The Last Photograph:
Smiling Babu Chhiri Besides me

That final April morning is still etched in my mind, when I had returned from my official Europe trip. Entering into my office that morning, I was surprised and astonished to see a photograph standing on a side table in front of my office desk at Bhrikuti Mandap. The photograph carried no other but innocent, cheerful and smiling face of Babu Chhiri beside me. It was taken on the very request of Babu Chhiri himself with his own camera a week before he left Kathmandu, at the balcony of Hotel Blue Star where NMA was hosting an official function.

No sooner had I entered my office that Praja Thapa, my secretary said that the photograph was left by Babu Chhiri himself who had come personally to see me to handover the photograph before he flew to Lukla in order to accomplish his future mission to the Sagarmatha, Mt. Everest for his eleventh attempt. At that time, I was the chief of Tourism Industry Division and I was shouldering the responsibility for mountaineering affairs. Unfortunately, I was out of the country and I was unable to meet him personally. Sadly, no one knew that it would be his last day in Kathmandu.

Now as I reflect back to the photograph beside my table, I get sentimental and it always reminds me of a great Nepali mountain hero who not only started his career in mountains, but also took his last breath in the arms of the mountain without much caring about himself. It was merely a coincidence that on one hand he gave me a photo before he went for the mission and on the other hand he died while taking photograph during his ill fated mission.  

Sad News Travel Fast
The proverb : "Sad news always travel fast" cannot be wrong. Time was running out swiftly as chief of the Division I was kept abreast of the latest first hand reports on what were happening in and around Sagarmatha Base Camp and the other upper Camps. Everything was going smooth until then. In one bad morning of the last week of April 2001, suddenly I was reported by my colleagues that Babu Chhiri fell down into a crevasse nearby Camp II while trying to capture some mystifying pictures in his camera. Like other many well wishers, it gave me a big jolt as I could not believe the news at first. However, as one of his close associate and officials of Nepal Mountai-neering Association confirmed me the news I had no other alternatives but to accept the tragic news with a sudden shock. Suddenly everything came tumbling down my mind of those days that I had associated with him, I was deeply remorsed and downcasted.

Advice of His Late Majesty the King
Before his venture to the ill-fated mission, Babu Chhiri Sherpa was kindly granted a royal audience by His Late Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shaha Dev. As I recalled he received a national flag from the Late King in order to place it on top of the world, so that our national flag would flutter on that majestic and lofty mountain heardling peace to Nepal and beyond. During his audience as reported to me by Babu Chhiri himself, Late King had advised him not to attempt Sagarmatha any more as he had already scaled the tallest heritage of the mankind for the tenth time. Yes, to be the ten time Sagarmatha summiteers is not a joke. In essence it was already an unparalleled and glorious accomplishment that one can achieve in the history of mountain expedition. Perhaps he wanted to go further and higher ! But then that's destiny.

World Record Setter and Trend Breaker
Babu Chhiri was one of the famous Nepali summiteers who was able to break and simultaneously set many world records in the history of mountaineering specially relating to Sagarmatha. His mountaineering career commenced right after he first successfully scaled one of the most popular trekking peak - Mera Peak in 1988. After that he never had to look back and instead kept himself always occupied in the same field with both name and fame. His primary focus remained mainly on those mighty mountains having the height of eight thousands meter or more. During his 13 years of active mountain career through 1988 to 2001, he summited successfully five eight-thousanders for twenty times half of which was for Sagarmatha and the rest for Kanchanjungha, Dhaulagiri, Shisha Pangma and Choyu. The year 1995 was a memorable and interesting year for his success stories as he successfully scaled Choyu (8,201meter) six times in that year and Sagarmatha (8,848 mt) twice a week in the same season of the same year.

It might also be interesting to note that he successfully scaled Sagarmatha ten times within a decade (1990 to 2000). In 1999, Babu Chhiri set one more world record by spending 21 hours and 30 minutes on the summit of Sagarmatha without using artificial oxygen. He was the one who set a world record by scaling Sagarmatha within the shortest span of time i.e. 16 hours and 56 minutes. As the saying goes records are meant to be broken and Babu Chhiri was no exception to this universal truth. This record of fastest climbing now rests with another courageous Sherpa of Nepal Pemba Dorjee Sherpa. Irrespective of this fact, it is heartening to know that Babu Chhiri has become a constant source of inspiration for many professional climbers, summiteers and many more who have devoted their lives in this field.

