For the first time in over a year, the sounds of yak bells and foreigners鈥櫶齠ootsteps are filling the听foothills of Mount Everest. As the coronavirus spread last spring, Nepal locked down its borders听on March 24, 2020. The country stayed closed until this month, when it听fully opened its听mountains to climbers who pass a COVID-19听protocol. According to Nepal鈥檚 Department of Immigration, nearly 15,000 trekkers and tourists arrived in the country in March, over half of them coming from nearby India. (In normal years, that number is usually closer to听150,000 for the same time frame.)

As of mid-April, Nepal had issued 338 permits for Everest climbers, spread across 36听teams. But more听climbers are still arriving, and听the count is expected to听approach the 2019 record of 382 permits. Including Sherpas and other support staff, Everest Base Camp will grow into a small city of over听700 people in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, China has chosen to extend听its 2020 closure听and听plans to keep听the听Tibet side of the mountain off-limits to all foreigners this spring. Chinese national teams are allowed, however, and one is already at base camp on the Tibet side.听

Several commercial operators chose to sit out this season. Adrian Ballinger, cofounder of the California-based Alpenglow Expeditions, said, 鈥淎s we were planning Everest 2021 on the Tibet side, the lack of information caused us to question if we could run an expedition safely. In the end, we decided not to put our clients and staff at risk, given the unknowns. We never considered the Nepal side, because of the dangers in the Khumbu Icefall.鈥澨鼼uy Cotter, managing director of New Zealand鈥揵ased 国产吃瓜黑料 Consultants, said, 鈥淵es, we are all suffering due to the loss of income and the potential collapse of our businesses, but at what cost would we sacrifice others by introducing the virus to the Khumbu and other regions?鈥� Cotter recently announced he would suspend his company鈥檚听operations until the pandemic allows business to return to normal.

On April 13, the Nepal Ministry of Health reported听a total of 280,984 COVID-19 cases听and 3,058 resulting deaths throughout a population of 29 million. The majority of the cases have been听in the capital city of Kathmandu and along Nepal鈥檚 southern border with India, and not in the northern part of the country, where the Himalayas are located.

Many foreign operators have sold out the available slots on their teams, similar to a typical season. Austrian Lukas Furtenbach, the owner of Furtenbach 国产吃瓜黑料s, touts the use of technology, including several thousand virus test kits and a trained expedition doctor, as steps they鈥檙e taking to manage any outbreak. 鈥淲e will have a tight self-contained bubble, allowing no visitors, and strict protocols throughout the expedition,鈥澨鼺urtenbach told me. Ryan Waters of听Mountain Professionals feels similarly.听鈥淥ur local Nepali staff is eager for us to return,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 feel that we can stay pretty contained as a group.鈥�

Nepal鈥檚 guidance for visitors has been confusing over the past several months and only became apparent as climbers made their way听to Nepal. They will need a negative PCR test no more than 72 hours before arriving in Nepal and another test once there. According to Nepal鈥檚 , once the test results are negative, they will be allowed to continue their trip; otherwise, they will be required to听quarantine in a hotel for seven days. However, many climbers told me that they spent as little as two days in Kathmandu, and that enforcement of Nepal鈥檚 rules was virtually nonexistant.

With limited climbing across the globe in 2020, there was significant pent-up demand for it this听season. Many climbers applied last year鈥檚 deposits or payments to this year鈥檚 climbs. Overall prices stayed steady, but Nepalese听guide companies hurt badly by the pandemic offered deep discounts to make up for last year鈥檚 losses. Early reports suggest that tourism has a long way to go to recover, with many tea houses closed or almost empty primarily due to few people trekking this spring.

In 2021, women climbers represented 21 percent of the current permit holders, up from 11 percent historically.听

A few climbers are seeking to add to their celebrity status with an Everest summit. Singer Mike Posner听wants to use the mountain听to advance his social agendas. Former NFL player seeks to finish his attempt on Everest, but he鈥檚 added Lhotse immediately after to separate himself from former NFL player Craig Hanneman, who听summited Everest in 2012, becoming听the first former major-league athlete听to summit the tallest peak on earth. (Hanneman finished his Seven Summits climb in 2019).

Climbers from the Middle East are climbing much more often in the Himalayas. A 16-person team from Bahrain led by Sheikh Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa and supported by Seven Summits Treks is on Everest. That group听summited the 8,000-meter听Manaslu听last autumn. Also, Qatari Sheikha Asma Al Thani wants to be the first woman from her country to top out on Everest. The youngest on the mountain this season is 19-year-old from Pakistan.

Still others are eager to set records. Kami Rita Sherpa will be going for a record 25th summit.听Briton will attempt to match the record for most Everest summits by a non-Sherpa, currently set at 15 by American Dave Hahn.

Perhaps taking advantage of a slower-than-usual season, Nepal鈥檚 army will conduct a trash collection听at the base camps of Everest, Lhotse, Pumori, Ama Dablam, Makalu, and Dhaulagiri.

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Opportunities to be transported around the world through the pages of a good read have been a balm for adventure seekers. And with so many great releases this year, we had some trouble narrowing down our list.听So we asked eight authors whose own books recently took us to incredible places to recommend some of their favorites. These titles听will sate you until it鈥檚 safe to travel again.

鈥楻辞肠办补飞补测鈥� by Diane Cardwell

According To: Bonnie Tsui, author of four books, including听 and听.

Bonnie Tsui, who examines the听draw humans have to water in her most recent听book,听Why We Swim, returns to a similar听theme in her recommended pick. In ,听Diane听Cardwell鈥檚 focus is on staying above water鈥攍iterally and figuratively鈥攁s she navigates a 鈥渇ailed marriage鈥� and fevered career. 鈥淭his book is all about starting over听and finding the thing鈥攕urfing!鈥攖hat transforms that life into something hopeful and new,鈥澨齌sui听says.听Through a physically challenging endeavor, Cardwell helps readers understand how she has weathered the storm and offers hope to others trying to do the same.听听

Why We Need This Now: In a year when the pandemic has added a layer of difficulty onto all of our lives, Rockaway听serves as a guidepost to survival and exploration in our own backyards. 鈥淒iane Cardwell鈥檚 experience of figuring out how to surf while living in New York City is a great read in a time when we are all desperately seeking newness closer to home. It also has a healthy dose of joy and altered perspective,鈥� Tsui adds.

鈥楲eave Only Footprints鈥� by Conor Knighton

According To:听Mark Adams, author of four books, including and .

鈥淓very human on earth is going to need a long vacation next year, which, if rosy vaccine forecasts come true, could be the greatest road-trip summer in decades. In this charming survey of dozens of national parks, Conor Knighton self-medicates a broken heart by soaking up the wonders of America鈥檚 greatest outdoor hits,鈥� explains Mark Adams, whose prolific travel writing career has included journeys that led him to听search for听the lost city of Atlantis and听follow in听the footsteps of explorer Hiram Bingham III in the mountains of Peru.听

Why We Need This Now: For Adams, offers a worthy distraction from the exhausting news cycle we鈥檝e been faced with this year. 鈥淜nighton听will have you thinking about better uses for your pent-up energy. Like pitching a tent.鈥�

鈥業 Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories鈥� by Laura Van Den Berg

According To: Morgan Jerkins, author of three books, including 听and .

One of Time鈥檚 100 Must-Read Books of 2020, Laura Van Den Berg鈥檚听 of female-focused horror stories may not seem like a travel narrative at first (unlike the writer鈥檚听previous novel, ) but Morgan Jerkins says the author鈥檚 deft portrayal of Florida is just one example of how it is. 鈥淔lorida is a character itself in the book. Van Den Berg deftly details the heat and nature听as well as the people. It鈥檚 very distinct, and I鈥檇 put her in the group of young esteemed writers like Alissa Nutting and T Kira Madden听who are carving out Florida as a necessary place in the literary canon,鈥� Jerkins says.

Why We Need This Now: According to Jerkins, Van Den Berg鈥檚 ability to explore complex female emotion and transport readers to each destination offers readers a timely salve. 鈥淚 think this is the perfect book about travel in 2020 because the author sets stories in different locations, both domestic and international, and the way in which she explores fear might be the sense of understanding we need in such an unprecedented time.鈥�

鈥榃anderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape鈥�听by Jini Reddy

According To: Gina Rae La Cerva, author of .

In Jini Reddy鈥檚 memoir , the London-based Canadian writer takes a magical journey through her adopted home鈥檚 natural landscapes to cope with听feeling like an outsider. 鈥淪ometimes the best adventures happen in our backyards,鈥� Gina Rae La Cerva says.听鈥淩eddy follows her heart and a good dose of serendipity to explore Britain鈥檚 natural wonders. This book is a celebration of the joys of roaming and discovering who we are when we come face to face with nature鈥檚 mysteries.鈥�

Why We Need This Now: La Cerva, whose own book is a world-spanning search of what foraging means to different cultures, understands how important connecting to nature is for our well-being. 鈥淔or many people, the lockdown has made escaping into the wilderness more challenging. Reddy shows us that even the most mundane landscapes contain their own wild magic. I also love that this book is about a woman of color exploring her connection to nature, including the role of her Hindu upbringing in that relationship and her own feeling of otherness.鈥�

鈥楿nderland: A Deep Time Journey鈥�听by Robert Macfarlane

According To: Tom Zoellner, author of eight nonfiction books, including and .

鈥淟ess a physical adventure than a startling intellectual journey, invites us to become conscious of a base fact of our everyday existence: the ground we stand on conceals unseen chthonic layers,鈥� says Tom Zoellner about Robert Macfarlane鈥檚 latest offering into underground spaces, which range from historic remnants, like nuclear waste burial chambers in Finland and the Paris Catacombs, to places that take us beyond easy听accessibility, like Norway鈥檚 sea caves.听鈥淢acfarlane is like John Wesley Powell without the suntan, taking us on a psychological spelunking odyssey,鈥澨齔oellner听adds.听

Why We Need This Now: As the world has seemingly shrunk during the pandemic, the idea of exploring our subterranean offerings gives a whole new meaning to appreciating our backyards. 鈥淢acfarlane gives us reasons to look deeper into pedestrian landscapes鈥攏ot just the picturesque ones鈥攁nd the language we use to make sense of them,鈥澨齔oellner听says.

