In July 2023, the mountaineer Tenjen Lama Sherpa guided a Norwegian climber to summit the world’s 14 highest peaks in record time. In a sport that demands an alchemy of sinewy resolve and high-altitude faith, Mr. Lama did everything his client did and more. But she received most of the money, fame and attention.

2023年7月，登山家「喇嘛」坦贊·夏爾巴帶領一名挪威登山者以創紀錄的時間登頂了世界上14座最高峰。在這項需要堅定決心和高度信念的運動中，「喇嘛」做到了他的客戶所做的一切，甚至做得更多。但那位客戶獲得了大部分的金錢、名聲和關注。

The kind of lucrative endorsements enjoyed by foreign athletes are not usually given to Nepal’s ethnic Sherpas. For them, the profession of Himalayan guide offers a path out of deep poverty, but also a possible route — strewed with avalanches and icefalls — to a premature death.

尼泊爾的雪巴人通常得不到外國運動員享有的那種利潤豐厚的代言合同。對他們來說，喜馬拉雅嚮導的職業提供了一條擺脫極度貧困的道路，但也是一條到處都是雪崩和冰瀑，可能通往過早死亡的道路。

Mr. Lama could not afford to rest after guiding the Norwegian, he told The New York Times. Life in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was expensive. He could not read or write, but he wanted his sons to get the best education, a costly endeavor.

「喇嘛」對《紐約時報》說，在為挪威人充當嚮導之後，他還是無法休息。尼泊爾首都加德滿都的生活很昂貴。他不識字，但希望兒子們得到最好的教育，而那需要花很多錢。

So only three months after climbing the 14 peaks, Mr. Lama was back working as a Sherpa — his name, his ethnicity, his profession and, ultimately, his fate. Another foreigner chasing another record had hired him as a guide. This time, it was Gina Marie Rzucidlo, who was trying to become the first American woman to climb the world’s tallest mountains. Another American woman, also guided by a Sherpa, was climbing separately in pursuit of the same record.

因此，在攀登了14座山峰後僅僅三個月，「喇嘛」就回來繼續雪巴人的工作了——「夏爾巴」是他的名字、種族、職業，最終也是他的宿命。另一個追求新紀錄的外國人雇他當導遊。這一次是吉娜·瑪麗·魯西迪洛，她試圖成為第一位攀登世界最高峰的美國女性。另一名美國女子也在雪巴人的帶領下單獨攀登，追求同樣的記錄。

But on Oct. 7, avalanches broke loose on Mount Shishapangma in Tibet. Both pairs of climbers were killed.

但在10月7日，西藏希夏邦馬山發生雪崩。兩對登山者都遇難了。

Mr. Lama’s death was the latest in a series of tragedies to shear his family tree of siblings. In 2021, Norbu Sherpa, the oldest of the four mountain-climbing brothers, ended his life after a love affair went wrong. And last May, Phurba Sherpa, the second oldest, died during a rescue mission on Mount Everest.

「喇嘛」之死是他家兄弟們一系列悲劇中最新的一起。2021年，四位以登山為業的兄弟中最年長的諾布·夏爾巴在經歷了一段戀愛悲劇後結束了自己的生命。去年5月，排行老二的普巴·夏爾巴在珠穆朗瑪峰的救援任務中喪生。

The last remaining brother, Pasdawa Sherpa, learned about Mr. Lama’s death after returning from an expedition to the world’s seventh- and eighth-highest mountains.

最後一位兄弟帕斯達瓦·夏爾巴在從世界第七和第八高峰迴來後得知了「喇嘛」的死訊。

For three days, Mr. Pasdawa traveled by foot, bus and plane to Mr. Lama’s apartment in Kathmandu. He knelt before his brother’s Buddhist altar, eight candles flickering above. Marigolds and a ceremonial cloth surrounded a portrait of Mr. Lama, grinning in an orange snowsuit.

帕斯達瓦步行、乘坐公車和飛機，花了三天時間抵達「喇嘛」在加德滿都的公寓。他跪在哥哥的佛壇前，八支蠟燭在上方搖曳。金盞花和儀式布圍繞著「喇嘛」的遺像，照片上，他身穿橙色的防雪服，咧嘴笑著。

Mr. Pasdawa closed his eyes and prayed for his dead brothers. He said he prayed for himself, too. He would have to persevere in the only life he knew.

