Asian Trekking

Asian Trekking was the Kathmandu-based company that provided logistics and hired Sherpa staff for the Indonesian team’s 1997 Everest expedition. Its role encompassed the people and support needed to establish camps and prepare the route, while the book also presents the company in a wider debate over how Everest’s commercial infrastructure and labor were organized.

Role in the Indonesian Expedition

In autumn 1996, after climbing Cho Oyu and Shisha Pangma, Anatoli Boukreev was asked through his friend Ang Tshering of Asian Trekking whether he would consult for an Indonesian team planning a spring attempt on Everest by the Southeast Ridge Route. Boukreev accepted the position of lead climbing consultant. He saw it as a chance to return to the mountain after the previous spring’s ordeal, to address the unresolved matter of Scott Fischer’s and Yasuko Namba’s burial, and to work in a leadership role consistent with his views of mountaineering while earning a living in commercial high-altitude climbing.

Asian Trekking provided the expedition’s logistical support, including hiring its Sherpa staff. Apa Sherpa, then a seven-time Everest summiter, served as sirdar and lead climbing Sherpa. The staff was to support Base Camp, fix ropes above the Icefall, establish and supply camps higher on the mountain, and carry extra oxygen for summit day. This division of labor was intended to leave Boukreev and the Indonesian staff free to manage the climbing team and difficult conditions on the route.

Labor, Route-Building, and Control

The book situates Asian Trekking’s work within the commercial system that supported Everest expeditions. Sherpas carried loads, established camps, and served climbers for daily wages ranging from $2.50 to $50, while commercial operators charged clients far more for access to guided ascents. The contrast makes clear that the expedition’s practical capacity depended on labor whose pay and decision-making power did not match the commercial value of the undertaking.

Boukreev’s account also describes a dispute over payment and responsibility for fixing the Khumbu Icefall. The Sherpas from one or two expeditions would do the route work, while organizers received payment from expeditions using the route. Boukreev criticized a system in which expedition leaders could collect substantial sums from teams that had not contributed Sherpa labor. The Pangboche Sherpa Cooperative briefly lobbied to collect the payment, but Henry Todd and Mal Duff secured the work, and Duff’s Sherpas hurriedly fixed the route the teams would use.

Boukreev imagined a different arrangement: a dedicated team of climbing Sherpas would fix the full route to the summit, with all expeditions paying them as contractors. In his view, that might eventually put Nepalese control of the mountain’s route infrastructure on a firmer footing. He also acknowledged the resistance of those who had benefited from the existing arrangement and from the hard work of underpaid staff. His criticism was structural rather than a simple accusation against individual workers or organizers.

Staffing Limits and Expedition Readiness

The Indonesian expedition’s staffing plan proved vulnerable to uneven capacity. Apa Sherpa was expected to lead a team of sixteen, but Boukreev reported that only eight remained fit to work. Some members of the group had been hired from Apa’s family or friends and, in Boukreev’s assessment, could not contribute an equal share of the labor. The shortfall threatened the expedition’s ability to prepare its planned assault and maintain its backup safety arrangements.

Boukreev did not blame Apa for the problem. Drawing on experience from other expeditions, he argued that a dependable Sherpa team required years of repeated ascents and consistent financial support. Apa continued to make an effort, often giving more of himself than he could expect from the others. The episode shows how a logistical plan could depend on a cohesive, practiced workforce that could not be assembled instantly simply by hiring a specified number of people.

Return to Everest

After the Indonesian climbers succeeded on Everest, Asian Trekking’s expedition work concluded in Kathmandu in mid-May. Boukreev returned with a friend to Lukla and began trekking back toward Everest Base Camp to assess the mountain and weather for a possible Lhotse–Everest traverse. His return followed the expedition’s commercial and organizational work but also carried personal weight: he had taken the Indonesian role partly because he wanted to revisit the site of the previous year’s disaster and make a respectful burial for Fischer and Namba.