鈥楽pirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon听Through North America鈥檚 Stolen Land鈥�听by No茅 Alvarez

According To: Maggie Shipstead, author of three books, including and the forthcoming (May听2021).

A quest for connection鈥攖o the land and his ancestors鈥攊s at the heart of the running journey that No茅 Alvarez takes readers on over the course of . 鈥淭he route [that Alvarez ran] was designed to pass through as many tribal lands as possible, and he found himself running alone on gravel roads or simple trails crossing through mountains, rainforest, punishing desert, volcanic moonscape, and sometimes urban centers, contemplating the relationship between Native peoples and the land taken from them,鈥� explains听Maggie Shipstead, whose own travelogue, set for release next May, also examines the connections forged on a journey across time (Prohibition through modern day) and place (America, New Zealand, and England).听

Why We Need This Now: 鈥淎lvarez is the child of Mexican migrants who endured decades of back-breaking labor [in Yakima, Washington] to make ends meet, and he weaves his parents鈥櫶齭tories into his account of the run, as well as those of the other [Indigenous] runners, many of whom have led crushingly difficult lives. For a lot of us, 2020 has been a year of grappling with the cruelties of the American system while also trying to make sense of mass suffering, and Alvarez鈥檚 memoir鈥攄eeply personal and moving in its rawness鈥攄oes both,鈥澨齋hipstead听says.

鈥楾he New Wilderness鈥�听by Diane Cook听

According To: Rahawa Haile, author of the forthcoming 听(2022).

In her memoir about the Appalachian Trail,听set for release in 2021, Rahawa Haile shares her experience of finding herself anew in wild frontiers. Diane Cook鈥檚 does the same for its female protagonists who are fighting for their survival. 鈥�The New Wilderness is a speculative novel involving a group of people who seek refuge in the last remaining wilderness when the air in the city is deemed too toxic for children,鈥� explains Haile about the buzzy dystopian debut. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an exhilarating and immersive work, centered on a mother and daughter, that deftly jumps between the physical and interpersonal challenges faced by those who have left everything behind for a chance at struggling anew.鈥澨�

Why We Need This Now: The book鈥檚 focus on the necessity of working with our neighbors鈥攅ven those with whom we don鈥檛 share a similar life experience鈥攖o preserve the planet is timely. According to Haile, 鈥淭his book is perfect for anyone who spent 2020 cooped up at home due to the pandemic while nursing a healthy anxiety about the climate crisis. If you wish to lose yourself in a story about the natural world set in the long-term consequences of unchecked extractive industries, this is your novel.鈥�

鈥楨at the Buddha鈥�听by Barbara Demick

According听To: Monisha Rajesh, author of .

A trip to North Korea introduced Monisha Rajesh to听Barbara听Demick鈥檚 Nothing to Envy, which she describes as 鈥渁 gripping examination of the so-called hermit kingdom through the voices of six defectors.鈥� In , Demick uses that same ability to turn out a 鈥渇air and measured narrative鈥� to Tibet. 鈥淭his time, she鈥檚 pieced together stories told by Tibetans from Ngaba County in China to shed light on the struggles that have taken place since China occupied Tibet [in 1950],鈥� Rajesh explains. 鈥淭racing and tracking down hundreds of eyewitnesses to events between 1958 to present day, she has conducted exhaustive interviews that allow her to recreate everything from the smell of burning villages and the screams of tortured grandparents to softer moments of salty yak butter glistening in tea.鈥� Rajesh, who also visited Tibet by train for her own book, appreciated Demick鈥檚 even-handed approach. 鈥淲e see the raw untouched land pre-invasion and witness the destruction of the natural surroundings as time goes on.鈥�

Why We Need This Now: 鈥淒emick presents a nuanced take, explaining that many Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, were initially open to Chinese assistance when it came to improving the lives of Tibetans, but not to the point that their culture and religion should be eroded,鈥� says Rajesh about current-day . 鈥淭his book is a very relevant read that听sheds light on the way in which minorities are perceived and treated by the Chinese government and the reasons behind [their persecution],鈥澨齊ajesh adds.

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Here are some adjectives that come to mind when I think about Mount Everest: expensive, frustrating, problematic, fraught. The state of the climbing industry on the planet鈥檚 tallest mountain disgusts me sometimes: the crowds and the down-suited lineups; the money (who spends it, who receives it, who needs it the most); the reports of climbers stepping over their gasping, dying peers on their way to the summit. Observing from afar, it can seem like Everest today breeds everything that鈥檚 ugly in outdoor pursuits.听

And yet, like so many of us, I can鈥檛 look away. I tore through a pair of new books about two very different expeditions. Both of them fueled my mixed feelings about the mountain.

Ed Caesar鈥檚 听tells the story of Maurice Wilson, a British war veteran who, in the early thirties, came up with a bold idea to fly a small plane from England to Everest, land on its lower slope, and solo-climb the rest of the way, becoming the first person to reach the summit. There was a major flaw in Wilson鈥檚 plan, though鈥攈e was neither a pilot nor a climber.听

The resulting journey was remarkable. Wilson, undaunted by his own ignorance, took flying lessons and managed to pilot his plane as far as India before British imperial officials, keen to avoid a diplomatic disaster over restricted access to the mountain, rushed to ground him. (Neither Tibet nor Nepal was keen on foreign climbers back then.) With his plane seized, Wilson disguised himself as a local priest and proceeded overland, illegally sneaking into Tibet and walking 300听miles听to the mountain鈥檚 north side to start his climb. He got much further in his mission than you might expect, though Everest wouldn鈥檛 be successfully summited for nearly another two decades after his attempt.听

Caesar, ,听tells the story in impressive detail, drawing on years of archival research, and he brings to life a historical character who is both fascinating and maddening. The narrative follows Wilson as he survives the trenches of World War I and then travels the globe for years, mostly breaking hearts and spending other people鈥檚 money,听before fixating on Everest. It鈥檚 gripping at every turn, but reading about him left me torn: I was听put off by his arrogance听but pulled in by the sheer chutzpah of the effort. There were no crowds on the mountain in 1934, when Wilson took his shot, but his hubris and dangerous obsession with the summit would be at home there today. Still, despite Wilson鈥檚 misguided stubbornness, it鈥檚 impossible not to root for him.

Jennifer Hull鈥檚 听recounts another ill-fated Everest expedition. In April 2015, just a year after 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall, veteran mountain guide Dave Hahn and a group of clients were resting at Camp I. Suddenly,听a massive earthquake struck, triggering听an avalanche that destroyed much of Base Camp below them听and burying听Everest in tragedy for the second climbing season in a row. Hull, a writer based in New Mexico (where Hahn also lives during the off-season),听weaves together Hahn鈥檚 background and life in the mountains, his group鈥檚 trek to Base Camp, and, ultimately, the quake and the avalanches it unleashed.听

The book wades into terrain that some climbing stories prefer to avoid. Hull is blunt about the financial incentives听and lack of other prospects听that drive many Sherpa guides onto the mountain, risking their lives to support the ambitions of wealthy foreign climbers. She does not shy away from Everest鈥檚 inequities听and the ways in which they are painfully exposed, particularly when people die. But she also shows how Hahn and his fellow climbers听display听the best of what mountaineering asks of its practitioners: a powerful drive, paired with skills and abilities honed over years of effort. And she captures the rewards, too: laughter shared with a team, the satisfaction of pure exhaustion, and a fleeting glimpse at something so much greater than ourselves. Hahn, so experienced and well regarded, so committed to his group, is the perfect vehicle for the story.听

Carefully researched and sensitively written, Shook is a vivid reminder that those infamous conga lines of Everest climbers are made up of individual people, each with their own dreams and goals. Hull鈥檚 work听showcases the care and pride that great mountain guides鈥擲herpa and otherwise鈥攈ave for their profession, and it offers a window into a community that outsiders can be quick to judge.

You could argue that the thirties were a purer time in Everest climbing compared with today鈥檚 circus, but I found Hahn to be a more compelling, if quieter, figure than Wilson. His story听shows that ego and money aren鈥檛 the only things left on Everest.

听 听 听 听

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On Thursday, a Nepalese government official told the听 that all spring Mount Everest expeditions have been canceled due to coronavirus concerns. The official spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity but on Friday, a notice听from Nepal鈥檚 Department of Immigration confirmed the rumor.

鈥淐onsidering the declaration of [the] World Health Organization regarding the scale of COVID-19听spread,鈥� the notice reads, 鈥渁ll the permits for mountaineering expeditions issued, and to be issued for spring 2020 season are suspended.鈥澨�

Nepal is also suspending all on-arrival tourist visas through the end of April.听

鈥淭his is disappointing news for both our expedition leaders and our clients who have trained for months for this year鈥檚 climb,鈥� Lukas Furtenbach, founder of Furtenbach 国产吃瓜黑料s, said in a release. 鈥淲e continue to emphasize safety and wellbeing above all…so we understand the dire consequences a COVID-19 outbreak at Base Camp would have. Sadly, we have to agree that this is a responsible call to make right now.鈥�

Gordan Janow, director of programs at Alpine Ascents International, said that they鈥檇 already moved their trekking trips to the fall and next spring. Their Everest trip was set to run with three guides and six clients.

Mount Everest sits on the border between Nepal and China.听On Wednesday听the Chinese government announced that no expeditions would be allowed to run on the northern, Tibet side of the 29,029-foot mountain.听

This will be the quietest year on Everest since 2015, when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the region on April 25, just as climbers were settling in to Base Camp. That year was the first since 1974 without a single summit during the spring season.

