A harrowing experience he will never forget is preventing Pemba Gyalje, a Nepalese Sherpa and one of the most accomplished mountaineers in the world, from attempting a climb that is well within his physical limits. On a visit to Kerry, he told KillarneyToday.com why that is
He has scaled Everest seven times in seven years and is considered one of the bravest and most accomplished high-altitude climbers in the world.
But the harrowing memories of witnessing his great Irish friend and 10 others perish on the world’s most notorious mountain has taken a devastating toll on Pemba Gyalje, a valiant Nepalese sherpa and a real-life hero who has embarked on some incredible adventures.
The terrible legacy of that fateful day has been such that the 40-year-old professional mountain guide doubts that he will ever again be able to tackle the daunting K2, standing at 8,611m on the Pakistan-China border, which is known as the Devil’s Mountain.
“I am 200 per cent certain that I am physically capable of reaching the summit of K2 again. Technically, it would not be a problem but psychologically, there is too much to remind me of what happened that day,” said Gyalje.
That day was 1 August 2008 when 18 hardened climbers from across the world – including 37-year-old Ger McDonnell from Kilcornan, Co Limerick – reached the summit of K2 after a gruelling, exhausting expedition that had lasted several weeks.
A series of catastrophic events that led to an ice wall collapsing in a dramatic avalanche exacted a deadly toll with 11 of the 18 climbers killed as they scrambled to descend from the summit.
Triumph quickly turned to tragedy and it was left to five sherpas, led by the vastly experienced team member Pemba Gyalje, to attempt a bold mission to rescue their colleagues.
They had become trapped in an area known as the Death Zone, deprived of oxygen, suffering from delirium, utterly exhausted and staring death in the face in icy temperatures. The hero sherpa managed to lead some climbers to safety but, devastatingly, 11 great explorers never came home.
Gyalje, who recently spent several weeks in Killarney where he launched a book based on the disaster, co-written with adventurer and Beaufort resident Pat Falvey, will never be able to clear his mind of the harrowing sights he witnessed as McDonnell, an engineer and experienced climber, and 10 other international mountaineers perished as their escape plan unravelled with lethal consequences.
“It is very uncomfortable for me to remember what happened. I saw so many terrible things and it is very upsetting to reflect on it,” sighed Gyalje who continues life as an internationally accredited sherpa on other mountain ranges, well away from K2.
Deep down he has a longing to again conquer the killer peak that deprived him of the close Irish friend he first met when they climbed together in the Himalayas in 2003.
But he insists he has to put his family before personal ambition and his relationship with his wife, Janzmu, and their two young children, Jigmet (10) and Kunga (4), is too precious to risk depriving them of a husband and father.
“The danger is too great. I have to think of them and I have to respect the memory of my friend Ger and the others who didn’t make it down six years ago,” he said.
Gyalje remembers McDonnell as a hero for putting others before himself as he shunned an opportunity to descend to help climbers that were seriously injured. Hit by a deadly avalanche, the brave Limerick man – who was very well known in Killarney mountaineering circles – perished in the snow, his body never recovered.
Pemba Gyalje and Pat Falvey have spent what they describe as “five years of sweat and tears” getting his memories of what happened that dreadful day down on paper and the end product is an enthralling read, The Summit: How Triumph Turned to Tragedy.
10 per cent of profits from sales of the book will go to the education of sherpas and high-altitude porters in Nepal.
The K2 disaster was also the subject of a dramatic new documentary movie, directed by Nick Ryan and based on interviews with Pemba Gyalje.
“Attempting to climb K2 is like playing a game of Russian Roulette,” said Falvey.
“One in every four people that try it will die but this was the worst disaster of all. This book is fulfilling a promise that Pemba made to tell the true story so that lessons can be learned from what happened to Ger and the others.”
