Copenhagen summit turns nightmare for oldest Everest climber

KATHMANDU - While there is a growing debate about the result of the UN summit of world leaders on climate changes, for one man, Everest hero Min Bahadur Sherchan, the Copenhagen meet is now indisputably a nightmare.

The 78-year-old climber, who won worldwide media acclaim last month for wresting back the title of the oldest man to climb Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world, from his Japanese contender Yuichiro Miura, is still recovering from the after-effect of his participation at the Copenhagen meet, thanks to an uncaring bureaucracy.

Sherchan, who is hard of hearing and is advised not to travel on his own, was flown to Copenhagen by the Nepal government as part of its Save the Himalayas campaign. The Nepali grandfather, who conquered Mt Everest in May 2008 when he was 76 years and 240 days old, was part of the march of Everest summiters in Copenhagen Dec 11.

Nearly 30 Everest climbers from Nepal staged a rally in full climbing gear to draw the world’s attention to the melting danger faced by the Himalayas due to global warming.

The march was part of the campaign by the Nepal government that also held a cabinet meeting in the Everest foot hills to highlight the perils of people living in the Himalayan region.

However, once the Everest climbers’ march was over, Sherchan was left to fend for himself. Though he was put on a flight back home, when he landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu Monday, there was no one to accompany him home.

“I was shocked,” said Nanda Bahadur Singh, spokesman of the 77 Years Senior Citizen Mt Everest Expedition, the group formed last year to raise funds for Sherchan’s Everest expedition.

“He is hard of hearing and if left alone on the streets, could be run over by vehicles or be robbed. We never let him go out on his own.”

However, after the Nepal team returned to Kathmandu, none of Sherchan’s flight companions bothered to reach him home or even see him off in a taxi.

“Sherchan went to the taxi stand carrying his luggage,” Singh told IANS. “But when the cabbies demanded four times the normal fare, he decided to take a public bus.”

When the bus dropped him in Lalitpur district, it was evening and the area was in the dark due to the growing power outages.

As the dauntless 78-year-old began trudging home with his two bags, he was soon overtaken by a group of people who punched him in the face and threw him to the ground. Then they made off with his smaller bag that contained his money, video camera and more importantly, a host of important documents.

“The bag contained Sherchan’s passport, his marriage and birth certificates,” Singh wailed. “It also contained the certificate awarded to him by the Guinness authorities as the oldest man to summit Mt Everest.”

The certificate was one of the most valuable objects since even after the dogged Everest ascent, the septuagenarian had to battle doggedly to claim the title.

As he was not familiar with the Guinness procedures, he did not submit all the documents needed to claim the title. Consequently, it went to Japanese climber Miura, who summited the peak two days later at the age of 75.

Singh and his organisation then spearheaded the campaign to provide the missing documents to Guinness and reclaim the title.

Last month, Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal unveiled the corrected certificate sent by the Guinness to Sherchan at a public programme in the capital.

“We are shocked at the insecurity,” Singh said. “That a man, who is one of Nepal’s national icons, can be attacked with impunity. We are also shocked that though he went to Copenhagen as a state guest, the state did not make any arrangements to see him back home, despite his age and hearing difficulty. He could have been even run over.”

Nepal’s participation at the Copenhagen Summit has been under fire at home for the jumbo team of over 80 delegates, who also include ministers’ grandchildren and cronies.