帕斯達瓦閉上眼睛，為死去的兄弟們祈禱。他說他也為自己祈禱。他必須在他唯一熟悉的生活中堅持下去。

“I will keep climbing mountains,” Mr. Pasdawa said. “I have no other options.”

「我會繼續登山，」帕斯達瓦說。「我沒有其他選擇。」

This is what a Sherpa does: He lugs heavy packs and oxygen cylinders for foreign clients. He cooks and sets up camp. He navigates through snowstorms and clears piles of trash. He wakes before dawn and spends hours driving metal pickets into the snow so a rope line can protect foreign climbers. He trudges past icefalls where bus-size slabs have buried other Sherpas in frozen graveyards. (On the mountain, he is usually a he; female Sherpas don’t tend to work as guides.)

雪巴人的工作如下：為外國客戶搬運沉重的包裹和氧氣瓶。做飯和搭帳篷。在暴風雪中穿行，清理成堆的垃圾。天不亮就起床，花幾個小時在雪地上固定金屬樁，攔出保護外國登山者的繩索。艱難地走過冰瀑，那些大巴車大小的板狀冰體下，是雪巴人的墳場。(上山的雪巴人通常是男性；女性雪巴人一般不做嚮導。)

Compared with the client, a Sherpa spends far more time in the so-called death zone: elevations above 26,000 feet, or 8,000 meters, where human cognition slows without supplemental oxygen and altitude sickness can quickly turn fatal.

與客戶相比，雪巴人在所謂的「死亡地帶」（海拔8000米以上的地方）能待的時間要長得多，在沒有氧氣補充的情況下，人類的認知會變遲鈍，高原反應可能在短時間內導致死亡。

Walung, the village in northeastern Nepal where Mr. Lama and his brothers grew up, has produced about 100 expedition guides over the past couple of decades.

位於尼泊爾東北部的瓦隆村是「喇嘛」和兄弟們長大的地方，在過去的幾十年裡，這裡培養了大約100名探險嚮導。

Of those 100, 15 have died on the job, locals said.

當地人說，在這100人中，有15人在工作中死亡。

The high mortality rate highlights the inequity of a life-or-death sport. Roughly one-third of the more than 335 people who have died on Everest are Sherpas. Yet their expertise earns them wages that, while high by local standards, are only a fraction of what most of their clients shell out for their expeditions.

高死亡率凸顯了這項生死攸關的運動的不平等。在珠峰上遇難的335人中，大約有三分之一是雪巴人。然而，專業技能給他們帶來的工資雖然以當地標準來看很高，但與大多數客戶為自己的探險所付出的費用相比只是一個零頭。

“We help the foreigners,” said Makalu Lakpa, an experienced guide from Walung and a close friend of Mr. Lama’s. “It is very dangerous, but we do it.”

「我們幫助外國人，」來自瓦隆的經驗豐富的嚮導、「喇嘛」的密友馬卡·魯拉克帕說。「這很危險，但我們還是這麼做了。」

Nepal’s mountaineering industry, a crucial money earner for an impoverished country, caters to those willing to spend upward of $100,000 to summit a single Himalayan peak in luxurious style. Almost all are foreigners. In recent years, their numbers have surged, as have logjams at high-altitude choke points and icefalls, increasing the chance of accidents. Some expedition leaders also believe that climate change is leading to unpredictable weather patterns, increasing the risk of deadly avalanches.

尼泊爾的登山產業是這個貧窮國家的重要收入來源，它迎合了那些願意花10萬美元以上，以奢侈的方式登上一座喜馬拉雅山峰的人。他們幾乎都是外國人。近年來，這個人群的數量激增，在高海拔的瓶頸路段和冰瀑出現壅堵，增加了事故發生的可能性。一些探險隊領隊還認為，氣候變化正在導致不可預測的天氣模式，增加了致命雪崩的風險。

During last year’s spring climbing season at Mount Everest, the Nepali government issued permits to 478 foreigners, the most ever. Eighteen people, including six Sherpas, died on the mountain, another record.

在去年珠穆朗瑪峰的春季登山季，尼泊爾政府向478名外國人發放了許可證，是歷年之最。包括六名雪巴人在內的18人在山上死亡，這也是歷年之最。

So far this spring, six people have been confirmed dead in their quests to summit Mount Everest, and three are missing.

