Leading on the Frontline

1Courage

How an unexpected brush with the Nepali police tapped into hidden depths of courage

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa companion Tenzing Norgay pitched their tent beneath the summit of Mount Everest, at 27 900 feet. On the morning of the final climb, Hillary emerged from the tent to find his boots had frozen solid. After two hours spent thawing the boots, the pair set out for the summit with 30-pound packs on their backs. Faced with a 40-foot sheer rock face they remained undeterred and, edging themselves along a crack in this great wall of rock, which was later named the Hillary Step, they inched their way towards the summit.

You only have to say ‘Nepal’ and people’s eyes mist over with romantic stories of courage and adventure. They think of brothers-in-arms scaling the highest mountain on Earth. Or of Gurkha soldiers, with their terrifying kukri blades, striking terror in the hearts of their enemies. In more peaceful moments they might dream of Kathmandu, a city immortalised in the songs of hippie bands. Love and peace.

Then other facts jostle for room. Hillary himself devoted the rest of his life to raising funds to help the Sherpa people of the Himalayas. This is revealing, as is the sheer number of young hopefuls seeking to join the Gurkhas. As many as 28 000 try out for only 300 places each year. As they vie desperately for selection, each of them has one goal in mind: to get out of Nepal. Around 1600 Nepali men and women leave their homeland every day, bound ...