Nepal鈥檚 economy relies heavily on the tourism industry,听. Everest permits earn the government around $4 million each year. A single two-month season on the world鈥檚 highest peak can earn a Sherpa up to seven times the country鈥檚 average annual salary of $700.听

鈥淭his is a big deal, it鈥檚 devastating to the industry,鈥� said Adrian Ballinger of Alpenglow Expeditions, who already canceled his Everest expedition after China put an end to the spring season on the north side of the mountain. 鈥淭he money that comes in not just from the climbers, but from the trekkers who go during the Everest season supports the entire year for every family I know in the Khumbu and many people in Kathmandu. The loss of that income is going to be really, really difficult for the locals here.鈥�

Ballinger and his team are trying to figure out what partial wages they can offer the 23 Sherpa staff they were set to employ this season. 鈥淥f course I would like to give 100 percent of what the clients paid back,鈥� said Ballinger. 鈥淏ut when canceling two weeks, or 30 days before a trip, that鈥檚 not the right call. We have to share in this pain.鈥�

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This week the听Nepalese听government 听that it will soon begin restricting visas on arrival for travelers coming from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Italy in an attempt to keep the coronavirus outside its borders. But as many mountaineers听plan to head to Nepal for the upcoming Mount Everest season, the news raises听questions about how the deadly virus could impact climbing on the world鈥檚 highest peak.听

So far听COVID-19 has infected more than 100,000 people in dozens of countries and territories, with the 听numbers听in China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Italy. Worldwide, the number of deaths caused by the virus has risen to more than 3,000, and on Tuesday the World Health Organization said that health officials are in 鈥渦ncharted territory鈥� in battling its spread. Though only has been reported within Nepal鈥檚听borders, the nation听lacks sufficient health care and infrastructure to fight a widespread coronavirus outbreak. The听new travel restriction, which will require people from the five countries to apply for a visa before arriving to Nepal听and provide the Nepalese听government with health certificates, will go into effect on March 10.

Mount Everest straddles听the border of Nepal and Tibet in the Himalayas. The 29,029-foot听peak鈥檚 spring climbing season typically starts around early April, with hundreds of climbers traveling to the region each year hoping to complete the ascent. Due to coronavirus concerns, it鈥檚 estimated that the number of permits issued to climb Everest this year will be around half of what they were in 2019, a Nepalese听expedition operator told Alan Arnette, 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Everest contributor. Last year听381 permits were issued, but fewer than 250 are expected this year. Only 50 permits are expected on the Tibet side, according to Arnette.听

Climbing Mount Everest is already dangerous, with climbers at risk of frostbite, broken bones from falls, and altitude sickness. This year鈥檚 additional risks can鈥檛 be ignored. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e sitting at Everest Base Camp at 17,600 feet, your immune system gets compromised because of the lack of oxygen,鈥� Arnette said.听鈥淓ven a small cut on your finger doesn鈥檛 heal until you get back down to an oxygen-rich environment. I think the risks are really high, and people are taking a gamble if they climb this year.鈥� Arnette added that Everest ER doctors expect to have a difficult time distinguishing the Khumbu cough, which is associated with high altitudes, from COVID-19, which causes fever, coughing, and shortness of breath.听

The Chinese government has not听instated travel restrictions to Tibet or closed access to any of its peaks, including Everest鈥檚 north side, Shishapangma, and Cho Oyu. (There has only been , which is an autonomous region of China.) Many sporting events in China scheduled for this spring, however, have been rescheduled or canceled due to the coronavirus, including the 鈥檚 world cups in Chongqing and Wujiang; , the race on the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc circuit, in Yunnan; and the in Yanqing.听

鈥淢any Chinese climbers plus those from Japan and Korea have already canceled their [Everest] climbs on the Nepal side,鈥� Arnette wrote on his . 鈥淚鈥檓 told several operators are switching from Tibet to the Nepal side and a few are considering canceling altogether.鈥� Arnette noted听that the coronavirus alone isn鈥檛 stopping climbers from starting on the Tibet side. In 2019, China also .听

U.S.-based companies, including听, , and听, and and the European company , are still planning for a regular season and have not received any cancelations for their trips. Nevertheless, there were 905听Everest summits from all routes in 2019, and Arnette said he expects about half of that for 2020. 鈥淚t will be the quietest year on Everest for a long time and actually the best year to climb for clients,鈥� said Lukas Furtenbach, the owner of Furtenbach 国产吃瓜黑料s.听

Some aren鈥檛 as worried as Arnette about the prospect of contracting the virus.听鈥淕iven that most Everest climbers are generally pretty robust, meaning that they鈥檙e very fit people who are training very hard, and they鈥檙e ready to take on a very physical endurance challenge, I would think that the virus wouldn鈥檛 affect the typical demographic of an Everest climber,鈥� said听Garrett Madison, expedition leader at Madison Mountaineering. Madison said his team is diligent about keeping听camps clean, including using sanitizer and听emphasizing hand washing and avoiding coughing and sneezing near others. If anyone on the expedition is sick, he added, they would be isolated or quarantined.听

The U.S. Department of State has issued a for China, and many commercial airlines have already reduced or suspended travel to the country. The agency also issued travel advisories for , , and . Travelers are highly encouraged to avoid traveling to , due to the virus and other safety concerns. If you think you have the virus, .

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On a path winding around the Dalai Lama鈥檚 temple, in a village near Dharamsala, India, called McLeod Ganj, I met a monk who taught me the meaning of om mani padme hum鈥斺�渁ll hail the jewel in the lotus鈥濃�攚hile he scattered handfuls of rice on top of a concrete wall for the resident monkeys. Next to the complex, carved into cedar-forested hillsides, were monuments honoring the most important living figure in Tibetan Buddhism, who relocated here in 1959 after fleeing the Chinese.

When the monk finished, we walked around the temple together, passing through thousands of gently waving prayer flags that formed tunnels connecting stupas and frescoes. We saw an interpretive display that explained how the government of Communist China had invaded Tibet in October 1950, sending 40,000 troops across Tibet鈥檚 eastern border and easily routing the nation鈥檚 small army. Nearly a decade of discontent with the new de facto government came to a head in March of 1959, when China quashed a civilian uprising in the capital, Lhasa. It called this brutal takeover a 鈥�.鈥�

We also saw a small building that housed a huge, gold-embossed prayer wheel. A steady flow of locals鈥攏uns, monks, and laypeople鈥攕pun it by hand, releasing scriptural wisdom into the universe. But the听placid scene around the temple changed at a covered pavilion near the room with the prayer wheel. Inside was a wall of pictures听as wide and tall as three billboards. Some of the images were听of blacked-out human silhouettes; others showed distinct faces. Most were听men, a few women. Some looked barely older than children.

There was听little explanatory text, so I felt confused when I saw it, until I zeroed in on a picture in the upper left-hand corner of the middle panel. It showed a young Tibetan man running toward the camera, his face frozen in pain, his arms rising off his body. He was engulfed in flames, and now I knew: the wall commemorated dozens of the estimated 164听Tibetans who over the past 20 years have burned themselves alive to protest Chinese occupation of their country.

Maybe I shouldn鈥檛 have been shocked, since self-immolation was the reason I鈥檇 come to Dharamsala in the first place. Six months earlier, I鈥檇 had tea with my neighbor , a professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado who has studied the history and culture of Tibet and the Himalayas since the early 1990s. Carole, now 50, is a jovial bookworm with a high tolerance for risk. As part of her ethnographic fieldwork, she鈥檚 lived for months at a time in communities in Nepal and India and has traveled to Tibet five times. She once sneaked into Tibet on a 60-truck Chinese army caravan, posing as a backpacker. And she was in Tibet with New York Times correspondent Nicholas Kristof when the Soviet Union fell in 1991. 鈥淚t was surreal,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e were in a Communist country, and because of the information blackout, no one but a handful of us knew.鈥� Carole is one of the leading scholars in the West on the Tibetan resistance, and she has published extensively on the Tibetan culture and empire, refugee citizenship in the Tibetan diaspora, and self-immolation.

I knew Carole casually; I鈥檇 shot the bull with her at neighborhood gatherings in our hometown of Nederland, Colorado. We frequently discussed Nepal and Tibet, and one day I arranged to interview her about the work she does with refugee communities like Dharamsala, which is home to a large concentration of Himachal Pradesh鈥檚 44,500 exiled Tibetans. As we sat in a creekside caf茅, our conversation shifted to the subject of protests by fire.

As I鈥檝e learned, Buddhist self-immolations didn鈥檛 originate in Tibet but in Vietnam. Non-Buddhist immolations have also occurred in such disparate places as the U.S., Czechoslovakia, and Tunisia. The first one prompted by the occupation of Tibet happened in 1998, after Indian police forcefully ended the 40-day Unto Death Hunger Strike he was involved with. Years passed before the next Tibetan self-immolation, which took place in 2009, inside Tibet, following riots that occurred during the lead-up to the Olympics in Beijing. In 2011, Tibetans killed themselves with fire. By April of 2012, the total had jumped to 98. 鈥淭hat year was the absolute worst,鈥� Carole told me, 鈥渁nd now, seven years later, it鈥檚 in the 160鈥檚.鈥�

That afternoon I watched my first video of a self-immolation, which I found online. It didn鈥檛 show the process from start to finish; it was of a man who was already burning. As the fire consumes him, he staggers forward like Frankenstein鈥檚 monster until he falls to the ground, writhing. In some of these videos, you hear screaming. But the screen always seems to go black before the protestor dies.

You can鈥檛 unsee a person so committed to a cause that they鈥檒l douse themselves with gasoline or kerosene, go to a public place, light a match, and burst into flames. But the images lack context and fail to give you the full story about the reasoning behind the act, the resolve to do it, or the drama of premeditation. All you see is flesh burning, mouths screaming, bodies falling, and, at times, the person clutching a Tibetan flag or a picture of the Dalai Lama.