The boom in expeditions has brought both inexperienced climbers, who are more likely to need rescuing from high elevations, and record-driven mountaineers, who push themselves and their teams to the limits. Each foreign trekker, whether beginner or expert, depends on at least one Sherpa, often several.

探險活動的興起帶來了缺乏經驗、更有可能在高海拔地區需要救援的登山者，也帶來了追求記錄、將自己和團隊推向極限的登山者。每個外國徒步旅行者，無論是初學者還是專家，都至少要依靠一名雪巴人，經常會需要數名。

Beyond the economic imbalance, Sherpas are often relegated to the footnotes of mountaineering history. With the first ascent of Everest in 1953, Edmund Hillary comes first in the global consciousness, Tenzing Norgay second. One exception is the airport near Everest Base Camp, the Tenzing-Hillary Airport.

除了經濟上的不平衡，雪巴人在登山史上的地位也常常被淡忘。1953年，埃德蒙·希拉蕊首次登上珠穆朗瑪峰，在世人眼中他排在第一，一起登山的丹增·諾蓋總被排在第二。珠穆朗瑪峰大本營附近的丹增-希拉蕊機場是唯一的例外。

In the spring of 2023, Kristin Harila, a Norwegian professional mountaineer, began her race to beat the record for the fastest ascent of the world’s 14 highest peaks. At the time, the record stood at six months and six days. Before that, the record was eight years.

2023年春天，挪威職業登山運動員克里斯汀·哈利拉開始了打破世界14座最高峰最快登頂紀錄的嘗試。當時的世界紀錄是六個月零六天。再往前的紀錄是八年。

The slogan of Ms. Harila’s sponsored expedition, a 92-day sprint across the high Himalayas, was “She Moves Mountains.” To succeed, she needed the guidance of Sherpas, especially Mr. Lama.

哈利拉在贊助下進行了為期92天的喜馬拉雅山衝刺探險活動，活動口號是「她移動了高山」。要想取得成功，她需要雪巴人的引導，尤其是「喇嘛」。

The first mountain was Shishapangma, where Mr. Lama would die half a year later. Trouble struck early, in the form of paperwork. China refused visas to six of the 11 Sherpas on her team. Mr. Lama lugged and hammered and pulled and hefted, making up for the missing half-dozen men. He was fast and efficient, with no unneeded movements in the thin air, Ms. Harila said.

第一座山是希夏邦馬山，也就是半年後「喇嘛」喪生的地方。麻煩很早就出現了，首先是在手續方面。中國拒絕了她團隊中11名雪巴人中六人的簽證。「喇嘛」又拖又錘，又拉又扛，承擔了那空缺的六人的工作。哈利拉說，他速度快，效率高，在稀薄的空氣中沒有任何不必要的動作。

“Lama did all the jobs,” she said. “No one would have summited if Lama wasn’t there.”

「『喇嘛』做了所有的工作，」她說。「如果沒有『喇嘛』，沒有人能登頂。」

Whenever he could, after his exploits — 37 summits of the world’s tallest mountains by the time he died — Mr. Lama would return home to Walung, an isolated hamlet in northeastern Nepal. Walung sits in a high-altitude valley below barley and millet fields, where shaggy yaks graze, hunched against the cold. Mr. Lama and his brothers grew up herding livestock. They played soccer with a knot of worn socks serving as a ball.

到「喇嘛」去世之前，他已經取得了登上了37座世界最高山峰的成就。一有時間，他就會回到瓦隆的家，那是尼泊爾東北部一個與世隔絕的小村莊，坐落在一個高海拔的山谷裡，下面是大麥和谷田，毛茸茸的氂牛在田間吃草，弓著背抵禦寒冷。「喇嘛」和兄弟們從小放牧牲畜。用破舊的襪子打結當足球踢。

Three of Mr. Lama’s brothers died in infancy, a common arithmetic in these Himalayan foothills. As the second-youngest child, Mr. Lama was dispatched to the local monastery, which could be counted on to feed an extra mouth. There, he picked up the name Lama, given to monks of the Tibetan Buddhist faith.

