TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

Hi, everyone. I'm Nima Sherpa. I'm a mountaineer from Nepal, and you're listening to Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing. Yeah. My name is Abhay Dandekar, and I share conversations with talented and interesting individuals linked to the global Indian and South Asian community.

It's informal and informative, adding insights to our evolving cultural expressions, where each person can proudly say, trust me, I know what I'm doing. Hi, everyone. On this episode of Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing, we share a conversation with mountaineer, Nima Sherpa. Stay tuned. So once again, thank you so much for listening and watching and making trust me, I know what I'm doing part of your day and part of your life.

I know it takes time and effort, and so I appreciate everyone engaging, subscribing, rating and writing reviews, and sharing this all with your friends and family. You can listen at all the podcast outlets everywhere and watch the episodes on YouTube and also follow along on social media on LinkedIn and Instagram. You know, as humans, we all have basic needs for food, water, shelter, survival, etcetera, but we've also instinctively evolved to seek pathways of fulfillment, to strive and aspire and achieve. In the current world we live in, it's important for each of us to instinctively reach that proverbial mountain top and celebrate who we are, the communities we came from who sent us on that climb, the journey it took to get there, and the opportunities that you can sometimes only see at the summit. Okay.

So this particular life metaphor certainly is so much more literal for someone like Nima Rinji Sherpa, a mountaineer from Nepal and at 18 years old, the youngest person on the planet to ever summit all 14 of the world's peaks over 8,000 meters. Growing up and going to school in Kathmandu with diverse interests in sports and technology and photography, Nima was no stranger to mountain living and adventures, which run very deep in Nima's family as his dad, Dashi Lakpasarpa, was the youngest to ever climb Sagarmatha or Mount Everest without the use of oxygen. And Nima's uncles were the first brothers to climb those very same 14 peaks. Nima started his quest to climb all 14 peaks when he was just 16 years old. Gaining such tremendous experience and with the foundation of his family's expedition company, Nima has been shining a light with each achievement on the Sherpa heritage and tradition, and also the inequities in recognition and long deserved sponsorships for Nepali mountaineering athletes.

So we caught up recently to chat about it all, and through all the highs, Nima recently unsuccessfully tried to summit Mount Manaslu with one of his mentors. And so we started out by dissecting what that actually meant to him. We were just talking a little bit about, one of your more recent expeditions that didn't necessarily go as planned given elements and and all the things you were just mentioning. But walk me through what it's like not to necessarily have accomplished what you feel like on the mountain, especially. I mean, especially this most recent trip, at Manaslu.

This didn't necessarily go as as you had planned, and yet there is something that you're learning from that. So tell me a little bit more about what it's like to not necessarily summit, but still learn. Yeah. Actually, I to be honest, this was the best, best expedition that I had done so far. The there are many reasons why, but mostly because when I started my climbing, career as a journey, and every day was just, like, successful summit, you know.

So I I started with Manastra, to be honest. It was my first mountain that I climbed in enormous season. It was it was a success, and then I climbed Everest, Lhotse, and then in Pakistan, so every every time it was just like a success, you know? For me, it was always about I believed that I could, summit and I could, come back safe, or else I would have risked my life, you know, in that sense. So I always I always knew I was gonna, summit all the mountains, so that's how the project started.

And I I did climb all the 14 highest, peaks. And, you know, once you reach a certain, pinnacle, you you you you get such a high dopamine that, you know, everything else seems so, less interesting to you. But, yeah, after all this, crazy two years happening happened to me that I, I tried now something different, which was to climb in winter. And what this means what this means was, basically, there are many different stages that you can climb as a mountaineer. So one, you can climb commercially.

So you pay someone, a company, they have a, a base camp set up for you, the rope is fixed. This is one way. The other is, okay, you can take certain, service from them, but you choose to climb without oxygen, you choose to climb without a guide, so this is another way. The third is, it's called alpinist. So this is when you choose to do everything by yourself, and you have no guide, you have no oxygen bottles, you have no fixed rope.

Everything depends on you. And so I had planned in all this style. I had I had been a client, I had been a Sherpa, I had been a expedition organizer. I had now this was my another step, which was to be an alpinist, to be an explorer. So even here, I thought, okay.

I would submit. Everything would be great, and that was my initial mindset. But somehow, things didn't got, like, as planned as I thought. You know? So after climbing on the fourteenth, I went to climb Mount Amadavlam, in winter, which I failed.

It's a 6,800 meter peaks. I failed there. Yeah. Again, went back, to climb Manaslu and failed there as well. And it was very I don't know.