It鈥檚 also unclear what these sacrificial gestures accomplish. Even when videos are smuggled out of Tibet鈥攚here the vast majority of self-immolations have happened鈥攖hey rarely cause a hiccup in the international news cycle. Almost all of the videos from inside Tibet come from citizen journalists. If they make it out of the country, they鈥檙e sent to Dharamsala, where activists do their best to verify credibility. But the videos can be downplayed or discounted, because news organizations want the security of using their own journalists and photographers. The situation results in limited information reaching a generalized audience and the feeling, at least for me, that a sort of scrim lies between the events and their dissemination, making it hard to know what鈥檚 true or false. This may explain why such a large number of people who I know to be in tune with world events had never heard of self-immolation before I brought it up.

Soon after our conversation, Carole and I made a plan. We鈥檇 track down families of self-immolators to learn their stories.

Actually entering Tibet was out of the question: Carole has written extensively about opposition to China鈥檚 policies, and it鈥檚 not feasible for her to get a visa anymore. She spent several weeks investigating what might happen if we obtained Chinese visas and went, and she was told by sources that even if we made it past the border, Chinese police would be waiting at our hotel.听

I then investigated going alone, looking up several tour operators and asking one to let me embed on a trip and talk to Tibetans undercover. The owner said no, writing:

鈥淭he Chinese government always knows when stories are written regarding Tibet. Even if we took every precaution we could, the risk to local people that you would interact with, along with my staff, is just too high. If they were found to have interacted with you, my staff and the people you talked with could face ten or more years in a hard labor prison. I truly wish there was something that we could do, but there isn鈥檛.鈥�

With reporting in Tibet next to impossible, Carole and I would go to India to interview family members she鈥檇 tracked down with the help of her vast network of Tibetan friends and colleagues. Nearly 70 years after the Chinese takeover, we wanted to learn about these martyrs, what drove them, what happened after they perished, and why the sacrifices continue, even when it seems like they aren鈥檛 achieving their stated goals鈥攖o shock the world into caring about Tibet and to convince leaders of superpowers that it would be worth it to try and force China to give the country back.

Our first stop in India was far from Dharamsala鈥攊n Asansol, a metropolitan area of 1.2 million people 120 miles north of Calcutta. There we found the parents of a 16-year-old Tibetan schoolboy, born and raised in India, who鈥檇 . Then we flew to Dharamsala.

On the day when we visited the Dalai Lama鈥檚 temple, Carole and I stood mute before the wall of martyrs. Then we visited another monument, this one recognizing a pair of Tibetans who self-immolated during protests in India. Past them we saw a looming bronze statue of a monk in flames, his face turned skyward in an expression of defiance. Next to the monastery, we entered a museum dedicated to Tibetan history. In one room, a short video of Tibetans burning alive loops over and over. I watched it alongside two blue-eyed tourist kids who couldn鈥檛 have been older than ten.

I wanted to mutter that this probably wasn鈥檛 appropriate viewing for children. But I checked myself, because I was glad they were witnessing a truth about Tibet that the brochures and travel magazines gloss over. Since China absorbed the country, Tibetans have endured rape, beatings, disappearances, imprisonment, theft of land, theft of language, and suppression of religion. This year, Freedom House, an independent human-rights watchdog group, ranked Tibet as the place in the world鈥攁fter Syria鈥攂ecause China鈥檚 authorities are being 鈥渆specially rigorous in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans, including manifestations of uniquely Tibetan religious belief and cultural identity.鈥�

This can be hard to reconcile when you hear media reports about how China has been so good for Tibet, modernizing an impoverished, feudal state with infrastructure and economic opportunity.

According to figures from the Chinese government, which may be inflated, Beijing has pumped billions into development in the Tibet Autonomous Region (a Chinese province that鈥檚 now the most developed part of the ethnocultural region of Tibet), which has translated to skyrocketing GDP growth. China built a train connecting Beijing to Lhasa, making industrial goods easier for rural Tibetans to acquire. China says there鈥檚 been an explosion in tourism to Tibet, growing from 1.8 million visitors in 2005 to 20.2 million in 2015. Even remote parts of the Tibetan plateau have been modernized with paved roads and cell-phone service. And according to a recent NBC News story, China has renovating Tibet鈥檚 major monasteries and other religious sites since the 1980s, with an additional $290 million budgeted for the same purpose through 2023.

But to say that China has benevolently restructured Tibetan life for the better and that Tibetans have 鈥渂enefitted鈥� from all that it鈥檚 done is debatable, Carole says.

鈥淭he way Tibetans are 鈥榮ucceeding鈥� is through having an entire cultural way of life, of being in the world, of thinking about the world, canceled in favor of a Chinese communist way, or more ironically, of Chinese communist capitalism being held up as beneficial to Tibetans,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his is a classic case of colonialism. If you can master the colonizer鈥檚 language, mindset, and strategies for success, then perhaps you can do well. But in the end, you鈥檙e still a Tibetan鈥攁n oppressed minority鈥攁nd marked that way by the Chinese state in everything you do.鈥�

Three days before the temple visit, Carole and I stood in the lobby of our hotel in Asansol, bowing and shaking hands with Nyima Yangzom, 64, and Thupten Tashi, 71, the parents of Dorjee Tsering, the 16-year-old who self-immolated on February 29, 2016. Dorjee鈥檚 death had caused an international stir, partly because of his age and partly because, on the same day he acted, an 18-year-old burned himself inside China. Both died.

That evening we went to Nyima and Thupten鈥檚 humid two-room flat to break the ice before interviewing them about Dorjee. To get there, you pass a stable where local Indians take sick, injured, and abandoned cows, and Tibetans live in crude rooms above them. Many Tibetans migrate here from Indian cities far away to sell their wares, including sweaters. In Nyima and Thupten鈥檚 flat, hundreds of them, purchased on credit, line the walls. They try to sell them all in November and December. Then they head back to their home, 900 miles away, in Dehradun, India.听

If you ignore the socioeconomic challenges Tibetans experience in India鈥攕uch as their limited abilities to acquire property and passports鈥攍ife in exile had been generally tolerable for Nyima and Thupten. As of 2015, two of their three kids had completed secondary school, and it seemed like their youngest, Dorjee, would follow. But Dorjee was different. Speaking with a smile through our translator, Nyima said that, as a child, he was 鈥渁 terror.鈥�

鈥淲hen he was two years old, when he was taken to the marketplace, if he wanted something, he would grab it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f not given it, he would calm down only if someone gave him a toffee. Everyone said, 鈥楧o something about this guy, he鈥檚 not normal!鈥� But then, when he grew up to class five and six, he was very generous.鈥�

At Dorjee鈥檚 boarding school in Mussoorie, Nyima said, there were children who had no money and would 鈥渉ardly go home during the holidays.鈥� So teenage Dorjee gave away his sneakers, backpack, cell phone, and textbooks. When he returned home for a break, Nyima would scold him. His response might have pleased the Dalai Lama.

鈥淲hen you see those children without money, gifts, or parents to visit, you know you should help them,鈥� he鈥檇 say. If Thupten chided him for making poor grades, he鈥檇 flash a smile and add, 鈥淚鈥檓 good at heart and morally very strong. So which person would you rather pick? Someone good at his studies or loving and kind?鈥�

Toward the end of Dorjee鈥檚 15th year, his attention shifted to something else: Tibet.

鈥淎t that time, he started telling Thupten, 鈥業 want to do something for my country,鈥欌�� Nyima said. 鈥淎nd Thupten would reply, 鈥楽tudy hard, work for the government, fulfill the Dalai Lama鈥檚 wishes.鈥欌�� When Dorjee said the same things to Nyima, she told him, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e too young, you need to finish your studies. And if you do something too drastic, you鈥檒l make us sad.鈥�

Dorjee kept giving clues, but they missed鈥攐r avoided鈥攖hem. During one of his breaks, while he, Nyima, and Thupten were visiting his uncle at a settlement for elderly Tibetan refugees, he made a decision.

One morning as Nyima made breakfast, Dorjee hovered near her in the kitchen. 鈥淚 have to go, I have to go,鈥� he said. She thought he was talking about his return to school. He asked for money, and she gave him some, thinking it was for a haircut.

He left and was gone several hours. When he returned, he told Nyima and Thupten, 鈥淚 love you, ama. I love you, pala. I鈥檒l be OK. Don鈥檛 worry.鈥澨�

That evening, Dorjee hugged his mother. The next morning, he hiked away from the camp. Out of sight, he hoisted a can of kerosene out of some bushes, poured it over his shoulders and torso, and lit himself with a match.

The next thing Nyima remembers was hearing people in the settlement shouting, 鈥淪omething is running! Something burning!鈥� She looked out the door and saw her son鈥檚 face twisted in pain as flames engulfed his body. She threw her arms around him, to protect his head from the rising fire, but someone pulled her off. She and others helped Dorjee to an outdoor faucet. They doused the flames ravaging his body, but it was too late: he鈥檇 been mortally damaged by burns and died in a Delhi hospital three days later.

It might seem strange that a teenager sacrificed his life for a country he鈥檇 never visited. But Dorjee鈥檚 teachers told Nyima that, at 15, he started spending all his free time in the school library. They assume he was educating himself about the atrocities China has inflicted on Tibetans. In a Dorjee made just before he died, he said he hoped that 鈥渃ountries like UK, America, Africa, wherever, they will pay attention to Tibetans and support us and help us.鈥�

Dorjee鈥檚 death still torments his parents. The skin under Nyima鈥檚 arms aches from the burns she sustained trying to save him, and Thupten has developed an unexplained tremor in one hand and loss of hearing in an ear. Both listened somberly when the Dalai Lama told them, in person, to be proud of Dorjee, that he was no longer their son but a son of Tibet. But before we leave, Nyima tells us that if she and Thupten had known how Dorjee felt, they would have 鈥渦sed that activism in a positive way to influence him.鈥澨�

鈥淵ou can do positive for Tibet,鈥� she would have said. But now they just miss him.

