Ngima Gyalzen Sherpa, a Nepalese mountain guide, still feels a chill in his heart when he remembers the moment he slipped and fell into a crevasse on Mount Everest, the highest summit in the world, in the spring of 2022.
The Khumbu Icefall is one of the most dangerous passages on Everest. It is a huge mass of giant blocks of ice that move slowly but steadily towards the valley and which climbers have to overcome on their ascent to the peak.
Most of them only manage thanks to local specialists who previously created a safe passage by installing a network of ladders and ropes - which they adapt again and again in a process that takes months during each Everest peak season, often at great personal risk.
Sherpa was part of such a team two years ago. And he was particularly fascinated by his job title at the time, as he says in an interview with dpa: "Icefall Doctor."
"Experienced icefall doctors can determine the strength and collapse risk of ice just by looking at it," says the 26-year-old. "They can do that just as well as a mother can tell what's wrong with her child when she sees it."
As an icefall doctor, Sherpa was working with a team of high-altitude workers opening the route through the Khumbu Glacier, the only access point to the summit of Everest from the southern slope in Nepal.
The mountain can also be summited from the semi-autonomous Chinese region of Tibet from the northern slope.
To analyse the ice, however, the experts need daylight, which can be dangerous, says Sherpa. Because as soon as the sun shines on the unstable structure, it becomes more fragile.
Deep fissures can open up between the blocks, and pieces break off and fall down again and again.
This is why most groups of adventurers set off with headlamps in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning to cross the Khumbu Icefall between the base camp and the first of four high-altitude camps.
Some icefall doctors have died in the course of their work. It is not known exactly how many. However, according to the expedition archive Himalayan Database, a total of around 50 people died in the Khumbu Icefall after being buried by avalanches or falling into deep crevasses.
This corresponds to around one in four deaths on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest.
Sherpa says that he fell into a deep crevasse when he grabbed the wrong rope due to a miscommunication with his team.
"For a moment, I thought this was it. It was my end. Mom came in my thoughts," Sherpa says. "Luckily for me, I was carrying climbing tools with me as we were working. I climbed out unharmed with the help of my friends."
His mother, Ang Dami Sherpa, initially inspired him to pursue a career in mountaineering. She made a name for herself as a runner in mountain marathons, which are particularly strenuous for the body due to the high altitude.
He was also inspired by the fact that his village was home to mountain guide stars such as Kami Rita Sherpa, who holds the world record for the most ascents of Mount Everest - he scaled the 8,849-metre peak a total of 30 times.
The surname Sherpa is used by members of the Sherpa ethnic group, native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal and Tibet.
While some icefall doctors have decades of experience, others are young, like Ngima Gyalzen Sherpa.
Once considered a formidable peak, Mount Everest is now listed among achievable summits, thanks to the commercial expeditions which have gained momentum in recent years.
At least 11,000 ascents have been recorded, according to the Himalayan database that compiles the records, and it continues to attract hundreds of climbers each year.
The credit for this success goes largely to the fixed permanent ropes, ladders, and an army of Sherpas who are hired for various duties.
Since his accident, Sherpa has no longer worked as an icefall doctor - but not because of the danger, he says. He simply earns more from his work as a mountain guide for foreign guests. He did not want to say how much.
In addition to the workers who open up routes, others are hired by expedition agencies as porters, cooks and guides.
"It is extremely hard work, although mountaineering is inherently risky no matter where or what you're doing," says Sherpa, who was a Buddhist monk before choosing mountaineering as a profession in 2019.
Another Nepalese mountain guide and rescue worker, Narendra Shahi Thakuri, states that icefall doctors are not valued enough.
"Besides being hard and challenging, [it is] also not appreciated enough and [is] prone to criticism because your work would be questioned if something happened," Thakuri says.
While the number of climbers has been increasing, interest is falling among Sherpa youth when it comes to mountaineering work largely due to safety concerns and pay.
It's mostly people like Sherpa who can handle the challenges involved because they are highly adaptable and the mountain climate is their home.
Not so for many: If you want to climb Mount Everest, you wind up walking past frozen corpses.
More than 300 people have died on the giant peak since the first ascent in 1953 - and many bodies are still on site, partly because salvage operations are time-consuming and expensive.
“I needed a job and mountaineering work was all that was there. But I also chose it because it's something I like and enjoy,” says Sherpa.
And those with experience are also leaving the job, shifting to other work or going abroad for work.
The crisis is so severe that it's slowly becoming a norm to use helicopters to transport climbers and supplies like tents, oxygen and food rations up to base camp instead of porters.
This year, Nepali authorities approved a plan to use helicopters to take and bring back all supplies, following a few weeks of delays in the opening of the icefall route which is also the main access point for Mount Lhotse (8,516 m) and Mount Nuptse (7,861 m).
Kami Rita Sherpa, who has worked as a rope fixer for several years , says guides are in short supply, especially the good ones with training and experience. “It is especially hard to find workers with difficult jobs such as icefall doctors and rope fixers because of risk and low pay,” he said.
While some Sherpa earn up to 1.5 million Nepali rupees ($11,250) per season, many earn as low as 300,000 for about three months of hard work. That is much more than what average Nepalis earn but is still insufficient due to the extremely high risk they face.
Ngima Gyalzen Sherpa, who has climbed several peaks, including Mount Everest, Ama Dablam (6,812 m), and Annapurna IV (7,525 m), now works as a climbing guide. He quit the work of an icefall doctor after a better offer from expedition operators.
"I took the job because I needed work and also because I was always curious about the work of icefall doctors. That was a great experience which I am proud of. I don't have any plans to work as an icefall doctor now, but who knows what will happen in the future," Sherpa said.