It was I think it was good for me in a way that I had something to look upon for the next, few years, You know, after climbing 14 and getting all the attention and all that, so I have now something else to look upon. And the most important thing for me was I was with the Clamberg, who was, my who's my mentor, and he's a he's almost 60 years old. His name is Simone Moro from Italy. He is known as one of the best alpinists in the history. So, yeah, I got to learn a lot from him, and this was something that I always needed in life, to be honest, was mentorship.

So I always look some I always look upon someone to get, mentorship. So, yeah, this was all about learning and just realizing that you could fail. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, youth makes people assume, maybe naively, that there is a lot more risk taking and that you people are impulsive, and they don't know necessarily how. And so it's good that you mentioned it's interesting you mentioned mentorship as, an important part of this entire experience.

So so as someone who is relatively younger, what has youth and mountaineering, experiences? What has that taught you about humility and being almost being honest with conditions, being honest with yourself, being honest, and open, particularly when it comes to what limits you might have in an experience or in a journey. Yeah. I think when you are, like, young, when you're in your especially in your teenage, you have so much of, mental capacity to learn, and you must you have so much you have so much energy, and you are very optimistic about life. But as I have seen the pattern, as you slowly grow up, people start to get demotivated about life.

A lot of problems come here and there because I know this because when I'm on expedition, I'm the youngest one, you know, and I I'm climbing with 30 years old, 40 years old, so I get to learn a lot from them, hearing about the teenage life, the work life, so I understood all this within these two years of my life. That's why sometimes I felt disconnected with my age group in that sense, you know, because my age my age group friend, I was not friends with them, like, to be honest, I was more into expedition and all my friends were like 30 years plus, so Right, older. Yeah. So for me, it was always I got to learn what was gonna happen to me in the future, and I took it like a very simply, and I was the mindset to learn something from it. And, and then I saw a lot of people, especially in the teens, getting lost, getting the family pressure about careers and all this.

And to be honest, for me, it was very, good decision that I took Martin in because once you are in this certain harsh condition, once you are, you know, you have so much of suffering and once you come back to the city, everything feels so easy, you know, the life here. Mhmm. So everything is so much privileged. That's I think you get to learn how privileged you are in that in that sense, you know, after you experience the whole journey of traveling to Pakistan for one, one month that going to extreme places and learning about all these things. It just makes you wonder, like it makes your mind broader.

So I think this is what I learned personally as a as a youth. Yeah. I mean, the environment itself makes you humble, and you have to almost be very, very honest and open about yourself. There's no reason for anything to hide. You can't hide any place, right, when especially Yeah.

You're on the mountain. But does that actually make you now take risks a little bit differently? Do you look at just taking risks differently, especially compared to when you first started climbing, as a professional? I mean, I imagine that people just age differently when they're on the mountain, particularly. Yeah.

Yeah. I think if you talk about rigs, to be honest, I haven't taken any unnecessary risks so far in my life. You know, every risk that I take, it was always, like, very strategic, risk. You know, for example, I had the weather report in front of me. I knew what was gonna happen.

Of course, there are some risks that you cannot control in the mountain as in life. For example, in the mountain, sometimes avalanche might come out of nowhere. The weather might get worse even if you know it was not gonna be bad. So I think there's two things that I learned from here. Once is that I knew I was prepared enough that I knew what's what was gonna happen, so I took the risks in that sense.

But at the same time, if something goes wrong, I also knew that, okay, this is the way life works, you know, so I I'm not surprised when something goes wrong. And, yeah, now, as you told, the risks that I've, taken is it just makes my mind so like, everything that I wanna do in life now, it has to make some meaning for me because I know what I've went through in the mountains, so when I come back to the city, everything that I try to do, it has to have some impact in life, you know, not just in my life, but also in my family and community wise. Yeah. You know, you you have had a front row seat to the mountain your entire life. I mean, you have such a amazing family background when it comes to climbing and mountaineering, and and you've grown up around this.

Can you recall or even share a little bit about what maybe some of your first memories are of climbing? Yes. I always knew Sherpa was climbers, you know, in that sense, because everybody was talking about Sherpas and in in the in the country itself. Because, you know, when Tenzin Noga Sherpa, when he climbed, Everest for the first time in the history with Sir Edmund Hillary, that was a very big, big moment in the history of, exploration, not just modeling. It was similar to, like, landing in my moon.

So it was similar to that, you know. So that's why the Sherpa name became a brand. So I always had that consciousness in my mind that, okay, Sherpas are known as a climber. But even in the family, I always saw my dad, you know, leaving very early and going to expedition and coming back and telling the stories about all this. So, yeah, it was in my mind, and I could see my uncle, so many of my relatives getting involved, but I never knew what was the industry and how it how it's working, what's an athlete, an explorer.