That night in our hotel room, as traffic screamed by and our jet lag finally crushed us, I swam in the bottomed-out devastation of what Carole and I had just witnessed. Nyima鈥檚 pain was so overwhelming that she couldn鈥檛 stop it from geysering out of her body. She rocked on the ground and slapped her forehead as she seemed to relive every moment. At one point, when describing her burns, she mimed the skin under her arms melting. And as she spilled the story into the room, Thupten sat opposite her on the floor, silently crying.听听

Not in all my of years of reporting had I witnessed such visceral pain, nor had Carole in her decades of research. In our room, clutching a yellow legal pad, she tried to explain how interviewing Thupten and Nyima had been different.听

鈥淭his was devastating in a whole new way, because of the incomprehensibility of being the parents whose child self-immolated,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 mean, most of the focus from scholars has been on the self-immolator鈥攐n their body in the burning state and on the words they wrote or spoke, their testimony. But there鈥檚 Nyima, sitting next to us, wanting to tell the story so badly, and yet feeling the pain through the telling. It鈥檚 an incredible sadness. As a mother, you tell it in the hope that your son鈥檚 act will affect some good in this world, and yet you can never really know.鈥�

Two days later, we escaped the heat of Asansol and entered the cool air of Dharamsala, a city perched on the edge of the Himalayas at 4,780 feet. On the winding streets, weaving between startled-looking tourists shopping for dashboard statues of Shiva, Tibetan Buddhist nuns and monks walked with intention, some holding malas鈥擝uddhist prayer beads鈥攁nd others carrying bags of chicken. The mala holders slipped beads through their fingers in time with their prayers for all sentient beings, while the chicken keepers pulled chunks of raw bird from beneath their robes and fed them to packs of dogs that range this steep-hilled city freely.

Perhaps as a result of being doted on, the dogs were the mellowest I鈥檇 ever met. And the Tibetans living in the diaspora are friendly to a fault. Every morning just before dawn, streams of them walked past my teahouse window, chanting on their way to do kora (meditation while circumambulating) around the temple. The sound started as a low hum in the purple light of predawn, then formed into words鈥�om mani padme hum鈥攁s the crowd drew closer. On four mornings, I left the comfort of my bed and joined them, greeted by smiles and quick bows from the devout.

The Dalai Lama espouses a to enlightenment, which for many people means a daily stroll outside the monastery or on a treadmill if it鈥檚 raining. Hip Tibetan youth also work out, post disappearing videos on WeChat (the Chinese social-media service), dream of both returning to Tibet and immigrating to the West, and uphold their devotion to their religious and spiritual leader.

Most lay Tibetans in the diaspora look nothing like the image Westerners have in mind: They鈥檙e 21st-century, iPhone-carrying Buddhists. One morning I spotted a group of them doing squats and stretching near the temple path, decked out in track pants and sweatbands. We exchanged waves, and I asked what they were doing. One mimed running. They鈥檇 jog their laps around the temple, maybe do some plyometrics in the tunnel of prayer flags leading to the stupa. Then they鈥檇 go to their jobs at the Central Tibetan Administration complex or the Tibetan Children鈥檚 Village school or in one of the many businesses lining the narrow streets snaking into the mountains.

Dharamsala is the administrative center of the . The Tibetans have their own parliament, court system, schools, and hospitals. In recent years, Tibetans lucky enough to obtain foreign visas have begun migrating to cities around the world. But those who stay relish the fact that the current Dalai Lama, who they believe to be the 14th reincarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, lives among them.

鈥淥n any given day, everyone knows if he is home or not,鈥� Carole says. 鈥淎s Tibetans have dispersed around the world, it鈥檚 almost like a new importance has come to Dharamsala. It鈥檚 now a site for bringing together Tibetan activists from other countries, all in an interest to free Tibet from China.鈥澨�

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama鈥檚 official stance on the situation is that he doesn鈥檛 seek independence for Tibet, but autonomy. For many Tibetans, though, no resolution will be achieved until their countrymen inside Tibet are free to worship as they please, the Dalai Lama can return as their spiritual leader, and they can return to their own country.听

Two days later, Carole and I met Gyaltsen Rangzen, a 31-year-old dressed in a traditional Tibetan wool jacket, at a crowded Dharamsala restaurant. A lama gave him his name, but he chose the surname Rangzen, which means 鈥渋ndependence鈥� in Tibetan, after making a daring escape from the province of Amdo, north of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in 2005, when he was 15.

The plan he鈥檇 devised was harrowing. He and his 14-year-old sister, Yepo, caught a ride from Amdo to Lhasa. There, through family friends, they met a driver who transported them 460 miles to the Nepalese border. They鈥檇 paid 40,000 rupees each (around $560) for the assurance of safety, but even so, when they reached the Chinese-occupied town of Dram, filled with soldiers on the lookout for escapees, they had to skirt it by hiking through dangerous Himalayan terrain. Though they slept on the ground and ate food that made them sick from both ends for seven days, they were lucky and survived. In 2006, near that same place, climbers on the Tibetan side of Cho Oyu, the world鈥檚 sixth-highest mountain, watched as on a caravan of 70 fleeing Tibetans, killing a 17-year-old nun.

When Gyaltsen and Yepo finally reached the border, Nepali guards stripped off their clothing, searched their belongings and bodies, and stuffed them in a jeep driven by a soldier. They spent nine weeks in a Tibetan reception center in Kathmandu, then made their way to Dharamsala.

Gyaltsen now works at the Indian headquarters of Students for a Free Tibet, where he earns enough to barely support himself, Yepo, and a family member new to Dharamsala, an ex-political prisoner who Gyaltsen helped escape. His crime? Owning a CD recorded by a Tibetan artist who writes pro-independence lyrics. His punishment? Arrest, beatings, and an 18-month imprisonment, during which he was forced to sew Tibetan prayer flags for a business. He arrived in Dharamsala two weeks before I did and wasn鈥檛 adjusting well to the food or culture.

鈥淏ut people can endure so much more difficulties,鈥� Gyaltsen said. Which is why he sometimes wonders why his cousin, Lobsang Jamyang, lit himself on fire.

Gyaltsen and Lobsang grew up together. Every summer they鈥檇 spend three months with their families, digging for the caterpillar fungi popular among the Chinese as an aphrodisiac. It was a place free from Chinese influence, where the little boys, ages ten and eight, could play. Gyaltsen remembers Lobsang being impulsive and funny: One day, Gyaltsen鈥檚 father promised Lobsang a lollipop in exchange for good behavior. When days passed and no lollipop appeared, Lobsang demanded, 鈥淲hen are you giving me the candy?鈥�

鈥淚鈥檒l give it to you when I鈥檓 ready,鈥� Gyaltsen鈥檚 father said.听

鈥淲hen will that be, on your deathbed?鈥� Lobsang asked.

After Gyaltsen escaped to India, he kept tabs on Lobsang through his own brother. As a boy, Lobsang had entered a monastery to become a monk. But at age 12, he moved back to his parents鈥� home in Amdo. 鈥淎 Tibetan鈥檚 greatest wish is to care for his parents as they get old,鈥� Gyaltsen told me.

But that meant a smaller life for Lobsang during a time of great political upheaval. In 2008, during the lead-up to the Olympics in Beijing, hundreds of monks and other Tibetans of Lhasa to protest Chinese occupation. This grew into the biggest protest since the late 1980s. The Chinese government fought violent crowds in various regions with tear gas, imprisonment, and beatings. By the end of 2008, more than 100 Tibetans had been killed and thousands more arrested. Self-immolation came to Tibet early the next year, when a monk from the Kirti Monastery burned himself in a city called Ngaba.

By then the internet had made its way to the most remote regions of the country, and news of the self-immolation spread. 鈥淪elf-immolations make you feel really, really bad about the Chinese government,鈥� Gyaltsen told us. 鈥淭he idea it will fix something spread.鈥� Between 2009 and 2011, Amdo alone saw at least nine self-immolations. Gyaltsen believes Lobsang got swept up in the idea that this act was the only one powerful enough to make a difference.

On January 14, 2012, Lobsang paid a motorcycle driver to take him eight miles away to Ngaba. Along the road sat a monastery, where he stopped to do kora. Getting back on the bike, he told the driver he had three messages for all Tibetans: They should unite politically. They should preserve their language. And they should always get along interpersonally. They drove the rest of the way to Ngaba, and while the driver was getting lunch, Lobsang slipped into a public restroom, doused himself in kerosene, and re-emerged on fire.

鈥淭he driver knows it鈥檚 him because of his coat, and at first, he tried to do something,鈥� Gyaltsen said. 鈥淏ut we Tibetans believe if someone is self-immolating, don鈥檛 try to stop him, because if you are half-burned, the Chinese will take you away and harm you.鈥�

This isn鈥檛 an exaggeration: according to the International Campaign for Tibet, Chinese police have beaten, shot, isolated, and disappeared self-immolators who survived. That鈥檚 why they sometimes drink flammable liquid instead of just dousing themselves. They want to explode.

Lobsang was still alive when police arrived and tried to cover him with a sheet. He got up, ran, and fell, so they covered him again. 鈥淭hen another group came with wood sticks with spikes attached to the end,鈥� Gyaltsen said angrily, 鈥渁nd they beat him while he was burning.鈥� Police took him to a provincial hospital, where he was pronounced dead two days later.

Gyaltsen is proud of Lobsang鈥檚 sacrifice. But he also sent a note to his village that said, 鈥淒on鈥檛 self-immolate just because my cousin did. Don鈥檛 consider him a hero. If you really want to do something good for Tibet, go to school, preserve the language, and be a good Tibetan.鈥�

Two days after our meeting with Gyaltsen, I went with Carole to Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies, a school started by the Dalai Lama that caters to both lay students and monks, with an emphasis on Tibetan literature and language. We arrived to hear a grown monk teaching several young monks the style of debate used in the Dalai Lama鈥檚 particular sect of Buddhism (Gelug), as birds flitted around the perfectly manicured campus. It was an idyllic scene in a city in which I felt completely at ease and safe at all times and one that encourages kindness and compassion at every turn鈥攍iterally, from murals painted on countless walls to an ambulance dedicated to the chicken-eating dogs.听

But there鈥檚 plenty of underlying pain, too, which I saw during a Night of Culture hosted by Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), at which several locally famous poets read about loss, wandering, longing, and resistance; in a group of very old men who鈥檇 escaped Tibet long ago and now met daily to pray, drink milk tea, and reminisce about their true home; and in the newly escaped boys and girls at the Tibetan Children鈥檚 Village school, who were largely unaware of the conflict they鈥檇 been secreted away from but felt the sadness of their displacement acutely.听

At another SFT-sponsored event, I met my next relative of a self-immolator, this one a man named Tenzin Tsundue, who is known internationally for his writing and political activism. Carole introduced me to him, and he said he was having a party.听

Tsundue, whose cousin self-immolated in 2017, in the 1990s and was captured and imprisoned for months. He鈥檚 written several highly regarded books, including a collection of poems called Crossing the Border and Kora, which contains an award-winning essay about refugee life, 鈥淢y Kind of Exile.鈥� He鈥檚 a big shot, and when I asked if I could interview him before the soiree, he huffed and puffed a bit at first.

