Angtharkay
in Darjeeling in 1935 at the start of the Everest expedition led by
Eric Shipton (Photo: Dan Bryant / Royal Geographical Society)
“Outstandingly the best of all the Sherpas I have known … he was a
most loveable person: modest, unselfish and completely sincere,” the
mountain explorer Eric Shipton once said of Angtharkay, the first of the great mountaineering sirdars (Sherpa leaders), who can be considered the grandfather of them all.
Born and raised in the village of Khunde above Namche Bazaar in the
Khumbu region of Nepal, like many Sherpas of the 1920s and 1930s he
emigrated to Darjeeling in northeast India in search of work with
mountaineering expeditions, which in those days all used Darjeeling as
their home base rather than Kathmandu. While on his third major job, the
1933 British Everest expedition, he was recognised by Shipton for his
strong performance at high altitude and outstanding leadership. He
became Shipton’s trusted right hand man, accompanying
him on his two mountain reconnaissance expeditions to the Nanda Devi
Sanctuary and the Shaksgam region north of K2. He also served as sirdar
on three more Everest expeditions.
In 1950 he was sirdar for the French expedition to Annapurna,
which became the first to climb an 8000m peak. He showed great wisdom
by turning down his opportunity to be in the summit party with the
following immortal line, quoted by Maurice Herzog in his classic book about the expedition:
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