So later on, when I got insert myself, like, into the industry, then I found out so many things are happening. You know? So you have share price and guide. You have share price and business, how good are you? You have share price in like, so many things, you know.

So that's when I thought, okay. This is the reality, and that's how I was so interested now, more interested into climbing. And, yeah, ever since, I've always, you know, been with my community and been as an athlete. Do you remember? I mean, like, some people will say that, like, yeah.

I you know, if they're an a basketball player that, you know, when I was, in fourth or fifth grade and and I started playing and this was when I knew, was there a moment that when you were climbing that you knew that this was something that you needed to really pursue? It was kind of a calling for you. I mean, how how old were you maybe, you know, when you sort of, in your head, knew that, like, this is this is something that I really, really love, and and I I wanna do this, full time. Yeah. To be honest, I was always into sports, but I never thought about being a mountaineer even though my whole family is a mountaineer.

Yeah. And but I was always always intrigued by, like, exploration side. You know, when I saw movies like, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, those kind of movies always made me feel something something that I I didn't know if I was gonna be in the future, a mountaineer, an explorer, but it made me feel something about life, a hope, or an adventure, you know. But I was more interested in doing, like, a athlete sport in that sense. Like, playing football was my main main thing.

But when I finished my, grade ten ten standard, and when I started into photography and filming, then I slowly went to trekking. I started filming others, photographing others. Then I I realized, okay. Maybe I want to try this as well. I just don't want, like, always to click photos of other climbing.

I was maybe I I would try to climb myself as well, you know? So that's when I told, me and my dad and my mom, we all had a conversation, and it was a very weird conversation in that sense, because they never ex expected me to be a Martin then also. Yeah. Was it really a surprise to them that they didn't expect this? Yes.

Because I think, our, like, thought was, okay, I finish my school, then I go to some foreign countries. I do some graduation there, and I get a job. Something it was I don't know. It was it was something like that, but I don't know. I just somehow felt connected that, okay.

I should go back to what my, dads were doing, mangoes, because it it sounded more adventure to me, to be honest. It I think it had more meaning in my community, in my country, and in my life. So I think that's how I chose, mountaineering, you know, and that's why even when I started the project to climb all the 14 highest peak, I named it Sherpa Power because I was like, okay. This is, you know, it's it's all about the community for me, and that's how I it started. Yeah.

Do you feel like you, you know, you mentioned that you are interested in so many other things. Right? Whether that's sports or football or cricket or technology in Silicon Valley. Do you feel that because you made, this choice and you've had such a great success from there, did you feel like you had to sacrifice something that, you know, hey. I'm leaving some of these other things behind.

Yeah. Of course. I I knew I was sacrificing a lot of things, but I never regretted those things, to be honest, you know. Okay. I I sacrificed my school, to be honest.

I had the high school experience, you know. Yeah. Which which which, which could be I don't know. I I didn't I never thought that it would I would miss it, to be honest, you know, because I knew I was I had to sacrifice, you know. So I sacrificed a lot of happy moments with my friends, hanging out.

I had I had no zero of that, you know, always about exploration, going somewhere out. So yeah. At the same time, to be honest, when I come back from the mountain alive with all my fingers and hands safe Yeah. I have to I feel like I'm I'm living an extra life. So I I'm like Yeah.

I don't know what's happening, and I I I'm always, like, looking for something new, learning about something, like, let's say even, like, what's happening in US or what's happening in any other country. I'm always learning that since because I knew I have extra life now. I'm I'm safe back home. It's almost it's almost fueled and added that much more curiosity to, you know, experience all of those other things too. You're listening to Trust Me.

I Know What I'm Doing. After a quick break, we'll come back to our conversation with mountaineer, Nima Sherpa. Stay tuned. Every story told is a lesson learned, and every lesson learned is a story waiting to be told. I'm Abhay Dandekar, and I share conversations with global Indians and South Asians so everyone can say, trust me, I know what I'm doing.

New episodes weekly wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hi. This is Vidya Balan, and you're listening to Trust Me. I know what I'm doing. Hi.

This is Madhuri Dixit. Hi. This is Farhan Akhtar. Hello. My name is Lakhpa Sherpa.

I'm Summit Mountain Everest ten times, and you listen me to Trust Me I Know What I'm Doing. Welcome back to Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing. Let's rejoin our conversation now with mountaineer, Nima Sherpa. Sometimes people very naively, if they're new to this or they they hear about this, they don't really know much necessarily about climbing or expeditions and mountaineering. They might think that, okay, here's this guy.

He's climbing. He makes it to the top. He stays there, summits, and then he comes back down. And obviously there's a lot more involved. Right?

