Brewing Big Dream at Local Climber's Little Café
Brewing Big Dream at
Local Climber's Little Café
(mountain climbing story of Sharmila Lama, from Nepal)
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| Sharmila at Her Cafe |
Until recently, coffee-related jargons such as Americano, Cappuccino, Mocca, Double or Single Shot, which were only heard in big tourist hotels and restaurants, have now become the buzz words of Kathmandu commoners. With any excuse, people flock for 'coffee meetings' where they chat from politics to the baristas who make all flavors of coffee and bring them to their table. Mountaineer Sharmila Lama is one of such baristas whose, story is worth knowing.
Sharmila's
small 'Café Epic' is located in the
temporarily constructed Kalimpong Plaza on the way towards Phulbari Tol from Bouddha in the capital.
As in other
coffee shops, coffee of different flavors is available here and the café operator Sharmila makes and serves coffee
with her own hands. She is one of the few Nepali women to successfully ascend
four 8,000 plus meters high mountains, including the world's highest peak,
Mount Everest. She is one of the first six-member Nepali woman climbers to
successfully climb Mt Annapurna I. Sharmila is also one of the winners of the
Tenzing-Hillary award 2021 given by the Ministry of Tourism, Nepal for her
courageous acts through mountaineering.
When I met this woman who was working hard to serve the customers in the small Epic Cafe with a capacity for about a dozen customers, I could not notice anything other than finding another barista.
Except for a simple focus-out photo of herself at the top of Mount
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The story of
her adventurous journey and the secret of a bigger dream woven for the future
gradually opens up if one sits with her and starts the chat.
Sharmila
Lama, a 22-year-old village-born girl from Roshi village in Kavre, was trying
to lead a normal life after marriage. But while she had her son as a newborn
baby, her marriage had taken a turn for the worse.
The story of
Pasang Lhamu Sherpa's indomitable courage, which she heard as a schoolgirl, had
a deep effect on her. On the one hand, family troubles, on the other hand, she
had the intense feelings to participate in an adventure inspired by the saga of
national hero Pasang Lhamu.
After all,
when her baby boy was 14 months old, in the spring of 2017, she approached to
the top of Mount Everest. At that time, she was still under the period of
maternity leave. Sadly her first mountaineering did not end in success. She
could not hold back her tears as she had to abandon her goal after reaching some
On May 22,
2019, she set foot on the summit of the world's highest peak, Mount Everest.
Not only was that a historic event in her life, but in her own words, 'it was
the moment she discovered herself.'
She was not
going to stop with the happiness of kissing the head of the world, Mount
Everest. Then her journey continued to other mountains. As a result, she
managed to climb Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe at 5,642 meters, Manaslu at
8,163 meters, the eighth highest in the world, and Annapurna I, the tenth
highest in the world, at 8,091 meters, and the fourth highest mountain Lhotse at
8,816 meters.
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| at the summit of Mt. Everest |
During the mountaineering expeditions, she has climbed Gyalzen Peak in Sindhupalchowk and other small mountains too. The ascent of Annapurna I was remarkable as along with her, other famous female climbers Maya Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, Purnima Shrestha, Dabuti Sherpa and Dawa Yangjum were also in the team to set history on behalf of the Nepali women, becoming first Nepali women's team to scale the mountain.
The bigger
dream Sharmila has woven in her mind is to climb all the 14 highest mountains
in the world.
After 34
years of becoming the first human to climb these 14 mountains in 1986 after 7
years of tireless efforts by veteran climber Reinhold Messner of Italy, Nepal's
Nirmal Purja 'Nims Dai' has set an amazing record by climbing all 14 mountains
of the world in just 7 months.
In the news,
climbing these mountains in such a short period may sense as if it's not that
tough. But mountaineering is not an easy activity. The 'Fourteen Peak' documentary
recently released on Netflix featuring Nims Dai covers the incidents of sad
accidents and even the death of the climbers during his climb on Mt. Everest,
Kanchenjunga, Annapurna, and other peaks. Unpleasant incidents can happen there
at any time. Despite the risks and challenges, the determination of Sharmila
Lama to establish herself as an adventurous climber following in the footsteps
of Reinhold Messner and Nirmal Purja is high.
For a
climber like Sharmila, the challenge posed by the natural complexity is the
same as the financial resources to bear the expedition expenses. Climbing a
mountain above 8,000 meters requires an average expense of Rs 2 million ($ 20K)
even if you get a local client discount or organize the trip through budget
companies. In this regard, the cost of the remaining 10 mountaineering trips
for her can reach many millions of rupees. She has managed the expenses through
the help of her relatives and friends so far but needs the strong support of long-term sponsorship for further progress.
She aims to
climb at least one of the remaining ten of the 14 highest peaks in the upcoming
climbing season (this year). For that, she is now raising financial support.
May the
extraordinary dreams of this climber working as an ordinary barista and café keeper
be successful and may we get to read more exciting adventure stories. Good Luck.
(Original Article Published in Nepali on Arthik Abhiyan, Nepali Daily's Online Version, by Amber B Tamang, Kathmandu) link - https://www.abhiyandaily.com/newscategory-detail/401100
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