「喇嘛」有三個兄弟在襁褓中就夭折了，這在喜馬拉雅山麓地區很常見。作為家中第二小的孩子，「喇嘛」被送去當地的寺院，指望那裡能多養活一張嘴。他在那裡得到了「喇嘛」這個名字，那是對藏傳佛教僧侶的稱呼。

At the time, Sherpas who became professional mountaineers mostly came from another part of northeastern Nepal. But in the early 2000s, a climber from Walung, Mingma Sherpa, became the first South Asian to summit the world’s 14 tallest mountains. (Most Sherpas use the surname Sherpa, but that does not mean they are related.)

當時，成為職業登山者的雪巴人大多來自尼泊爾東北部的另一個地區。但在本世紀初，來自瓦隆的明馬·夏爾巴成為第一個登上世界14座最高山峰的南亞人。(大多數雪巴人都姓夏爾巴，但這並不意味著他們是親戚。)

Mr. Mingma and his three brothers eventually started Seven Summit Treks, which now organizes about a third of all Everest expeditions. Mr. Mingma hired most of his guides from Walung.

明馬和他的三個兄弟最終創辦了七峰探險公司，目前該公司組織了大約三分之一的珠峰探險活動。明馬的大部分嚮導都是從瓦隆雇來的。

Mr. Lama’s oldest brother was too old when the climbing craze began in the village. But the four other brothers joined Seven Summit Treks, turning the company into a true Walung fraternity. Mr. Lama, who had given up the monkhood and married, joined the mountaineering industry about a decade ago. He started as a porter and rope fixer, then graduated to guide.

當村裡開始興起登山熱潮時，「喇嘛」的大哥已經太老了。但其他四兄弟加入了七峰探險公司，把公司變成了一個真正的瓦隆兄弟會。「喇嘛」已經放棄出家並結婚，大約在十年前加入登山行業。他一開始負責搬運和繩索固定，後來晉陞為嚮導。

“We ate the same food, the same tea, but those brothers, they were extra strong,” said Mr. Lakpa, Mr. Lama’s friend from Walung. “Lama was the strongest.”

「我們吃同樣的食物，喝同樣的茶，但這家兄弟，他們特別強壯，」「喇嘛」在瓦隆的朋友拉克帕說。「『喇嘛』是最強的。」

In 2019, Mr. Lama and his three brothers entered the Guinness World Records, when they climbed Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain. In a photo taken at the summit, the siblings smiled, each in a bright suit, the air light with their exhilaration.

2019年，「喇嘛」和他的三個兄弟登上了世界第三高的康城章嘉峰，創造了吉尼斯世界紀錄。在山頂上拍攝的一張照片中，兄弟們都微笑著，大家都穿著鮮艷的登山服，空氣中洋溢著他們的喜悅。

Breaking records, as Mr. Lama did, means substantially more earning power. An average summit earns a guide less than $4,000; an 8,000-meter mountain can bring about $7,500. Mr. Lama, because of his 14-peak achievement, was poised to make about $9,700 per climb, some of the highest fees a Sherpa can command. Still, it is far less than what a top foreign climber can raise through endorsements — and Sherpas’ jobs involve more danger.

像「喇嘛」這樣打破紀錄，意味著收入大幅增加。一次普通登頂的收入不到4000美元；一座8000米高的山可以得到7500美元的報酬。由於他14次登頂的成就，「喇嘛」每次登頂的收入約為9700美元，這是雪巴人能拿到的最高收入之一。儘管如此，這還是遠遠低於外國頂級登山者通過代言所能籌集到的資金，而且雪巴人的工作更危險。

Even as Walung natives rose to the top mountaineering ranks, the overall number of Sherpas in the business was declining. Some of the most successful have moved overseas, part of an exodus of Nepalis from a country plagued by corruption and poverty. Few guides want their own children to follow in their path.

儘管瓦隆當地人躋身登山運動的頂級行列，但從事這一行業的雪巴人的總數卻在下降。一些最成功的人也和大批尼泊爾人一樣，在離開這個受腐敗和貧困困擾的國家，移居海外。幾乎沒有哪個嚮導希望自己的孩子繼承父業。

The family of a guide who dies is now entitled to an insurance payout of about $11,250, far more than the few hundred dollars on offer before. But Pema Yangji Sherpa, Mr. Lama’s widow, still worries that might not be enough to keep her boys from the same job that killed their father and uncle.

遇難嚮導的家屬現在有權獲得約11250美元的保險賠付，遠高於之前提供的幾百美元。但「喇嘛」的遺孀白瑪·楊吉·夏爾巴仍然擔心，這可能不足以讓她的兒子們遠離害死他們父親和叔叔的那種工作。

“I want my sons to leave Nepal, to study abroad in a country where they can have a better future,” she said. “I don’t like the mountains.”

