It doesn’t help to turn a blind eye. Ngima Tashi Sherpa and Rima Rinje Sherpa almost certainly did not survive the avalanche accident on Monday on the eight-thousander Annapurna I in western Nepal. Four days later, the chances of finding them alive are close to zero.
Signals from the masses of snow
Yesterday, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, the expedition leader of Seven Summit Treks, posted a video on his Instagram story marked with a broken heart. On it, you could see and hear how a mountaineer with a search device received acoustic signals from the snow masses and a crevasse.
The two missing people were wearing so-called Recco reflectors in their clothing. The system can be used to locate buried victims. A detector is used for this purpose. It emits a radar signal that is echoed back by the reflector. The closer you get to the reflector, the stronger the return signal becomes.
Today, Seven Summit Treks called off the search for the missing. “It is no longer possible for anyone to survive under such snow and ice, and continuing the search would endanger more lives,” the company announced on Instagram. Meteorologists are expecting some heavy snowfall on Annapurna over the next few days.
Ngima Tashi: “Saving lives is what matters”
Ngima Tashi Sherpa came from the mountaineers’ village of Thame in the Khumbu region and was a very experienced high-altitude climber. Between 2016 and 2024, he stood on the 8,849-meter-high summit of Mount Everest a total of seven times and scaled the neighboring 8,516-meter-high Lhotse three times. He also reached the summit of Manaslu (8,163 m) three times and scaled Annapurna (8,091 m) once, as well as K2 (8,611) and Broad Peak (8051 m) in Pakistan.
In November 2024, Ngima and his brother Fura Tshering Sherpa made the first ascent of the 6.141-meter-high Yasa Tahk near their home village of Thame.
In 2023, Ngima was involved in a spectacular rescue operation on Everest. After Gelje Sherpa had carried a completely exhausted and altitude-sick mountaineer from Malaysia from the so-called “Balcony” at around 8,400 meters to the South Col, Ngima shouldered the Malaysian and brought him down to Camp 3 (7,200 meters), from where the altitude-sick mountainer could be flown out by helicopter. “Saving lives is what matters,” wrote Ngima on Facebook at the time. He died at the age of only 32 years. Ngima Tashi Sherpa is survived by his wife.
Rima Rinje leaves behind his wife and two children
Rima Rinje Sherpa’s family – his wife, four-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son – are now also without a breadwinner. Since the beginning of the year, Climbing Sherpas have been insured for the case of death with two million Nepalese rupees, the equivalent of around 13,000 euros. Even though the sum is four times the previous amount, the money only helps the bereaved for the time being.
Rima comes from the small village of Bupsa in Solukhumbu, 2,350 meters above sea level. In 2018, he celebrated the first of his four summit successes on Mount Everest. In 2019, he also stood on the summit of Lhotse and in 2023 on the highest point of Manaslu. Rima Rinje Sherpa was only 27 years old.
