Climber reconnects with caregivers, sherpa in post-earthquake Nepal

An earthquake wrecked the country of Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, on April 25, 2015. More than 8,500 people died.

Glenn Nyberg was talking with people in the country and watching drone videos of the carnage.

“It’s just resonating with me about how bad it is,” Nyberg said.

He made plans to return to Nepal, and last June flew back to Kathmandu. He wanted to find the doctors and nurses who cared for him while he was in the hospital there after his near-fatal mountain climbing accident in 2014.

But he also wanted to visit the sherpa villages and assess the damage caused by the earthquake. More than a year after the quake, Nepal is still trying to recover.

“Nepal is a country that’s been forgotten, if you ask me,” Nyberg said.

He went back through an earthquake service trek organized by Dan Mazur, his expedition leader. He reconnected with his caregivers and the lead sherpa during his climb, Jangbu.

With Jangbu, he visited the “wrong side of Everest,” where no tourists go. It took an 11.5-hour jeep ride and an extensive hike to reach Jangbu’s village of Patle, which is home to around 4,000 people spread out through the hills.

People were living in handmade temporary structures. They could not live in their homes because they weren’t safe, but if they started any rebuilding efforts, they would be disqualified from receiving relief money from the government.

While there, Nyberg stayed in a tent outside Jangbu’s house. They visited schools that were destroyed by the earthquake and delivered medical supplies to the clinics.

“What I witnessed back in this village was staggering,” Nyberg said. “They’re getting by, and they’re doing fine and they don’t whine.

“They are such hard people, all the way from kids all the way up … but it can be so much better.”

Nyberg wants to bring something back to Nepal, and his focus is Patle. He is hoping to work with Mazur through the Mount Everest Foundation to research the possibility of building a school to help change lives.

“They want a better life for their children,” Nyberg said of Patle’s residents. “They understand it’s hard.”

He is in the process of creating a plan, and he hopes to eventually lead a fundraising campaign.

“You see the faces of these kids, and you look at so much potential,” Nyberg said. “They don’t have that opportunity, and that’s what you want to try to give somebody, just an opportunity.”

Nyberg said that every day, he thinks of the people of Nepal.

“All I have to do is get up and look at where I am physically, and that’s a reminder of what happened, so that brings me back to Nepal and brings me back to the people of Nepal,” he said.

“My experience opened my eyes to the unconditional kindness and compassion of the Nepalese and sherpa people, and for that I am grateful.”

This story was originally published August 20, 2016 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Climber reconnects with caregivers, sherpa in post-earthquake Nepal."