Help may finally be on the road to Nepal Serpas carrying heavy loads for foreign climbers through the tallest peaks of the world.
When the main climbing season begins next month on Mount Everest, shipping companies will test aircraft that can carry loads as heavy as 35 lbs at high altitudes, bring back the stairs to regulate climbing and remove the waste.
The goods that would normally take seven hours to be transported on foot from the Everest base camp to the camp can be moved within 15 minutes. By lighting Serpas’s burdens, aircraft operators hope that the chances of fatal accidents – which have increased as climate change has accelerated snow – can now be reduced.
“Sherpas carry huge risks. The drone makes their work safer, faster and more effective,” said Tshering Sherpa, whose organization, the Sagarmatha pollution control committee, is responsible for determining the route through the deadly Khumbu Icefall.
For about a year, operators have experimented with two drones donated by their Chinese manufacturer. The pilot test during this year’s Everest climbing season is considered an important opportunity to persuade shipping organizations to invest in more of the devices, which could be used to transport climbing tools and key objects such as oxygen cylinders.
While the cost of aircraft in advance may be high, their supporters say they will eventually reduce the cost of organizations.
Among those who could benefit the most are the experienced Serpas known as “ice doctors”. Before each climbing season, they assemble the Everest base camp for the discouraging mission to create a route through the shifting ice.
They bring heavy loads of stairs, correct them over crackers, and put on rope to climb the ice wall. Once the stairs and ropes are placed along the Icefall Khumbu in Camp II, other sherpas oxygen bottles, drugs and various basics in high camps. Sherpas make this dangerous climb at least 40 times a season, according to the organizers of the mission.
When doctors Icefall arrived at the base camp early this month, they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of drone pilots, who were still in Kathmandu, Nepal Capital, completing the flight clearance documentation.
“They invite us to work together early,” said Milan Pandy, a drone pilot associated with Airlift, a starting company in Nepal.
The catalyst for the use of drones was the last of the many deadly tragedies related to Sherpas at Everest. In 2023, three of the mountain guides were buried under a avalanche, as they set a rope for foreign climbers.
Their bodies could not be recovered. This could have destroyed the ice and threatened those who were trying to get the ruins, said Mingma G. Sherpa, the Imagine Nepal CEO, who led the mission to which Sherpas died.
His search for ways to improve security has drew him to Chinese shipping companies using drones at Muztagh Ata, a 24,757 -foot peak in China near the Pakistan border. The Chinese used vehicles to carry climbing tools, food and other critical objects to Camp II and brought them down.
“Chinese cooked food at the base camp and sent it to Muztagh Ata’s Camp II, where climbers could eat hot food,” Sherpa said. “I thought. Why not use aircraft on the south side of Everest, especially in the Khumbu Icefall section?”
At his invitation, a team from the Chinese drone Maker Dji went to Nepal in the spring of 2024 to test two Flycart 30 Delivery Drones.
The DJI team gave the drones to Airlift, the start of Nepal. Since then, Airlift has been testing the limits of drones in the most dangerous sections of Everest.
Drones supporters hope they can do more than objects. Since the shape of the ice continues to change, ice doctors are struggling to locate the previous climbing route, which complicates the determination of the new route each season. Drone operators believe they will be able to locate old paths using the geographical location.
The devices could also help compensate for the reduced sherpas numbers. More leaves due to security risks and better employment opportunities abroad.
But even with all drones they can offer, their price has given some shipping companies.
Once customs, batteries, a winch system and other parts are taken into account, a DJI drone can cost more than $ 70,000 – a huge amount in a poor country such as Nepal. The newly established companies such as Airlift are exploring options for the assembly of aircraft in Nepal, which say they could reduce their costs by half.
The miracle of a warm meal can lead to this effort to cut costs.
During a test last year on Mount Ama Dablam, a top of the Himalayas where aircraft were used to remove 1,300 lbs of waste, Dawa Jangbu Sherpa, a drone pilot, saw the first -hand potential. The foods sent by the base camp were still hot when it arrived at camp I.
“It takes six hours if you follow the normal route to reach Camp I,” Sherpa said. “But the drone is served food in six minutes.”