鈥淪o you are a journalist?鈥� Yes. 鈥淲hat do you want with me?鈥� I said I wanted to talk about his cousin.

鈥淲ell, you can come along, and if I have time, we can talk.鈥� I slipped into a taxi between him and Carole, and we went to his home, a ramshackle compound near the Central Tibetan Administration that he calls Rangzen Ashram. There, several members of the SFT, including Gyaltsen, were already half-drunk on Kingfisher beers. Tsundue soon opened up, inviting me and several others into his bedroom/office, where he held court and talked about his cousin, Tenzin Choeying.

At 19, Choeying was more mature than Dorjee Tsering, and as a college student in Varanasi, India, he seemed poised for a rewarding life. But the difficulties of his childhood can鈥檛 be overlooked. Like thousands of Tibetans, he grew up in a camp, in a place in southern India called Kollegal. He knew that he would never gain Indian citizenship, because his parents refused to let him pursue it.

鈥淭he tragedy of exile life is that families are so scattered,鈥� Tsundue said. 鈥淚鈥檓 ashamed to say that, because I am an activist living in Dharamsala, and Choeying was a student studying in Varanasi, I know more about him from his classmates than from my own interactions.鈥�

Choeying鈥檚 friends apparently considered him the most socially conscious person in their group, but he also loved playing soccer, sharing ideas, and generally having fun. Whether in the classroom or at a university conference, he鈥檇 be the first to arrive and the last to go, setting up tables, dialing in the mic, sweeping floors. He thrived at the university, delving into his own culture and language. 鈥淏eyond this it鈥檚 hard to get a deep explanation about anything regarding Choeying,鈥� Tsundue said. 鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 so touchy. They die. No one is happy.鈥�

All he knows is that, , Choeying and some friends were on their way to a university lecture by Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration. At one point, Choeying told his friends to go ahead鈥攈e鈥檇 forgotten something in his dorm room. After the others moved on, he ducked into a public restroom where he鈥檇 stashed two soda bottles full of gasoline. He doused himself and lit a match. Tsundue described what happened next, which was caught on campus security cameras.

鈥淒own a long corridor came a ball of fire,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 literally running into the garden and falling. But you can see a flag of Tibet, and the ball is screaming, 鈥楲ong live the Dalai Lama!鈥� Then it collapses.鈥�

Campus gardeners ran to Choeying鈥檚 aid, drenching him with water from a hose. When the students rushed from the lecture hall, they saw him on the ground with a scorched Tibetan flag. Someone called Tsundue鈥檚 sister, who notified Tsundue. He dropped everything to go and care for Choeying.

Choeying lived eight days, and for most of that time, Tsundue was with him. Though he had horrific burns over much of his body, his doctors thought he might survive, because there was no apparent damage to his internal organs. But over the next few days, as Tsundue watched, he saw 鈥渄ark patches spreading from Choeying鈥檚 neck up to his chin, up to his face. It was as if the fire was spreading now.鈥� On day eight, Choeying started to have breathing problems. 鈥淣ow very fast,鈥� Tsundue said. 鈥淪o we are trying to comfort him. And he鈥檚 talking in small gasps of air. 鈥楪ive me water. Give me water. There is a lot of pain. Where is my mother?鈥欌�� This continued throughout the day, and Tsundue knew he was dying.

At that time, Tsundue said, Choeying started saying, 鈥�Bod, Bod, Bod,鈥� meaning 鈥淭ibet.鈥� Tsundue had a picture of the Dalai Lama with him, and he held it before Choeying鈥檚 eyes. He said, 鈥淟ook here, look, this is His Holiness.鈥� Choeying gazed, repeated 鈥�Bod,鈥� and then died with his eyes open, staring at the Dalai Lama鈥檚 image.

Here, Tsundue paused. For a second, I thought he would continue. But he just stared at the floor and shook his head.

What happens during a self-immolation is almost incomprehensible. First, the kerosene or gas poured onto clothing enables ignition. The resulting third-degree burn鈥攖he most intense kind, producing charred or whitened skin鈥攃an be less painful than milder burns. That鈥檚 because the damage is so deep that the nerves die. Deep-thickness burns can cause the skin to contract, and if it鈥檚 over your rib cage, it can tighten to the point that it inhibits breathing. A cut can be made to allow inhalation, but by now the body is shunting all blood and fluid to the burned area, and because healthy skin usually holds fluid in, it leaks out. Eventually, burn victims suffer organ death, respiratory failure, or sepsis, and without proper pain medication, they die one of the most painful deaths imaginable.

No one knows if Ngawang Norphel, the last self-immolator I learned about during my trip, knew this. I met his uncle, Tenzin Phelgye, inside a quiet Dharamsala restaurant. With the place empty and the shades drawn, he told me the story of his 22-year-old nephew, who self-immolated on June 20, 2012. Before the interview, I鈥檇 watched it on video.

In a village square, a man is on fire. Flames lick his head as another man approaches. This man ignites himself off the first, and falls, succumbing to the heat. The first man remains standing, then runs, then stumbles, and then rises to run again. As he continues to burn, a woman in traditional Tibetan dress throws a khata鈥攁 white silk scarf used as a religious offering鈥攊n his direction. He鈥檚 still burning when the clip ends and another clip, with his name on it, appears in the YouTube queue.

We鈥檙e now in a room inside a monastery. It鈥檚 empty except for a disembodied voice and the bedridden form of Ngawang, whose face is mostly burned away. The voice coming out sounds like someone being strangled underwater. Words on the screen tell you what Ngawang is saying.

鈥淢y people have no freedom of language. Everybody is mixing Tibetan and Chinese. What has happened to my land of snow?鈥�

He asks about the man who burned with him, a friend named Tenzin Khedup. (Khedup is dead, but a monk says, 鈥淗e is fine.鈥�) Ngawang says in Tibetan, 鈥淲e two sworn brothers. We won鈥檛 fail next time. If we don鈥檛 have our freedom, cultural traditions, and language, it would be extremely embarrassing for us. Every nationality needs freedom, language, and tradition. Should we then call ourselves Chinese or Tibetan?鈥�

Ngawang keeps talking to a voice he believes is Khedup.听

鈥�Aro, Khedup! Aro, Khedup! Where are you?鈥� Ngawang asks.

The monk says, 鈥淛ust behind you.鈥澨�

鈥淗ow is my face?鈥�

鈥淚t will get better.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 look like a human. I look dreadful, don鈥檛 I? I smell kerosene. We poured quite a lot of kerosene. Really, the way you fell down and rose up again, you really showed some courage. Aro!鈥澨�

The video ends. If you watch, you may let yourself believe that this time, since Ngawang is with monks, he will fare better than other self-immolators.听

But you mustn鈥檛 let yourself believe, because the Chinese are coming.

鈥淪omehow they find where he is staying, and they take him to a military hospital,鈥� Phelgye told me. 鈥淭hey ask him many questions鈥攚ho guide you? How many people guide with you?鈥欌�� Ngawang held his tongue, but a policeman from his hometown said, 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 survive. You鈥檙e going to die soon. Tell the truth, and we won鈥檛 harm your parents or family.鈥� So Ngawang told him where his father lived, and the police went and got him. Ngawang recognized his father's voice,听Phelgye said, 鈥渁nd Ngawang cried, 鈥楩ather! Maybe I will recover!鈥欌��

鈥淗e can鈥檛 survive, though, because almost everything is burnt,鈥� Phelgye said. 鈥淎nd then they put so many things in his body鈥攖o get information鈥攏ames, who guided him.鈥� Ngawang refused to talk, and he died days later. Phelgye said the Tibetan Youth Congress held a puja for him at the temple in Dharamsala and that a spokesman for the Dalai Lama said he had prayed for Ngawang. That was good for Phelgye but not for his family, who still have trouble with the Chinese government.

鈥淢any things I tell you I can鈥檛 speak about openly,鈥� Phelgye said. 鈥淏ut after Ngawang鈥檚 death, there was a big retaliation. Two to three times, people in his family go to jail. And the police hijack their cell phones. Every day police come to the house, but these things we can鈥檛 speak more of.鈥�

Eventually it came time for Carole and me to go home. She left after ten days; four days later, I followed.

During my time alone, I continued doing interviews. I forged on with the terrible work because, now that I鈥檇 heard the stories of self-immolators, I wanted a Tibetan to tell me if they鈥檇 died in vain or not. And I wanted to know if there was the slightest chance鈥攖hrough the self-immolations or some other tool of politics or diplomacy鈥攆or Tibet to ever be free. The situation is so complex that, when I left, I didn鈥檛 have a clear answer.

I flew back to Colorado and began sifting through my notes, but I soon felt despondent. I wondered how I could write a story in which self-immolation made sense. How could I extract meaning so that the stories weren鈥檛 just a collection of horrors? I turned to Carole, who seemed to be waiting for my call. She said there are four important things to remember when thinking about self-immolation.

Each is a combination of religion and politics. All are done as part of the Tibetan struggle. All are a form of communication. And all are an offering.