「我希望我的兒子們離開尼泊爾，去一個他們能有更好未來的國家留學，」她說。「我不喜歡山。」

At first there is white snow, blue ice and dark rock. In an instant, gravity, spurred by wind and the tiniest of disturbances, transforms frozen matter into a deadly force. Avalanches thunder, and then they smother.

起初是白色的雪，藍色的冰和黑色的岩石。頃刻間，重力在風和最微小擾動的刺激下，將冰凍的物質轉化為致命的力量。雪崩如雷��般響起，然後鋪天蓋地而來。

Shishapangma, in Tibet, is considered the easiest of the 14 peaks. Still, nearly one in 10 climbers dies attempting its ascent. On Oct. 7, Mr. Lama was guiding Ms. Rzucidlo, one of two American climbers making their attempt. Ahead of them were Anna Gutu and her guide, Mingmar Sherpa. With uncertain weather ahead, other climbers retreated. The two Americans and two Sherpas persevered. The women had just this mountain left before a chance at the American 14-peak record.

西藏的希夏邦馬峰被認為是14座山峰中最容易的一座。儘管如此，仍有近十分之一的登山者在攀登過程中死亡。10月7日，「喇嘛」正在指導拉祖齊洛，她是兩名嘗試登山的美國人之一。走在他們前面的是安娜·古圖和她的嚮導明馬·夏爾巴。由於未來的天氣情況不明朗，其他登山者撤退了。兩個美國人和兩個雪巴人堅持留下來。這兩名女子只剩下這座山，就有機會打破美國的登頂14座山峰紀錄。

Separate avalanches claimed each pair.

四人都被雪崩奪去了生命。

The rivalry between the two Americans was so intense that it may have spurred them to dangerous heights, other climbers said.

其他登山者說，兩位美國人之間的競爭太過激烈，這可能促使她們去挑戰危險的高度。

At the start of the 2024 climbing season, Seven Summit Treks ordered Mr. Pasdawa, Mr. Lama’s youngest sibling, to work as a guide on the same mountain where Mr. Lama had died.

2024年登山季開始時，七峰探險公司讓「喇嘛」最小的弟弟帕斯達瓦在「喇嘛」喪生的那座山擔任嚮導。

A Shishapangma excursion will earn him about $3,000, Mr. Pasdawa said. For the men of Walung, especially those like him who had to leave school after just a couple of years, there are only two jobs: farming and mountaineering.

帕斯達瓦說，希夏邦馬登山之旅能讓他賺到大約3000美元。對於瓦隆人來說，尤其是像他這樣剛畢業幾年就要離開學校的人，只有兩份工作可做：務農和登山。

There is another reason, though, for Mr. Pasdawa to travel to Shishapangma: to recover the body of his older brother, one of the world’s greatest mountaineers.

不過，帕斯達瓦前往希夏邦馬還有另一個原因：尋找他的哥哥、世上最偉大登山者之一的遺體。

In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, to which the Sherpas adhere, the dead should be cremated at home. Only then, after the purification of flames, can their souls reincarnate.

根據雪巴人秉守的藏傳佛教傳統，死者應該在家中火化。只有這樣，經過火焰的凈化，他們的靈魂才能轉世。

In mid-May, a team led by a Nepali climber found the bodies of Ms. Gutu and Mr. Mingmar. Their remains were evacuated from Tibet to Kathmandu.

5月中旬，一名尼泊爾登山者帶領的一個團隊發現了古圖和明馬的遺體。他們的遺體從西藏轉移到了加德滿都。

But as May drew to a close, Mr. Pasdawa was still waiting for his visa to Tibet. The spring climbing season will soon end. Along with Ms. Rzucidlo, his brother is still out there somewhere on the mountain, frozen in his orange snowsuit.

但是，隨著5月接近尾聲，帕斯達瓦仍在等待前往西藏的簽證。春季登山季即將結束。他的哥哥和魯西迪洛還在山上的某個地方，穿著橙色的防寒服，凍在冰雪之中。

“It’s not certain that I can find his body,” Mr. Pasdawa said. “But I will do my best.”

「我不確定能不能找到他的遺體，」帕斯達瓦說。「但我會盡力。」