From the village of Pangboche, off the beaten path in the higher Everest region and home to several legendary climbers, born in 1956, Sungdare Sherpa was the first man to have climbed Mt Everest five times.
First Summit With Hannelore Schmatz
Sungdare’s first summit on Mt Everest was with German expedition on 2nd Oct, 1979 via the SE ridge where he accompanied Hannelore Schmatz, the first German woman to have summited Mt Everest. The expedition was led by Gerhard Schmatz, aged 50 who was also the husband of Hannelore and the oldest man to have summited Mt Everest then.
It was 5 pm a killing cold had replaced the searing ultraviolet rays of daytime as Sungdare and the three companions slowly descended from the summit of Mt Everest. Sungdare and another Sherpa Ang Jangbu could probably have made it down by dark to the tents at South Col. far below, but their two clients, members of a German expedition had become exhausted on the way to the summit and were now barely able to walk. Ray Genet, a swiss born American mountaineer, was out of oxygen and failing fast while Hannelore Schmatz was clinging to life using the oxygen bottle that beloged to Sungdare Sherpa. As a result sungdare was spherding the two climbers down the mountain without the supplementary oxygen.
As of being first time on the top of Everest both Sherpas realized that the descend was impossible in the dark and decided to dig a shallow snow cave and spend the night. It was a desperate move as 28000 feet was awfully high to bivouac without oxygen and spare cloths as Sungdare could hope at most to be alive in the morning. His right foot started to freeze, his oxygen starved body was doing it’s high altitude triage, cutting off the extremities to save the core, by giving up his oxygen he had condemed his foot to frostbite and risked his life to save Hannelore.
But when the first rays of sun pretended to warm the south summit of Everest, the next morning Ray Genet was dead, Sungdare lost all feeling in his foot and Hannelore was almost out of oxygen again. Sungdare agreed to stay with her while another Sherpa Ang Jangbu left for South Col.
Certain that she would die if the oxygen ran out and ignoring his frozen foot Sungdare climbed down 500 feet to Camp V, where he remembered leaving a partly full oxygen bottle, then painfully he climbed back up gasping in the thin air and gave the oxygen to Hannelore. Leaving Genet’s body they started to move down slowly, Hannelore breathing supplementary oxygen Sungdare without. The Sherpa, his thinking dulled by altitude, left his sunglasses in the snow cave.
An our and a half later below Camp V, the oxygen ran out a final time, Hannlore crumpled to the ground and slowly died.
There was nothing for Sungdare to do, but save himself, he turned away from the dead body of Hannelore and tumbled down to the deep steep snow towards south col. By this time he was almost snow blind the rocks were vague shadow and his eyes unprotected from the fierce sun were a blur of pain as he peered ahead for the route. Somehow he made it to the South Col, then he slid down the fixed ropes to the camp at the foot of the Lhotse Face.
His vision was now completely gone, Sungdare became acutely aware of his right foot, the agony was becoming deliberating as he staggered towards the camp below. Attended for the night by the team of physician of Polish expedition to Lhotse he was helped to base camp the next day by Poles and Sherpas. Unable to walk he was carried by yak to the Khunde hospital where three months later his four toes were amputated. Despite losing his digits sungdare summited Everest four more times.
Second Summit with American Medical Research Expedition in 1981
Sungdare’s second summit was with the American expedition on Oct 21, 1981 via the South East Ridge. Sundare made his second summit to the top of the world together with Chris Kopczynski.
Third One with the First Canadian in 1982
The team consisted 20 Canadians, led by Bill March along with 39 Nepalese Sherpas. On 5th October, Sundare and his counterpart Lhakpa Dorje accompained 32 years old Laurie Skreslet who became first canadian to summit Mt Everest where Sungdare became the FIRST man to have climbed the summit of Mt Everest THREE times.
Fourth with the Norwegians in 1985
Again on April 29, 1985 with the Norwegian Everest Expedition Sungdare Summited Mt Everest record 4th time along with three other Sherpas and four clients, this expedition saw the first Norwegian to the summit of Mt Everest.
Fifth with China-Japan-Nepal Friendship Expedition in 1988
In 1988 China-Japan-Nepal friendship expedition was launched from both sides of Everest, Nepalese team was led by Kumar Khadga Bikram Shah, the president of Nepal Mountaineering Association then, on 10th may Sungdare together with his counterpart Padam Bahadur Tamang stood atop 8848 m where he became first man to have climbed to the top of the world FIVE times.
Other expeditions
Sungdare’s first expedition on Everest was with Chris Bonington’s SW Face in 1975 where he was able to carry loads to 25,500 feet.
In 1978 he went to another expedition on Kangchenjunga South with Polish team, and then went to north ridge of Dhaulagiri with an Argentine expedition there he was trapped at Camp VI with three climbers during a storm that demolished their tent, two climbers and Sungdare made it down, but the expedition leader died just below Camp VI.
In 1981 Sungdare went another expedition to Dhaulagiri (8167 m) where he got to within 500 m of the summit.
Alcoholism and Death
Sungdare later in his life became alcoholic, “Its cold up in the khumbu where they grow up and they have lots of nice warm parties where they drink raksi, the way the sherpas drink is that you never finish the glass before it’s filled up again.” Once Elizabeth Hawley explained that when Sungdare succumbed to alcohol and people did not wanted to climb with him anymore, he spent all his money on booze and committed suicide in 1989 because he could not support both, his family and his drinking. He was survived by his widow Bhing Phuti.
References
Backpacker Magazine – May 1986 – Page 32
Keeper of The Mountains – The Elizabeth Hawley Story – Page 210
West J.B. (2017) American Medical Research Expedition to Everest, 1981. In: Breathing on the Roof of the World. Springer Biographies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7122-0_9
http://everestnews.com/history/sherpas/sungdare.htm
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-05-05-mn-3787-story.html
https://albertaonrecord.ca/the-1982-canadian-everest-expedition-collection