Can this Sherpa Change Mountain Climbing Forever?

Gloria Liu chronicles 18-year-old Nima Rinji Sherpa’s historic sweep of all 14 eight-thousanders with clear eyes. His achievement marks a seismic shift for Sherpas, long cast as anonymous porters for foreign climbers—so much so that many Westerners don’t even realize “Sherpa” is an ethnicity, not a profession. Yet Nima’s rise isn’t purely an underdog tale: he’s a precocious teen, buoyed by family wealth and a father intent on reclaiming Sherpa honor after watching “so many strong Sherpa boys working for the glory of others.” Nima stands at the crossroads of athletic prowess and digital influence, embodying the new era of the athlete-influencer as much as mountaineering talent.

While Sherpas of this generation were taking control of their industry, some were also falling in love with climbing, a sport most of their forebears saw as only a job; and slowly building visibility. By 2015, Sherpa climbers were making first ascents sans clients and promoting their feats on social media. In 2018, a Sherpa named Dawa Yangzum was sponsored by The North Face, albeit for guiding; she was the first Nepali woman to earn a certification from the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations. But the trend was turbocharged in 2019, when a Nepali British former special forces soldier, Nirmal “Nims” Purja, climbed the 14 peaks in record time, using helicopters, bottled oxygen, and fixed ropes to accomplish in six months what had previously taken Korean climber Kim Chang-Ho nearly eight years to do (though Kim climbed without supplemental oxygen and kayaked and cycled to Everest Base Camp). Nims, who is not Sherpa, brought handheld cameras and broadcast his journey on Instagram, capturing footage that became a hit 2021 Netflix documentary. He leveraged his exploits to start his own guiding business and sign deals with Red Bull, Nike, and Bremont watches, and though his career is now plagued by accusations of sexual misconduct (which he’s denied), he put the world on notice that when Nepalis didn’t have to serve clients, they could be recognized as world-class climbers in their own right.