I mean, there's just so much planning, so much preparation. So it takes quite a bit to, like you said, make it back down alive. How has this entire experience of mountaineering and all that you've accomplished so far, what's it maybe taught you about being both a better leader and also a better teammate when it comes to Yeah. You know, this profession? Yeah.

So the thing about mountaineering is that it's not a televised, sport or anything like that. You know? It's it's very it's like a mystery. You know? You don't know what's happening there.

You know? Yeah. And so every but everybody is curious about what what's happened. So ever since when, the mountaineering started, you know, from the Alps to Himalayas, it has always been about countries wanting to, conquer a mountain, you know. At that time, it was about conquering, you know.

Today, I don't I don't like the word conquer, to be honest, but at that time, it was about, like, you know, because a mountain was gonna be claimed by a country, so Everest was a British mountain. You know, British wanted to climb Everest, and India wanted to climb, Kunta Jangga. So every every, country has, wanted to climb a mountain. You know, France, wanted to climb on the Purna, so which they did, and so it it it was like that, you know, like, it was everybody a country wanted to own a mountain, so it started with that. And once it finished, once all the mountain was climbed by a country, then it started okay.

Some people said, okay, we don't need two, three hundred people, climbing a mountain. Maybe one guy can climb it. So that's when another, journey started in the world of mountain. That's when the alpinism came. That's when people like Reinhold Messner came into the Himalayas.

They soloed mountains, they climbed Mount Everest without anyone being around, they climbed. So that's how it started, you know, and after that what happened was all the mountain was climbed in that sense, and then suddenly Polish people said, okay, I think we can climb in winter as well. So that's when all the mountain was climbing in winter, and, yeah, so that's everything was finished, you know. And then came another, big movement, which was about commercial climbing. Then people realized, okay.

Mountain is not actually that dangerous, so maybe we can all climb. So that's when, many many people started a business around mountaineering, and that's when the expedition company started to take place. That's when people hired someone else, to for the tour expedition. So, yeah, it's it has taken a lot of stages, in the world of mountaineering, which I'm very fascinated about. You know?

And And and I was gonna say, has that history and that evolution, have you therefore become a better leader because you know how this has evolved? And what have you learned maybe about being a better teammate when it comes to to doing this? When you run expedition, of course, you see maybe 200 people summit, 200 people summit. But behind that, there's, like, thousand people or kitchen there's, like, kitchen staff, there is best care manager, the Sherpa guides, team leader who's looking at your weather report, your summit windows. There is a lot of, preparation behind it.

Of course, when people summit, they would say, okay. I submitted and there is no credit given to other people. But you have to understand that, you know, there is a lot of people working behind the scenes, you know, from ground level porter to guides to all the things that are happening. So which I realized very soon, you know. So when I started climbing, that's the reason I named the whole project around the Sherpa because I had to give some ideas to to this guy to my people.

You know? Well, that's great. I mean and, you know, that you say that with so much pride. I can I can certainly feel that? And each peak, I'm sure, is a little bit different.

But is there something that you do or some way that you feel or something that you even might say at every summit? Do you have some sort of ritual that, maybe almost, like, is something that you reproduce each time there's a success? And not just for you, but for every one of those people who maybe, you know, you represent, especially when you're summiting. Yeah. To to be honest, I don't think too much in the mountains.

That's I'm being very honest with you. You know, when I'm in the mountain, I just I know that I have to keep myself safe, my teammates safe, and people in the mountains safe. That's our agenda. You know, we don't have many, we don't we're not there to say, like, I'm gonna motivate people, I'm gonna do this, that. We're not there to, do that, you know.

We're just there, we're being very honest with ourselves, so I think that's how I've seen mountain learning. So when I climb a mountain, you know, I I have a very big preparation. I, you know, I prefer it, and I climb it, then I I finish. You know? I I don't go back and saying I did this, I did that.

I just next project for me, it's all about next. What's next? So That's that's great. Yeah. And and I almost feel like that's the only way for it to be successful and that for you to have almost like a discipline around it.

Mhmm. Yeah. Because I feel like if I keep on reminding myself about the past, you know, I'm always gonna be stick to that achievement. I'm not I'm never gonna get myself taking more risks in the future. You know?

So I have I have to have that sense of, what's what I can do next. You know? So that that's always had been my way of life. Yeah. That that idea of what can you do next and even that discipline, I imagine to be honest.

I to be honest. I always, reminded myself, okay, you you don't have to content too much in life. That was the number one thing because when you are in the in the suffering in the mountain, you have to, you see, I I just remind myself, like, what's happening in the reality. We have to understand the reality of the world. You know?

There is so much there is, I think, currently, more than 70 plus active war happening in the world. There is so much of, kids who have who live in poverty. There's so much of countries. So those people, they never choose to be in that scenario. They were just born in it.

