Although Ang Pemba Sherpa was born in 1982 in Namche Bazar, Nepal, a small village nestled at 3,500 meters in the highest peaks of the world near Everest Base Camp, he has never climbed the world’s highest mountain. Nor does he intend to.
Ang, who now lives in Portland, Oregon, at the base of another towering peak, Mount Hood, does not believe that mountains need conquering. Instead, for Ang, success is achieved in preserving his cultural heritage. He explains that Everest, also locally referred to as Chomolungma, “mother goddess of the earth,” stands as an entity unto itself.
The Sherpa community where Ang grew up lies on the southern side of Everest, within the Khumbu Valley, along Nepal’s border. Though the northern edge of Everest is also populated by various ethnic groups, only those to the east identify as Sherpa. The Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet and the name Sherpa means “people from the east.”
Removed from much of the world, Ang’s village was simple. Modern amenities were scarce; there was no twenty-four-hour electricity or reliable water supply, only basic structures. “We’d have low-power lights from five to nine in the evening, just when it got dark,” he remembers. Tourism was still minimal, and the village was calm and community-oriented.
“It’s quiet there, you can hear the snow wind gusts coming through, the smells are all of pine bushes, and crispness of the air that comes from the altitude is always the thing that takes me (home).” Ang says.
“It’s hard to describe,” he adds. “It is to be lived.”
Ang recalls a childhood where games were rooted in the natural surroundings. He remembers playing with fire stones and using threads to craft makeshift nets. Every activity was hands-on, grounded in the basics, and rich in imagination. Ang and his siblings were left free to explore.
“We were mountain goats,” he says.
“We used to hike an hour and a half every day to get to school,” Ang recalls. His school had been built by Ed Hillary after his successful Everest summit, when the climber wanted to give back to the Sherpa community that had supported him. At the time, he felt only gratitude for this gift. He didn’t yet understand the magnitude of the impact foreigners would have on his home.
For many years before mountaineering tourism arrived, Ang’s grandfathers and others in the community would travel to Tibet and China, trading grains and other goods, often migrating elsewhere to find work opportunities.
After Everest was first summited in 1953, the valley changed tremendously. “Tourism shifted to become a major industry for years and generations,” Ang says.
Mountaineering not only changed the landscape of the valley but also changed the economic opportunities for Sherpas. “My father was heavily involved in mountaineering and mountaineering business and so was my grandfather,” he says.
Following the 1953 expedition, Ang’s grandfather, Ten Tsewang Sherpa, hand-carried the news of the successful summit climb. He ran from Everest base camp to Kathmandu to deliver the message to be telegraphed to the world. He completed the journey of two hundred miles in five days.
Ang remembers his father taking in clients looking to climb Everest and he would then organize and plan the expeditions. In the 70s and 80s, he worked and climbed with Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.
As Ang’s father’s business grew more successful, the family could afford to send him to a boarding school in Kathmandu, rather than the local village school.
Following high school in Kathmandu, Ang went to study abroad in Austria at Peter Habeler’s Tourism School. From there, Ang traveled to the United States to attend the University of Wisconsin, as a communications major. After experiencing the cold harsh winters, Ang transferred to Portland State University (PSU) in Oregon, where his brother and uncle were living. He earned a certificate at PSU as a communications and film studies major.
In Portland, the Pacific Northwest’s abundance of rock climbing, backpacking, and hiking provided Ang with an outlet into the high mountains. The strong outdoor community of the PNW allowed him to build his own community base, with individuals holding the same passion for mountains. This community was a comfort for Ang, as he had not returned to Nepal since leaving for school, eighteen years ago.
At the time, Ang suffered from anxiety that he could not imagine making the trip to Nepal. “I couldn’t leave my room. How was I supposed to travel?” he says.
He found taking pictures forced him to be outside and this gradually made him feel more comfortable. Ang began freelance photography and journalism focused on outdoor content, working with companies such as Modern Adventure. He has slowly transitioned toward storytelling as a medium for producing meaningful stories.
Ang’s recent work in storytelling has been directed at reconnecting with his heritage back in Nepal. Working with outdoor magazine, he produced a story and podcast centered around his grandfather called, The Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed—a journey where Ang retraces his grandfather’s 200 mile journey to report the first summit of Everest. Ang explained that producing his grandfather’s story wasn’t only meaningful on a personal level but also at a community level allowing him to promote sherpa’s stories and their role in history.
Since the days of Ang’s father and grandfather, the world of climbing Everest has changed dramatically. The industry has become increasingly driven by corporate interests, and summiting the peak is often seen as a pursuit of egotistical ambitions. Amidst this shift, Ang feels a strong calling to preserve and protect his sherpa heritage, focusing on the well-being of the valley’s people and community.
“The mountains are spiritual deities, they are higher than us,” Ang explains. “We humans are just part of it. By going to the top of it, I am not going to be bigger or higher than anything else. For me my journey as a person is more important than being on the summit of a mountain.”
Seeing the beauty and history in his past, Ang has more projects on his horizon to highlight the importance of preserving heritage for future generations. Even as Ang is based in Portland, he remains connected with his community and home in Nepal.
“Whenever I go to Mt Hood, I can feel my hometown, the elevation, the crisp of the air, the freshness makes it feel like that time frame of a moment when I am back in that time,” he says.