, and that it was not a threat that should be taken literally. As Simone Moro discovered, some words sound worse in a different language.