Right? But, like, I had the privilege. I had to choose. I can study. I can climb.

So this is in my boundaries. So I think I I understood that since very young age, to be honest that I had that freedom, and I have to use it in the right ways. That has always been my value, but training wise, professional wise, of course, I had to learn a lot of things. I had to go a lot of training and physicality, mentality. It was one aspect, but the other aspect I told you was also realizing how much freedom that I had as an individual and just using that for my momentum.

Yeah? That's great. I I love how you particularly were, sharing that you represent so much. Right? I mean, the Sherpa name, just the idea of what it it means to be a mountaineer and a climber, especially in Nepal, mountaineering in Nepal, sports in Nepal, Nepali Athletes.

You represent all of these entities, and this happens with each journey and each climb and each summit. And while there's a pride involved in all of this, these are also opportunities, and they're opportunities for sponsors and brands and and economic advancement. What does success in this ecosystem of climbing look like for a Sherpa, a for a Nepali man or woman in in 2025? Yeah. Of course.

As you told, mountaineering and tourism is a very big aspect of, Nepal. We're not a country who are, like, very advanced in technology or military or but but we have very, huge amount of natural, things around us. You know? So, like, lot of national parks, lot of, beautiful mountains. Eight of the 14 highest mountains are in in Nepal and lot of 6,000 meter peaks.

So so we have to be, proud of what we have. You know? And Yeah. So I've always, seen that. And to be a Sherpa, you know, in this community, it means that, you know, once you are a successful guide, you are known as a successful person in in this our community.

Once you are a, once you are a guide who is making good amount of money because your whole family depends on you, you come from a village, you have no study, and you make it big in life. You have, you have many people who are, you know, who depend on you to climb for their own dreams, and you make their dream successful. And, you know, you come from as I told you, you come from a village with a very less privilege, no education, your whole family depending upon you. So once you become that successful person, once you can take care of yourself and the family, it's it means you're successful in life, to be honest. You know, for for an Everest, Nepali, you know, here.

And for me, it was also about realizing how much my parents has done. So, like, for example, if you talk about my father and my uncles, they started from a village and and they started as a guide. Mongols, they started as a porter and they became a guide, became leaders. Now they own one of the largest expedition companies in Nepal, not just in Nepal, we do exploration all over the world. For me, it was like, okay, what I can do from here?

You know, okay, they have did did this much what I can do. So I thought, like, okay, they have done so much for the guiding industry. I have to do something for the next generation of, Sherpas to be more like an athlete. So I'm not saying athlete is better, guide is worse. I'm just saying it's like a diversity.

You can be both, you know. Yeah. You can be a guide. You can also be an athlete. When you are athlete, it means you have your own project, you have your own freedom to do something, you have sponsors, you know, you have you have a name for yourself in that scenario.

So I I I always thought, like, okay, I have to be in this spectrum, and I have to improve improve this because my family has already done so much for this industry, so I have to kind of go here. You know, not saying I'm better or worse. I'm just evolving in this, sense. Yeah. Which is great.

Yeah. No. You're leading in in that. And what's missing maybe? You know, Western, athletes and Western sponsorships seem like they, have opportunities that are matched pretty pretty well.

And yet for Nepali, sharp odds and athletes, you know, maybe there's a a gap and and maybe that's improving. But what needs to happen so that more recognition and prominence and economic success can happen for Nepali athletes and Nepali Sherpas and Nepali climbers to get to basically be recognized as leaders in this in this space? Yeah. So for the for the, like, last two and a half years or three years, every day, I was writing hundred of emails to many, little brands and talking about the project or my future, what's gonna happen, and, you know, so but even, today, if I'm being honest, I have zero sponsors. You know?

I'm being very frank. And all my expedition was, of course, it was very easy for me because my family only had a organization which I could be part of and as a guide or as a client. So I only had that, facility, but for me, it was not just about me, you know. I was like, okay. If I could have some scholarship, you know, I could kind of get the next generation could kind of get an opportunity.

I was saying, like, a belief, okay, we have someone from us who looks like us, who is from this community, who is at that level, and we can be that. That was my initial idea, and but now I feel like we have to do something else in that scenario because now we have, done things differently. So rather than just asking for sponsorship from companies, what I'm thinking now is, you know, we we are a brand ourselves, you know, our family. We already have so many things. We have we can do things our in our own also.

You know? We can make our own brand in that scenario as well. You know? We we always don't have to depend on somebody and always ask, for help for somebody. We have to be capable of ourselves.

You know? We cannot always have the picture mentality. But now I think that's how I'm I've been looking forward for my coming years, and I feel like our family now, we are trying to build our own clothing line, our own, thing, and our always motive will be to support, you know, others who didn't have the support. So I feel like this is also making me more interested into marketing that the fact that we have a responsibility. So, yeah, now I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna complain about this.

