Two Single Women Find Happiness in Peak Climbing, Where it was Lost

• Samundra Ghimire

Kathmandu: Just imagine a situation where the husband, working as a Sherpa guide for mountaineers, is the sole bread earner in the house of a poor Sherpa family, and suddenly dies while climbing Everest.

Now, think, what would have happened to the two Sherpa widows, whose Sherpa guide husbands died almost three years ago and both of them were left in the lurch to fend for themselves in the house. The entire world looked blank and hopeless with a gloomy picture of future life for their children and no single chance to come out of this dreary situation.

To worsen the situation the family members suddenly go against them and make it the utmost difficult to live a normal and decent life in the family and village.

Nima Doma Sherpa, 34 and Furdiki Sherpa, 42 of Pasang Lahamu Rural Municipality- encountered the above mentioned miserable situation after the death of their husbands in the Everest region while guiding mountaineers.

Nima with two small children found the situation very difficult to handle as her family mistreated her after her husband’s death. At first, she did not know what to do and where to go for support in such an unfavorable situation.

Her counterpart Fuduki Sherpa was somewhat better in her family positions as her three daughters were already adopted by American godfathers and they could support her to some extent in logistic matters.

But for Nima, the situation was very intolerable in the family until one day she decided to do something unique for herself. She mustered up her guts and consulted with her peer Furdiki Sherpa to do something in life by following the foot trails of their husbands.

At this Furdiki Sherpa also mutually agreed and both of them finally decided to summit Everest themselves by taking support from their well-wishers and supporters.

“I would have been found doing fieldwork or domestic chores in my family, had I not been mistreated by my family and given this inspiration to do something unique to stand on my feet myself in this world,” said Nima while talking to highlights tourism.

Finally, after rigorous training and hard work, the duo succeeded in scaling the  Mt. Everest (8848 meters) on Thursday, May 23, 2019, and showed to the world that even widows (single women) could do exemplary or exceptional feats if they are really determined with strong resolution to do something extraordinary in this world.

For Nima, her mother and brothers actually extended a lot of support in connection with her resolution to climb Everest. Now, she has come to Kathmandu with her two young children and she has not even looked back since then.

Nima’s husband’s house is located just near her own parental house. But she does not want to think of going back to the same house again.

Both widow climbers have also scaled several other peaks above 6000 meters. Nima had lost her husband in 2014 and Furdiki had lost her husband in 2013. Both climbers are now planning to submit other peaks of the world.