鈥淪o while there鈥檚 no history of them until very recently in Tibet, every single monastery and home has an altar with a lamp that鈥檚 always lit,鈥� Carole said. 鈥淭he flame is an eternal form of prayer to the gods and has been a part of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for as long as we know. It鈥檚 no big stretch, then, to think of self-immolators turning their bodies into an offering to show the world how badly Tibet is suffering.鈥�

But their method hasn鈥檛 worked. Many complicating factors make this the case, including China鈥檚 growing international power. Some countries are trying to help鈥攊n September 2018, for example, U.S. Congress passed the , which promotes access to Tibet for American officials, journalists, NGOs, and citizens. But the act鈥檚 success is contingent on China cooperating, and Carole does not believe China will ease access to Tibet for Americans. The U.S. and other countries have more pressing matters than helping a place that most people have forgotten. So that leaves a future in which Tibet must fend for itself, and self-immolation is still a chosen means of protest. In the month after I got home, two more young men chose this path.

But some leaders are urging alternatives. The Dalai Lama remains neutral, but in 2011, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the head of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism (one of the four main schools of the religion), urged Tibetans 鈥渢o preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause.鈥� Other prominent leaders have preached the same message. And in some places this is already taking place.听

In the aftermath of the 2008 uprisings, a nonviolent, community-based form of protest sprung up called Lhakar (鈥淲hite Wednesday鈥�). Described as a 鈥渃elebration of Tibetan spirit,鈥� it happens on the day of the week astrologically recognized as auspicious for the Dalai Lama. It grew into a crusade of creative expression and a celebration of Tibetan values. Every Wednesday since, thousands of Tibetans have made conscious efforts to speak only Tibetan, eat only Tibetan food, wear only Tibetan clothing, and buy only Tibetan-made goods.

Quietly and with no fanfare, they also , pray in groups, and gaze at photos of the Dalai Lama sent to them through WeChat鈥攁 crime punishable by imprisonment. Tibetans also practice Lhakar in exile. And inside Tibet, another form of protest has arisen. According to Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetans are singing, dancing, and writing. Tibetan hip-hop has become popular, Tibetan poets are poster boys, and Tibetan singers are widely promoted objects of public adoration.听

This was hard for me to understand, because of the story I鈥檇 heard about Gyaltsen鈥檚 brother-in-law being imprisoned for owning a single CD of Tibetan music. But for years prior to the rise of self-immolation, Carole said, 鈥渁rtistic expression was where some of the boldest expressions of resistance took place. Artists have a sense of what鈥檚 allowed, in terms of lines you鈥檙e not allowed to cross, and they cross them anyway. Sometimes it鈥檚 in coded language that only Tibetans can understand, and then sometimes it just blatantly challenges the government. It鈥檚 not fully explainable, but it鈥檚 taking place.鈥�

鈥淭hese artists play the role of cultural icon,鈥� Tsundue told me. 鈥淲hen they sing, thousands of people come together. So this cult of empowerment is the one that鈥檚 providing the leadership in Tibet today.鈥�

Tsundue firmly believes that art, not burning, will help Tibetans sustain their hope. But we can also assume that China won鈥檛 loosen its grip anytime soon. And for many Tibetans, both at home and displaced, their reality may take a still darker turn.听

The Dalai Lama is 84. When he dies, China has threatened to install its interpretation of his successor. Chinese authorities have already gone so far as to sign a law saying that only the Chinese Communist Party can recognize Tibetan Buddhist reincarnate lamas. The Dalai Lama himself has indicated that he . And in 1995, when Tibetans did find the reincarnation of another lama (Panchen Lama), the Chinese government promptly kidnapped the six-year-old child and his family鈥攖hey have never been seen since.听

One thing is certain, says Carole: if the Chinese government does install its own Dalai Lama, Tibetans 鈥渨ill not take that seriously at all.鈥� But it鈥檚 not clear who could be a new Dalai Lama鈥搕ype unifying figure if he chooses not to reincarnate. All of this can create a state of confusion and multiple ways that a future Tibet could unravel.

Should the Chinese appoint their own Dalai Lama, Gyaltsen听worries that international support for Tibetans will deteriorate and the link between Tibetans inside and out will be 鈥済apped.鈥� He fears that Tibetans inside Tibet will no longer consider the Central Tibetan Administration their government and may lose their will to fight for an independent country.听

If that happens, how easy would it be to light a match?

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Nepal鈥檚 Ministry of Tourism announced proposed changes for guiding and climbing Mount Everest at a press conference held in Kathmandu on August 14. The new regulations would drastically cut back the number of permits issued, following a season that saw record crowds听and traffic jams on the world鈥檚 highest peak, along with 11 deaths that made it the fourth-deadliest season in history.听听

The government plans to present the new rules to the country鈥檚 parliament for approval听in enough time for them to take effect for the spring season next year.

Here are some highlights from the 59-page report:

• Expedition companies must have a minimum of three years鈥� experience organizing high-altitude climbs before guiding on Everest.
• Climbers will have to submit proof of summiting at least one 6,500-meter (21,325-foot) peak.
• Guide companies must charge a minimum of $35,000 per client. (My understanding is that this includes the current $11,000 permit fee.)

Officials also reiterated current rules that require climbers to have a valid health certificate and hire听a trained Nepali guide.

However, there was some vague language included in the report. For example, the proposal says that 鈥渃limbers to Sagarmatha and other 8,000-metre mountains must undergo basic and high altitude climbing training,鈥� but it does not give a standard for what that looks like or how it will be regulated.听

Other areas addressed with scant details included a call for improvements in the rope-fixing process, primarily with respect to getting them installed earlier, and some type of improved weather-forecasting system. Both of these points were highlighted by the government during the 2019 spring season as a reason for the traffic jams.听

鈥淓verest cannot be climbed just based on one鈥檚 wishes,鈥� tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai 听reported by听The New York Times. 鈥淲e are testing their health conditions and climbing skills before issuing climbing permits.鈥�

The new price floor of $35,000 is still unlikely to deter inexperienced aspirants like doubling or tripling the permit fee would have. This seems to have been a move aimed at calming local operators, whose businesses could be hurt by a permit increase. The median price Nepali听operators charged in the 2019 spring season was around $40,000, according to my , but deep discounts regularly took the price down to less than $30,000鈥攐r even lower.

While a step in the right direction, the two major rules can be easily bypassed and lack teeth.

The requirement of three years鈥櫶齟xperience guiding at high altitude听is something any Sherpa can claim. This falls short of actually requiring guides to be qualified by a legitimate training organization, like the Khumbu Climbing Center, or being certified by the with International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations听credentials.

As for proof of summiting an 6,500-meter peak? We鈥檝e seen forged Everest summits before, including this season, so faking a certificate for another qualifying mountain is possible. It could create additional problems if the Nepalese government delegates it to the guides, who have a vested interest in signing clients, to verify someone鈥檚 experience. China requires climbers to have previously summited an 8,000-meter peak before climbing on the Tibet side and has an independent agency review all applications. I had hoped Nepal would follow suit.听

Most reputable guide companies like to see Everest applicants with successful summits of Aconcagua (6,962 meters) and Denali (6,168 meters); other popular peaks above 6,500 meters include Muztagh Ata (7,546 meters)听and Ama Dablam (6,856 meters).听The best in class require a summit of an 8,000-meter听peak like Manaslu or Cho Oyu.

Whether or not these proposed rules end up taking some of the crowds off Everest ultimately comes down to enforcement. Thus far, I鈥檝e not seen a willingness from the Nepalese government or the less reputable guiding听services to do this.听听

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On May 15, Kami Rita Sherpa led an Indian team to the听29,035-foot summit of Mount Everest. It was听his听23rd ascent of the world鈥檚 highest mountain鈥攁 record鈥攁nd solidified the 49-year-old鈥檚 status as one of the most accomplished high-altitude climbers of all time.听

Until last year, Kami Rita shared the record for most Everest ascents听with Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa, with 21 summits each. But both Apa and Phurba Tashi听have retired from climbing, so when Kami Rita summited for a 22nd time last spring, he took sole possession of the title.听

Kami Rita, who works for Nepal-based Seven Summits Treks as a senior guide, made his first Everest summit听on May 13, 1994. He has summited听from the Nepal side 22 times and once from the Tibet side. Since 1994,听he has made 34 summits on five of the world鈥檚 14 8,000-meter peaks.听

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All is well on both sides of Mount Everest after three full weeks of the season.

As predicted, there are a record number of climbers this year:听Nepal has issued 374 climbing permits to foreigners as of April 16. There are听, 208 Nepalese Sherpa, 144 foreigners, and 12 Chinese climbers.

The biggest headlines so far are efforts by the Chinese and Nepalese governments to remove tons of trash that鈥檚 accumulated after decades of climbing and the debate over what to do with the bodies of climbers who have died on the mountain as shrinking glaciers expose more corpses.

Mount Everest Bodies: Getting Them Down

No other topic attracts more attention around Mount Everest than dead bodies. A total of 295 people have died on both sides of the听the mountain since 1924.听Both Nepal and China have said that they will remove the remains of more dead climbers this year.

At least 200 bodies are spread across the mountain on various routes. Some are buried in deep crevasses. Others now rest in different places from where they died, due to moving glaciers, and a few have been intentionally moved. In 2014, the Chinese moved ,鈥澨齩ff the trail. I鈥檓听told his body听is still visible but difficult to locate.

Removing bodies is physically demanding work, because over time they鈥檝e frozen into the mountainside. It鈥檚 also controversial, because it touches on different traditions and beliefs that are often at odds with each other.

In my experience, most climbers who discuss the possibility of dying on a climb would prefer to have their body left on the peak, out of sight. However, sometimes families want the body recovered for closure, and the Sherpa and lama communities consider leaving the dead on Everest disrespectful to the mountain gods.

A 2010 effort by a Nepalese guiding company to remove bodies from the south side was halted after families of the deceased intervened to request that the remains of their loved ones stay where they died, per the climbers鈥櫶齱ishes. That same year, a plan to spread Sir Edmund Hillary鈥檚 ashes on the summit was halted when both the Nepalese government and local lamas interceded, arguing that Everest should not be used for publicity because the mountain is holy.

