Help can finally be on the way to Nepalese Sherpas who carry heavy loads for foreign climbers through perfidious sections of the highest peak in the world.
When the main climbing season will start next month on Mount Everest, shipping companies will test drones that can transport loads as heavy as 35 pounds in high altitudes, bring back scales used to define the climbing tracks and eliminate waste that is generally left behind.
Goods that would normally take seven hours to be transported by the base camp from Everest to camp, I can be transported by plane within 15 minutes. By clarifying the loads of sherpas, drone operators hope that the chances of fatal accidents – which have increased as climate change has accelerated the melting snow – can now be reduced.
“Sherpas presents enormous risks.
For about a year, operators have experienced two drones given by their Chinese manufacturer. The pilot test during this year’s Everest escalation season is considered an important opportunity to persuade shipping agencies to invest in more devices, which could be used to transport climbing equipment and essential items such as oxygen cylinders.
Although the initial cost of drones can be high, their supporters say they will eventually reduce the costs of agencies.
Among those who could benefit the most are the experienced sherpas known as “doctors of the ice fall”. Before each escalation season, they meet at the Everest base camp for the intimidating mission to establish a route through changing ice.
They carry heavy loads of ladders, repair them on crevices and place a rope to climb the wall of ice. Once the scales and strings are placed along the Khumbu ice drop to camp II, other Sherpas oxygen bottles, medicine and various essential elements for high camps. Sherpas makes this dangerous climb at least 40 times a season, according to the shipping organizers.
When the doctors of the ice fall went to the base camp at the beginning of the month, they were impatiently awaiting the arrival of the drone pilots, who were still in Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, ending the flight clearance documentation.
“They call us to team up early,” said Milan Pandey, an affiliated drone pilot in Airlift, a startup drone company in Nepal.
The catalyst for the use of drones was the last of the many fatal tragedies involving sherpas on Everest. In 2023, three of the mountain guides were buried under an avalanche as they fixed a rope for foreign climbers.
Their bodies could not be recovered. This could have damaged the ice block and endanger those who try to obtain the remains, said Mingma G. Sherpa, director general of Imagine Nepal, who led the expedition in which the Sherpas died.
His search for means to improve security attracted him to Chinese shipping companies that used drones on Muztagh Ata, a peak of 24,757 feet in China near the Pakistani border. The Chinese used vehicles to transport climbing equipment, food and other crucial articles for Camp II and drop them.
“The Chinese cooked food at the base camp and sent it to Camp II of Muztagh Ata, where climbers could eat hot dishes,” said Sherpa. “I thought, why not use drones on the south side of Everest, especially the Khumbu ice fall section?”
During its invitation, a team from the Chinese drone manufacturer DJI went to Nepal in the spring of 2024 to test two Delivery Dones Flycart 30.
The DJI team donated drones to Airlift, the Nepalese startup. Since then, Airlift has tested the limits of drones in the most dangerous sections of Everest.
Drone supporters hope that they can do more than wearing articles. Given that the shape of the ice drop continues to change, the doctors of the ice fall find it difficult to locate the previous climbing route, which complicates the implementation of the new route each season. Drone operators think they can identify the old routes using geolocation.
The devices could also help compensate for the number of Sherpas down. Others leave due to security risks and better employment opportunities abroad.
But even with all drones, their price has paused for shipping companies.
Once customs tasks, batteries, a winch system and other parts are taken into account, a DJI drone can cost more than $ 70,000 – a huge sum in a poor country like Nepal. Startups like Airlift explore options to assemble drones in Nepal, which they say, could reduce their cost by more than half.
The miracle of a hot meal can drive on this effort to reduce costs.
During a test last year on Mount Ama Dablam, a Himalayan peak where the drones were used to eliminate 1,300 pounds of waste, Dawa Jangbu Sherpa, drone pilot, saw the potential of the vehicle of first -hand. Food sent by the base camp was still hot when she reached Camp I.
“It takes six hours if you follow the normal road to reach camp I,” said Sherpa. “But the drone served food in six minutes.”