They didn't support me. They didn't support me. I'll just feel like, okay. I'm here, and let's let's see what we can do. Just just right.

If if it's, you know, if there's a big vacuum, you start to fill it. Right? You do it yourself. Yeah. I I I'm one thing that's sort of inspiring about that is also the responsibility that comes with being in this ecosystem, being in this industry.

You know, the more connected climbers become, the more attracted they come become even to a brand like yours, and they get really, really motivated to try and climb and and get more economic success there, the more access we have to other audiences and markets. And as your whole industry grows, those opportunities grow, and yet there's a risk of having, you know, a minimizing of the culture of Nepali culture or Sherpa culture, and you might maybe leave that behind. So you're part of a new generation Yeah. That is starting to claim some of this. How do you make sure that the brand and the culture still stays at, say, as a Sherpa culture, as a Nepali culture, and that people don't forget that?

Yeah. I think, to be honest, I have seen this in my generation, especially. I think many people, they feel shy to express, themselves. I I've seen this, in today's generation, and they feel, shy to express their culture in that sense, you know, because they would they feel like, okay. They are more influenced by the western or this and that.

Other cultures and they somehow lose their own, culture, you know, because they feel like if they don't if they don't become a part of that big big, culture, they, you know, they cannot be part of the society. So I think this is a very wrong concept. Okay. I get it. You feel insecure because your friends, you know, and all that, but at the same time, I feel like you have to slowly start to realize, that, you know, we as an individual, everybody has their own way of growing up, their own family background, culture, and that's what makes us unique and individual.

That's why we want to travel to other places, learn about those places, you know, that's why I'm very, interested in traveling because I feel like I I could learn something from there, something new, something that keeps me excited as a human being. You know, something to learn from each other and, yeah, I think we have to understand that. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah.

And, I mean, it also is an opportunity for not only for you to learn about other places, other cultures, but there are opportunities for those people now to learn about you and who you are and your background. You're listening to Trust Me. I Know What I'm Doing. Let's take a quick break and come back to our conversation with mountaineer, Nima Sherpa. Stay tuned.

Every story told is a lesson learned, and every lesson learned is a story waiting to be told. I'm Abhay Dandekar, and I share conversations with global Indians and South Asians so everyone can say, trust me, I know what I'm doing. New episodes weekly wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hi. I'm Krish Ashok, author of Masala Lab, the science of Indian cooking, and you're listening to Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing.

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My name is Tan France. Hi. I'm Vivek Murthy. I'm the twenty first surgeon general of The United States, and you're listening to Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing. Hey there.

I'm Abhay Dandekar, and you're listening to Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing. Let's rejoin our conversation now with mountaineer, Nima Sherpa. Let me ask you something that's a little bit different. There's so much attention now, important attention that's paid to all the environmental cost of this. There's so much traffic in in these areas, you know, climbing.

There's so much trash and garbage and pollution that's generated by the industry. And yet if you close it off, if you stop the tourism and if you allow less climbers, it may also decrease the amount of money that flows into these and the attention that the industry generates. How do you balance and fix that? Yes, of course, I do believe in solution and goodness. And I feel like there is a lot of elements to this if you if you see it layer by layer.

So like, there's like the biggest element, you could say, is climate change, you know, which everybody, knows about, everybody talks about, but you have to be you have to understand the reality, you know, you have to know what is truth and what is not, and the reality is, you know, if you talk about Nepal itself, you know, Nepal contributes 0.3, I don't know, some emissions to the world, global carbon emissions, and, but Nepal, India, and these countries will face the most problems because we have the whole Himalayan range, we have the Hindu glaciers, so everything is here in this region, you know, so we suffer from this. So this is one big aspect, and in this aspect, we cannot do much about ourselves because we don't have many big industries which we can shut down, and tomorrow, everything is gonna be fine. You know, this is not our this is not what we can play in. So it has to come from a bigger, level of power, you know, so this is not something that we have, but, of course, there are other aspects to this which you said, like the trash problem. This is where we can take part, small part in need, and this is where I'm also interested because I understand we have gotten so much, from mountains, and it has given us so much, not just for us, for the country, and for the whole world.

And so yeah. Now okay. If I tell you what we are doing, in that sense, I could say I'm very proud in that, that now from this year, which I'm also going, this season, we are implementing technology, to kind of con conserve the nature. How it means is we are last year, we tested a drone, drone which can which can carry, like, 15 KG at that altitude at, like, 6,000 meter altitude, which is a very big, you know, and the drone goes hundred times faster than a human because once you when you're traveling to mountain, it's not a straight path. You know, there's ups and downs and zig and zag, but the drone drone just goes in a straight line.