A warming planet adds to the urgency of the issue. Long-buried bodies are now exposed as glaciers melt. It鈥檚 happening all over the world鈥檚 mountains. The corpses of three climbers who died decades ago on Mexico鈥檚听 were exposed high on the volcano鈥檚 glacial slopes in 2015.

Removing Trash and Gear from Everest

In the early days, no one envisioned that there would be this many people on Everest each season, so climbers left tents, oxygen bottles, and other trash on the mountain.

That changed in the 1990s. When 国产吃瓜黑料 Consultants pioneered commercial guiding on Everest, more care was taken to remove the trash. The trend accelerated, but efforts were dwarfed by the volume of expeditions.

The 2015 earthquake听was a pivotal moment for trash buildup on the mountain. Expeditions were forced to leave tents, food, stoves, and almost everything else behind when both governments closed their respective sides of Everest. When I was there in 2016, I was appalled at the sight at Nepal鈥檚听Camp II. Harsh winter winds had shredded the tents, exposing the supplies and spreading them all over the camp area听in the Western Cwm.

Sadly, over the past few years, other teams have left more gear at Camp II, and climbers will see a very disturbing scene as they arrive there this year.

Those who reach 8,000 meters on either side听will find a wasteland, literally. Human feces do听not degrade at this altitude; they听merely blow听away or get听stuck in the rocks. A few Western teams are starting to use blue bags to bring down solid waste, similar to a practice implemented .

The Collection Begins in Nepal

鈥檚听Garrett Madison is overseeing the Sherpa team fixing the climbing ropes to the summit this season. Over the weekend, helicopters flew five sorties to bring in more than 1,500 pounds of gear to Camp II for that purpose. Teams took advantage of the helicopters to听bring down 412 pounds of rubbish.

Multiple Nepalese government ministries, the army, and other organizations have set a goal to remove 11,000 pounds of trash from Everest and the surrounding area听by the end of the season. This is a joint effort by public and private entities, with the Coca-Cola Company and WWF听Nepal providing significant financial support.

There will be a 12-person team paid to collect trash, plus a cash-for-trash program. Asian Trekking has run similar programs for years, but it takes more than one team.

One encouraging report said that 2,600 pounds of waste was flown from Lukla airport to Kathmandu for recycling on the first day of the effort.

Chinese Take Steps to Keep Everest Clean

A similar effort is underway in Tibet, driven by the Chinese government. Earlier this year there was a highly publicized听announcement that China would limit the number of climbers this season and require teams to carry out their waste as part of an effort to cut down on the amount of trash.

The Chinese have set up stations to sort, recycle, and break down garbage from the mountain. Climbers are also required to pay a $1,500 trash fee on top of the $9,500 fee for their climbing permit.

To cut down on the trash accumulating at the north-side base camp, China鈥檚 new rules also prohibit anyone who is not with a climbing team from traveling there. Tourists can only go as far as a monastery that lies just over a mile away from that base camp.

A Problem of Enforcement

Both China and Nepal require climbers to retrieve several pounds of rubbish or face fines, but this has never been enforced.

Commercial teams on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest pay a $4,000 trash deposit, but the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, the organization that manages the deposit, has not been effective at enforcing this policy either. Some teams still leave trash at the high camps where there are no monitors.

Historically, neither China nor Nepal have addressed the growing problem of trash on their mountains and trails. It has been left to the operators, guides, Sherpas, Tibetans, and visitors. Hopefully, this year鈥檚 increased efforts will raise awareness that keeping our mountains pristine is everyone鈥檚 responsibility.

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Hundreds of climbers are streaming into Nepal and Tibet this week as the spring climbing season on Mount Everest begins. The stories to watch this year include an attempt at the first new route on the mountain听in a decade, ominous weather indicators, shifts in who鈥檚 climbing the world鈥檚 highest mountain, a potentially record year for summits, and more. Here鈥檚 what you need to know.

Climbers to Watch

There could be more than 1,000 climbers, including support crews, on Everest this spring. Most will follow the standard听Southeast Ridge听from Nepal or the Northeast Ridge from Tibet, but a few will follow their own path.

National Geographic听photographer Cory Richards and Ecuadoran climber听Esteban 鈥淭opo鈥� Mena, veteran climbers with six previous Everest summits between them, will attempt to complete the first new route to the summit in ten听years. It鈥檚 a natural line on the North Face that has been attempted but never completed, going up 6,500 feet from advanced base camp听to the Northeast Ridge.

The last time a new route was completed on Everest was the Korean line on the left side of the southwest face (southwest face to West Ridge) in 2009.

Richards and Mena aren鈥檛 the only climbers who should be on your radar this year.

Kami Rita Sherpa is going for a record 23rd summit. Nirmal Purja Sherpa will try to summit all 14听of the听8,000-meter mountains in seven months, starting with Everest;听if he does, it will听shatter the current record of seven years听11 months听and 14 days, held by Chang-Ho Kim of South Korea. Two female Sherpas, Nima Doma Sherpa听and Furdiki Sherpa, are attempting to summit in honor of their husbands who recently died on the mountain. South Korean Hong Sung Taek will attempt a new route on the south face of Lhotse for the fifth time.

Crowd Control Is Getting Better

With this many people on the mountain,听will crowding be an issue? In past years, there have been delays on the mountain because of long lines at the usual spots鈥攖he Second Step, on the Tibet side, and the place where the Hillary Step used to be, on the Nepal side. Even with ladders, these two difficult spots slow teams down.

However, don鈥檛 expect to see significant delays like there were听in 2006 and 2012, despite a record number of climbers. Why? The Everest climbing community has become better at managing crowds. Guides coordinate better among themselves, and improved weather forecasting allows teams to better prepare for their summit bids.

Individual expedition leaders are stopping people who can鈥檛 make it and create a bottleneck with their slow pace. Many teams have switched to earlier starting times for slower members. Another recent trend is using supplemental oxygen at six听liters per minute听instead of the traditional two听or four liters per minute, which helps increase the speed of many climbers.

Even with improved management, problems will quickly stack up if poor weather delays the opportunity to summit.

A nightmare scenario occurred in 2012 when harsh weather shut down rope-fixing teams and summit attempts for weeks on end. There were only four days suitable for a safe summit attempt instead of the average 11 days. When teams were brave or frustrated enough to go for the top as time was running out, they experienced horrible delays.

Last year was the opposite. Climbers experienced an unprecedented window of 11 straight days with safe summit weather, enabling to reach the top. Everyone is hoping for a repeat of 2018, but there are warning signs听it might not happen.

The Weather Could Be Worse Than Usual听

This is always the wild card in anticipating big-mountain climbing issues. K2 and Nanga Parbat experienced constant high winds and deep snow this winter, and there are indicators that climbers on Everest and Lhotse should heed.

Nepal has had more snow than any year since 1975. Kathmandu might be the canary in the coal mine鈥攖he Nepalese capital reported snow on February 28, the first time that has happened since February 14, 2007 (and before that it hadn鈥檛 snowed in the city in 63 years).

India saw a 24 percent increase in rainfall this winter.听After India鈥檚 last rainy winter, in 2013, rope-fixing teams on both sides of Everest were delayed until May 17, instead of getting to the summit by late April.

Only once听in the last 24 years, 2005, did India receive more rainfall than it did this winter. No climbers reached the top until May 21 that year, the latest summit date since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary completed the first ascent, on May 29, 1953.

How this winter鈥檚 weather will affect conditions on Everest is unknown. The first clue will come when the rope-fixing teams reach the North and South Cols in early April. If it looks like a season with bad weather and few summit days, smart teams will push hard to get their acclimatization in as soon as possible and be in a position to take advantage of any summit window that emerges in May.

More Climbers Are Coming from China and India

Mountain climbing continues to attract new fans, increasing traffic on the world鈥檚 biggest peaks and providing more business for guide services. Keeping with recent trends, middle-class climbers from China and India are coming to Everest in droves, mostly to the Nepal side.

Fearing runaway crowds and the risks that come with them, China has enacted perhaps the strictest requirements of any country with a high or听famous peak.

If you are a Chinese national, you must have summited an 8,000-meter peak before attempting Everest from the Tibet side. China will only issue 300 climbing permits this year.

Those restrictions are one reason the operators in Nepal are guiding more and more Chinese climbers each year. Nepalese听guides have also focused on this lucrative market because Chinese clients appear to be less sensitive to high听prices compared to other nationalities.

The number of teams from India is听growing rapidly, too. Transcend 国产吃瓜黑料s has guided more than 60 young Indian climbers to the summit of Everest in recent years. The Indian army is back with its听usual team of 20 to 30 members, plus support. It鈥檚 one of the larger teams and has听traditionally moved slowly and created delays.

The number of climbers from countries that fueled the Everest explosion in the last 20 years is declining. Climbers from Western Europe, the United States, Australia, and Japan are slowly becoming the minority among those attempting to summit the mountain.

Top Nationalities Above Base Camp

There鈥檚 a Lack of Qualified Sherpas for Support

One potential issue for the growing number of climbers听is a lack of qualified Sherpas to support them.

It has almost become the norm for each climber to have a personal Sherpa from Base Camp to the summit. However, there are not enough Sherpas or Tibetans to pair with every individual climber. This could be a disaster waiting to happen.

A lack of qualified support-team members makes it more difficult to handle a large number of emergencies, which could occur if operators are pressured to get their clients to the summit and attempt to push through difficult weather. If there are more emergencies and not enough people to help, it could be an inflection point in the popular lure of Everest.

Rescue Companies Are Watching for Scammers

Finally, there鈥檚 been a lot of press about scams involving guides, helicopter companies, and hospitals cheating evacuation companies and insurers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with fake or duplicate rescue claims. Several insurance companies even considered dropping travel insurance for Nepal, .

After an inquiry, the Nepalese government promised changes, but nothing of substance has occurred. Despite this, some of the longtime evacuation companies won鈥檛 let the issue alter their professional approach to serving clients and are taking precautions to prevent fraud.

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