Immediate Relief
The then State Minister Mr. Mahadev Gurung had a strong soft corner for the mountaineers as he himself was a member of Nepal Mountaineering Association. After having confirmed news about untimely and unexpected death of Babu Chhiri, I immediately consulted Mr. Gurung and proposed to provide Babu Chhiri's bereaved family with some amount of money as an immediate relief on behalf of the Government which would be a token of appreciation and deep respect as well as tribute by the Government. He immediately accepted the idea. Both of us went to Babu Chhiri's rented room, met his wife Ang Phuti, their six daughters and offered her a cheque of one lakh Rupees. In my personal opinion, although that fund was nothing in terms of the money offered yet, that sort of quick response from the ministry carried a great degree of importance and recognition on the part of the Government.

Special Allowance and Educational Support
In order to ease the day to day life of the bereaved wife and small children of Babu and Ang, at the initiation of the then Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Government through the Budget Speech of 2001 July announced a special allowance package for the family of Babu Chhiri. Since then, Ang Phuti is being provided with an allowance of Rs. 10,000 per month as a special allowance for her family' subsistence on behalf of the Government. In fact such support in the form of monthly allowance was the first of its kind in the history of mountaineering in Nepal.

Another most pressing need of that family was obviously to give continuity to the children's education. Then some schools and some kind hearted personalities showed kind gestures by taking all responsibilities of giving education to all of the six daughters, which makes us Nepali proud to find that we still have such generous people around us.

He is Immortal
As the official concerned, I had no choice but to receive his dead body at Tribhuvan International Airport and to attend his funeral procession. Words can not express the sadness and grief that surrounded the well wishers related to the field of mountaineering. At that time Holy Lama prayed for eternal peace of his departed soul. But I am not in full agreement in this matter. My thought is that a good climber never dies and his or her name is always inscribed in the heart and memory of the general public. Thus, to me and to many other well-wishers, Babu Chhiri is still roaming around Sagarmatha and resting inside the core of our hearts. This is the reason why I do not wish to put late before his name.

We are Proud of Nepali Mountaineers
I am not a climber but I used to work for climbers for almost four years. It would not be an exaggeration if I say that I always had and still have a great amount of respect to all mountaineers in general and Nepali mountaineers in particular. My notion is that If we look at back we find that during early days of mountaineering, our Sherpas were widely known only as high altitude guides, helpers and porters and nothing more than that. That was pity. However time has now witnessed a big change on it. It is good to see nowadays that our climbers, mostly Sherpas have become able to climb Sagarmatha and other mountains on their own and we all Nepali must feel proud of the fact that many world records with regard to Sagarmatha have been set by our homemade mountaineers such as fastest climber, youngest climber, longest stayer on the top of the top, three time Sagarmatha women climber, three Sagarmatha summiteers from a single family and so on. In a way His Majesty's Government of Nepal is also encouraging all Nepali summiteers by the means of royalty free expedition permit (free of cost) and some other incentives and recognition schemes and it will likely to continue in a big way in the future too.

Immortal Heritage
In conclusion, Babu Chhiri was one of the greatest icons and legendry summiteers. He was never tired of expeditions. He devoted his whole life in mountaineering giving less priority to his family. We lost a courageous and untiring mountaineer at the age of very young. This was a irreparable and irrecoverable loss not only to Nepal but also to whole world. However, he will continue to become a great source of inspiration for many people who dream to be successful summiteers.

Last but not least, I wish to express my sincere thanks and sense of congratulations to Everest Summiteers Association (ESA) specially Shree Wangchu Sherpa and his whole team for taking every pain in making Babu Chhiri an immortal heritage in the form of Babu Chhiri Museum and Statue in the heart of the City of Kathmandu. Let us make it a holy pilgrimage site for those who have little mountaineering soul inside their hearts. I wish you all the very best !