Anyone who regularly reads my blog knows that I have a very distanced relationship with supposed “records” in mountaineering. I make an exception for Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, because she is a true pioneer of women’s mountaineering. For more than a decade, she has been campaigning for women in her home country of Nepal to be given the opportunity to climb mountains and earn a living there. On 9 October, Dawa Yangzum summited the 8,027-meter-high Shishapangma in Tibet, becoming the first woman from Nepal to have saled all 14 eight-thousanders.
First Asian woman with an international mountain guide certificate
The Sherpani, who grew up with three brothers and two sisters in a small mountain village in the Rolwaling Valley, had already set milestones before. In 2014, she reached the summit of K2 with her compatriots Maya Sherpa and Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita. They were the first women from Nepal to scale the second highest mountain on earth. In 2017, Dawa Yangzum became the first woman in Asia to receive an international mountain guide certificate and has been working regularly as a mountain guide ever since, among others on Mount Everest.
Since 2020, she has been offering climbing courses for young Nepalese women in the Khumbu region. She herself has lived in Boulder in the USA for years and works for the expedition operator Alpine Ascents International. The 34-year-old Nepalese answered my questions.
Dawa Yangzum, first of all, congratulations on completing your collection of eight-thousanders. Would you highlight one of the 14 ascents in particular?
My highlight of the 14 eight-thousanders was Annapurna 1 which I summited without bottled oxygen in 2021. After my summit success on this mountain I decided to complete the 14 peaks.
You summited your first eight-thousander, Mount Everest, in 2012 at the age of 21, twelve years ago. The mountaineers who make the list of 14 eight-thousanders are getting younger and younger and need less and less time. What does that say about the development of climbing the eight-thousanders?
When I summited Mount Everest and two years later K2 it was very different from today. The expeditions were longer and there were less climbers on the eight-thousanders, especially on the Pakistani mountains. At that time only very few climbers, mostly professional ones, tried to climb the 14 peaks.
These days we can see many clients of commercial expeditions among the aspirants and also people who have a lot of many money and therefore don’t need sponsors. They fly to the base camp by helicopter and back again afterwards to save time.
It is great for Nepal’s economy that I have now climbed all 14 peaks. But even I don’t think we can reach the level of mountaineers like Gerlinde (Kaltenbrunner) and Edurne (Pasaban) when they climbed the 14 eight-thousanders.
Honestly, I have seen some mountaineers among those who have completed the 14 peaks who are not skilled in ice climbing or other climbing styles. They just follow the fixed lines. They start climbing one year and finish the 14 peaks next year.
You have been campaigning for many years for other Nepalese women to enter the male domain of mountaineering. What is still lacking?
For Nepali women it’s more difficult than for western women because the way we and they start is different. I am encouraging Nepali women to become independent and make money as mountain guides. What is still missing is promotion for female mountain guides and businesswomen.
You made history as the first Nepalese woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. Is there another big goal you want to dedicate yourself to now?
I will continue to work as a mountain guide. The 14 peaks are not important to me as a record, but they will help me to get clients as a mountain guide. I don’t have a new goal at the moment. I am simply enjoying my time off the eight-thousanders.
There is now also a #MeToo debate in mountain sports. Have you experienced sexual harassment in your career or witnessed any of it?
I myself have not yet been sexually harassed. But yes, as a woman, it’s not easy on the mountain. And you have to be particularly careful so that you don’t run the risk of another danger on the mountain.
