Sherpa widows to climb Mount Everest to inspire single women

The widows of two sherpa climbers, who died on Mount Everest, will try to climb the world’s highest mountain to complete the unfinished ascents of their husbands and hopefully inspire other single women, the pair said on Wednesday.

Furdiki Sherpa’s husband died while fixing ropes for his foreign clients on the 8,850-metre (29,035-ft) mountain in 2013.

She said she would make a joint bid in May with Nima Doma Sherpa, wife of one of the 16 sherpas killed in an avalanche near the base camp in 2014.

“We are going to climb the mountain to close our pain and to honor our husbands by reaching the peak they could not,” the two said in a statement.

Nima, 36, said both climbers had completed training and scaled two smaller peaks. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains.

Everest, which straddles Nepal-China border and can be reached from both sides, has been climbed by 4,833 people since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953, according to a post by Everest blogger Alan Arnette.

Climbing officials say only about 500 of the Everest climbers were women.

Furdiki, 42, who like most sherpas goes by her first name, said the death of her husband resulted in immense economic hardship.

“The death of my husband is not the end of my life,” the mother of two children told Reuters. “I am undertaking the expedition to spread the message that widows can accomplish even such hard adventures.”

Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Nick Macfie