So I got very fascinated by this idea. Okay. If we could use drone to kind of, you know, clean up, the mountain because it's a lot faster than human being, and it's much safer than human being. So this this was, so I met this, company, AirDift, and they had been working on this for ten years developing drones and but they didn't have a voice. That's okay.

Then they approached us and then I told, okay, this is very fascinating for me, and this is something that I would love to advocate for, and that's what we are doing from this season. We are using drones, and I feel like it's very easy for us If we have the right access and right paperwork, then we can clean the mountains in very fast, and we can keep it very safe for future generation. And I'm very positive about it. I don't think it's a big problem or anything like that. Yeah.

And and do you think that at some point, you need to limit how many people can can access the mountain and and not necessarily have as many climbers? Yeah. So I think this is not something, that we should do because, if I tell told Honesty, just one mountain, Everest, but but the remaining mountains, they don't have much tourism in in that place. If you go to Annapurna, if you go to Dhaulagiri, there is still people who have small tea houses, maybe two, three two days per day. So you have to be very smart and you but the thing we we can do is we can distribute the tourism from one place to the whole Nepal, which we are planning to do in the future.

This is one of my, future planning, is to contribute to tourism in that sense. So as I told you, the problem is not about overtourism. The problem is overtourism in one place, which we have to distribute and and then it's a more safer way to do. But, of course, if you see about tourism, what tourism does to Nepal is the moment a tourist land to airport, the airlines is getting money, the taxi driver is getting paid, the hotel is getting paid, the hotel is getting paid, the port is getting paid. Everyone is getting paid in that scenario, so we have to we cannot say, okay.

Tomorrow, you don't you don't come here. So and at the same time, we cannot, save people not to fulfill their dreams. You know? We are not there to control anyone from, nature. So as I told you, the problem is very simple.

We just have to see what we can do to solve it. Yeah? Let me ask you a couple of very, rapid fire questions, because I'm just so interested in what you have to say on this one. What was your favorite, climbing moment with your dad? Yeah.

If you talk about climbing moment, I think it was always that my dad was someone that I looked up on a lot, and I really I really enjoy when I talk about his journey from a a village boy to a successful businessman. And this is a journey that makes me very motivated every day when I think about how he did it. I because there is no pattern to how he did it. Did he get educated? We had a mentor.

Did he we don't know what what's going through his mind when he did this journey. So this is something that I always look upon him, and that's why I'm always motivated when I'm around him. Yeah. Yeah. Have you have you ever summited together?

Is there is there a particular moment or a particular summit that you've done together that's I think we have a plan in the future for this, but he's all busy somewhere, and he's always but, of course, he has always been there to manage my order report, to manage everything for me in that scenario. He he has been my my support. You know? So Yeah. So there's a collection of moments, looks like.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of lot of things. Yeah. Yeah.

This is maybe an an odd question, but do you actually have a a favorite or a mem most memorable injury that you've ever gotten? Yes. To be honest, I remember very clearly when I was in Pakistan, when I was climbing this mountain called Nanga Parbat, which and me and my climbing partner, Pasang, we were together, and the last 700 meter, we climbed without any rope. And but we just had a very thin rope connected between us. And while coming down, because there was no rope and the path was very icy and all the stones were there, so I I slipped, you know, and I I just screamed his name, and he also listened.

He also fell down, and we we both fell down, I think, five meters, something like that, and then we both had an ice axe, which we stopped, and the degree was very slopey, and that was the moment we realized something happened. But, of course, we stand and we just, okay, and then let's go down. So we were like that because we felt very safe with each other, And, yeah, there are many experiences like that which I remembered, but, of course, as I told you, I always feel safe because I'm with people who love me and who I care for around me. So yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No. That that's great. What's your favorite meal, to have when you're summiting? What's your go to?

Like, everyone, you know, hey. This is what I always have. This is my my my tried and true. What's your favorite, what's your favorite something to eat particularly when you're when you're on summit? Not about food, but, of course, I do always like to drink coffee, because I don't I don't know if it's psychological or I feel like I would get a lot of energy from it if I drink proper two cups of coffee.

So, of course, I always try to give myself, you know, whenever I submit, I drink coffee, and then I feel energy and, yeah, then we go. Alright. So it's so it's no different when when you're up in eight above 8,000 meters or or, or not. So, that's actually, good to know. And and by the way, I mean, is there a a particular like, do you have to be very, very careful about your food when you're up there, when you're on, the expedition?

