By Pratibha Tuladhar, dpa =
Kathmandu (dpa)- When Elizabeth Hawley came to Nepal in 1959 as a journalist, the country had just opened up to the world, following the success of the first ascent of Mt.Everest in 1953.
She came back the following year ‘to see how Nepal would cope with the 20th century’ and never left.
Seated in her Kathmandu office in a neatly-ironed mauve shirt and khaki skirt, the 89-year-old maintains an archive of all expeditions that have climbed the Nepalese Himalaya, called the Himalayan Database. She also runs the Himalayan Trust, carrying forth the philanthropic work started by Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb Mt.Everest.
When Hillary and climbing partner Tenzing Norgay reached the summit in 1953, the New Zealander laid the foundation of a lifelong relationship with the people of Nepal.
“He considered Sherpas his friends,” Hawley says of the man who became an honorary Nepali citizen. “When he was physically capable he traveled to Khumbu [the Everest region] all the time.”
Hillary contributed in building 26 schools and two hospitals in Solukhumbu district, the seat of Everest. He also built several footbridges in the district and raised funds to rebuild the Thangboche monastery, which was destroyed by fire in 1972.
“Hillary understood the importance of the monastery for the people of Khumbu. It was their cultural centre,” explains the octogenarian, who is responsible for "maintaining the schools, sending up food, books, medical supply and equipment."
“Hillary raised the funds we needed while he was alive.”
Peter Hillary, his son and five-time Everest summitter, does that job now.
Hillary had made Khumbu his second home, returning every other year to make sure the schools and hospitals being established near the roof of the world.
“The impact Hillary had on the region is judged by the fact that during the Maoist revolt, there was not a single resident Maoist in Khumbu,” says Hawley, a former journalist.
Nepal witnessed a decade-long civil war from 1996-2006, during which villagers across the country joined the rebels.
The southern part of the district, Solu, remains relatively poor, with people trying to scrape out a living from the land. Many head abroad in search of work.
“For them, the Maoist promise of change was very attractive. But in Khumbu (northern part of the district), they had developed lodges for foreigners who went there for trekking and life was more comfortable.”
Today’s Everest scene, however, is a far cry from what the “modest and honest” Hillary had imagined.
From the "first innocent climb," as Tenzing Norgay Sherpa’s grandson Tashi Tenzing put it, the sport has changed. Each year, hundreds of people scramble up the world’s highest peak, fighting for a place on the summit or in record books.
“Too many people who don’t belong there and don’t know how to climb are going up. It’s slowing down others. You don’t start learning how to climb after you get on the mountain, which is what people are doing now!” Hawley said.
In 2013 alone, 515 successful summits were made, taking the total to 4,336 since 1953. Six deaths were added to a record of roughly 300 confirmed or suspected.
“The mountain doesn’t mind. It’s a rock. It’s insensitive. But it’s just a problem of how it affects the climbers themselves. They’re going to kill themselves if they don’t know what they’re doing,” Hawley draws a niche in the air with a hand.
The government has been under some pressure from environmentalists to limit the number of climbing permits and to manage the garbage on the mountain.
“There was no system of monitoring in the past, but since we made it mandatory for climbers to bring back garbage, things have improved in last 15 years,” says Sharad Pradhan, the spokesman for Tourism Board.
“Climate change has led to thinning of snow on the mountain because of which garbage and dead bodies have surfaced.”
Last year, Everest made headlines as experiencing the "world’s highest traffic jam as nearly 200 people competed to go up the mountain. But no criteria have yet been set by officials.
For Hawley, who has been keeping a count of the expeditions on 300 peaks since 1980, the spring gets busier each year as more and more people attempt to climb during the brief season.
Her job involves meeting with expeditions, getting bio-data of the climbers and meeting them again upon their return from the Everest, to record the successful summits made.
Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb Everest solo and later without oxygen, once reportedly said that Hawley knows Everest better than any climber.
Elizabeth Hawley first learned about mountains from Lt Colonel Jimmy Roberts, a retired British officer who was the first to set up the business of commercial treks in 1955. But she has never climbed a mountain.
“What for?” shrugs Hawley, who prefers her warm bed and meals at the table to trekking. “I never thought of climbing. I grew up in towns and cities. It’s not the thing for me.”
And yet, she worked closely with men like Tenzing and Hillary. Did they ever prod her?
“They knew better,” she says.
Hawley has only left Nepal three times since 1960, once for medical treatment in Bangkok, once to visit her family in the United States and the last time to attend Sir Hillary’s funeral in 2008.
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