Pemba developed a desire to climb while growing up in Namche Bazaar, a major stop for trekkers and climbers in Nepal on their way to base camp at Everest. Watching foreigners gasp for air as they arrived at her family's lodge at 11,286-feet above sea level made her wonder what all the fuss was about. During long walks with her grandfather, Dawa Tsering, Pemba says she started to think that one day she might try to make it to the top. Everest was essentially in her backyard, after all.
"It soon became a dream to climb it," said Pemba, 34, who is in Salt Lake City this week promoting Sherpa Adventure Gear at the Outdoor Retailer show. She also will give a free women's-only presentation on mountaineering Feb. 3 at Snowbird as part of Backcountry Awareness Week.
The whole idea is inclusiveness, said Roger Kehr, who organized events for the Utah Avalanche Center fundraiser at Snowbird. "Backcountry needs to be made appealing to all types of people. Not just the young jock crowd. We recognized that people of all ages and gender can go backcountry and have a great time. Here is a woman that has accomplished physical and mental feats that few men have accomplished. . . . Additionally, she is a great humanitarian and makes a great role model for women."
Like other Sherpa people, Pemba was naturally acclimated to high elevations by living in Namche Bazaar, but she climbed even higher, keeping track of the family's yak herd. Because she was not working as a porter or a Himalayan guide, Pemba knew she would have to pay to get to the top of Everest, which is just over 29,000 feet.
When a friend's sister got homesick and decided to return to Nepal, Pemba volunteered to take the woman's place working as a nanny in France. Pemba, then in her early 20s, found herself about as far away from Everest as she could have imagined. While helping raise a 9-month-old girl, she attended school, learned a new language - she's now fluent in nine - and made a little additional money selling wares from her homeland. Pemba also found time to take climbing lessons during her time in Europe.
After two years, she returned to Nepal all the more determined to climb Everest. Her opportunity came in 1999 when she heard that a Swiss team was planning an expedition and that the team already included four women. Pemba committed to the climb and only learned later the route the team picked was on the Tibetan side of the world's highest mountain.
Pemba's excitement about her first attempt at Everest was quickly deflated once the team arrived on the mountain.
"We started having team problems and the group leader decided to take one other team member and three helpers and left the rest of us in camp," she said. "I quickly decided that I could go by myself. I knew a lot of the Sherpas on the mountain and that if something happened they could help me. Others offered to help carry my stuff, but I told them I wanted to carry my own things."
Being alone on the mountain was nothing new to Pemba, but she had never faced such a technical climb without a partner.
"It was even more rewarding to make it on my own," said Pemba.
When she summited May 19, 2000, Pemba became the first woman from Nepal to make it to the top via the North Route. Getting down proved to be the hard part.
"Each time I fell in the soft snow I would sleep for a few minutes. I was quite tired. I asked a Russian climber to stay with me for five minutes to make sure I was OK once. His eyes got really big when he heard I was alone. He couldn't believe I was there without anyone else," she said.
Pemba had spent four days alone climbing the hardest route to the top of Everest. She also came to the aid of an old friend she had encountered on the summit. Trying to catch up on some much-needed sleep on the way back down the mountain in Camp II, she heard her name being yelled.
"It was a Japanese climber who had stayed at our lodge in Namche Bazaar. He was snow-blind and just hoping that I was there," Pemba said. "He said I saved his life."
After her success on the North Route, she became a hero in her home country and the Nepalese government gave her a free permit to climb the South Route in 2002. When she reached the top, this time with support of a team on May 16, 2002, Pemba set another first: the first Nepali woman to climb the mountain from both routes. (Only five other women have summited the mountain from both routes.)
"I'm very proud to be the first. Everything I had dreamed as a young girl in Namche had come true," she said.
Pemba will attempt Everest and other major climbs in the future if the opportunity presents itself, but now she is focusing on the Climb High Himalaya trekking company she owns (http://www.climbhigh himalaya.com) and the Save the Himalayan Kingdom nonprofit group she founded, which helps educate the poor in Nepal and restores Buddhist nunneries and monasteries.
Pemba is not sure why more women Sherpa are not climbers. It certainly is not due to a lack of support.
"I get encouragement from everyone," she said. "It is more challenging because I am a woman, but no one has said that I can't do it."
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Contact Brett Prettyman at brettp@sltrib.com or 801-257-8902. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
Pemba Doma Thaktopa Sherpa at Snowbird
Pemba Doma, the first Nepali woman to summit Mount Everest from the North and South routes, will give a free presentation, "Climbing the Highest Mountains In the World," on Feb. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Superior Room in the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. The event, part of Backcountry Awareness Week activities, is for women only and although it is free, reservations must be made by calling 801-933-2147.
Activities going on at Snowbird for backcountry safety
Climbing feats, backcountry smarts Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort are hosting a week of activities Monday-Feb. 5. The events range from ultralight backcountry travel to wilderness first-aid courses to free demonstrations of backcountry equipment. All events are designed to encourage families to become educated about safe and efficient ways to travel on snow and to raise money for the Utah Avalanche Center. The main event is a dinner Feb. 3, with guest speakers Conrad Anker and Apa Sherpa. In addition to being one of the world's most recognized climbers, Anker co-authored The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest. Apa holds the record for the most summits of Mount Everest at 15. The evening starts at 6 p.m. The cost is $50 per person, with all proceeds going to the Know Before You Go avalanche awareness program for young adults. The event sold out last year. Call 801-933-2147 to book a spot or visit http://www.backcountryawareness.com for more information.
