Ravens circling Lakpa Sherpa, who pauses for tea and a moment of reflection at Camp 1 on Ama Dablam (at 18,700ft /5,700m) in the Everest region of the Khumbu Valley. This image was first published as the opening spread for a story called "Sorrow on the Mountain" in National Geographic Magazine in 2014.
This was a special story for me spanning 90 days on assignment, over 3 trips and 16 months, living with the Sherpa community and traveling the Khumbu Region with them. I knew I needed to get high-altitude climbing images of the Sherpas who worked on Everest helping westerners reach the summit, but my priority was to spend most of my time in the villages living with families and photographing daily life, culture, and spirituality away from the Everest Circus. I didn’t want to risk my life on Everest in lines of hundreds of people (struggling up a mountain they shouldn't even be on), and I knew that nearby Ama Dablam was as, if not more, dramatic looking and would allow me more freedom to shoot without fear of death. This camp above the clouds at Camp 1 was a special place and allowed me a look at how these elite climbers place the ropes up to the summits that make all the Western climber’s ascents possible.
Sadly at the end of my assignment, before the story was set to be published, an avalanche above the Khumbu Icefall ended up killing 16 Sherpa climbers on the mountain. The story about Sherpa Culture became the story of “Sorrow on the Mountain.” (Lakpa did not die in that incident but many who he and I both knew did.)
Photographed in 2013, 6300 x 4200px.