Yeah. Of course. One of the big problem might be that some people might not have a very good immune system. And as as you go higher, when you have less oxygen, your body feels less immune. So, yeah, you so you might get food poisoning, you might get diarrhea, you might get so many problems, but which I never had too much of that.

I feel like my immune system is pretty good. So whatever I eat at my body, try to consume it good good enough, but, of course, that was talking about myself, but many people do face the problems. And even me, I try to sometimes I try to be also, aware that, you know, if things some things might cause me some problem in my stomach, which might have, you know, caused me more in my, summit push, but as I but to be honest, we don't have a luxury of what we can eat or what we cannot eat in the mountains. You know, we have a very limited amount of weight to carry, and within that weight limit amount of weight, we have to carry salt, sugar, some drinks, some foods. Everything is very limited, which I like about Martinique, to be honest.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Keep it simple. Right?

And at least at least make sure you have your coffee. Okay. Yes. That's the number one tip. That's the number one.

Right. Okay. Speaking of number one, what's the what's your number one song right now on your on your playlist? I I think I'm more into now, Bob Dylan. So it's something, okay.

There was a movie, from Timothee Chalamet, I think, complete unknown, so I've been more getting into it. So I see. I've always liked, the songs, like, old old songs than today's songs like Queens and Beatles, and the the like, it it's more of a melody to me. So yeah. And right now, I'm into Bob Dylan, I think.

Yeah. I provide. Alright. That's great. I'm not sure I would have guessed that.

So that that's terrific. I'll I'll I'll get you out of here on on this. You know, something that I'm I'm fascinated by. Right? When you train to live above that 8,000 meter line Mhmm.

And you have to combat fatigue and hypoxia and extreme weather and extreme cold and wind and and even just this not just all those physical elements, but this overwhelming feeling of perhaps giving up or giving in to all the elements. How have you, at this age, how how do you stay motivated? How do you, mentally stay both strong and yet very peaceful, at the same time? Yeah. I think, of course, the most important thing I think is is your mentality, and it's also you have to realize how big the possibility of life is.

You know? Now you have, people like Elon Musk, you know, who who's planning to do something in Mars, wants to go multiplanetary. So I think you have to understand, okay, this is the reality of life. There are people who are who are thinking beyond, so why can't you see yourself in that, in those, scenario? You know, so I always like to believe that I could I could achieve something in life.

This was always my, to be honest, my motivation in life because I knew a possibility. You see people like steep jobs, you see people like those, and you feel like, okay, you could you could be that also. You know? So, of course, number one thing is you have to understand that you can become that person. Okay?

Yeah. And number two, also, you have to understand there's not gonna be a lot of problems, to be honest. It's not always a good good day, good life. So sometimes you might feel very bored about life, you might feel you have very low energy, you might feel you have so many problems in life, but you have to understand, you know, the moment you feel, you know, you can't, if you feel if you don't feel trust with yourself, you're finished, you know. So I always have this moment when I feel the ground b, when I feel this and that, but at the same time, I realize, okay, Nima, you have done so much to come here.

You can still do it. You know? So that's how I always push myself. And, yeah, mentally, I think I've always kind of been aware of what I can do as a human being. And yeah.

Do you have to even do you have to practice that even when you're not on the mountain? And, by the way, does practicing that when you're not on the mountain translate to at least successfully being mentally strong and peaceful when you are on the mountain? Yes. I think that that's a very big part, and the most I found I found the best way actually to tell this is to learn. The more you learn, the more more you realize you don't know anything.

And Right. And the more you want to learn, the more you want to push. You know, for example, I have so many books if you see on my table itself. So, for example, right now, I'm reading this book, which is called Man of Everest. It's of Tensimori and Philippa.

Yeah. I have this book of winter winter climbing. And then there is so many books, like, from one of this is I got this from, like, this is Shah Rukh Khan, Bhai Gurkha. And then you have Yeah. So I think you have to keep a very, learning mentality, and the more as I told you, the more you learn, the more you want to learn, and the more thing you know that you know anything about life.

That's what makes you feel integrated every day. You want to wake up and you have to learn something more. That's, I think, what makes you mentally also strong. The fact that you have so much to improve. Yeah.

Mhmm. Yeah. Just this constant growth mindset and whether it's learning from others, but so many who are currently learning from you, so excited about, what you've accomplished and all that's ahead. Nima, thank you so much for such a wonderful conversation, and we wish you all the best. And I hope you can join us again down the road.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, guys. This was a very, very chilling, like, kind of like a podcast conversation for me. Thanks so much, Nima.

And please learn more about him as an athlete and a mountaineer at 14peaksexpedition.com. And all the links are in the show notes. Once again, if you're enjoying these, please take a moment to write a kind review and follow along on social media and share this with someone you know. Till next time, I'm Abhay Dandekar.