“Normally very busy, but not now because of Maoist,” explained Dawa Sherpa, an expedition cook who works on Everest and Cho Oyu in the spring, and Ama Dablam in the fall. During the winters, he briefly returns to his family in Kathmandu, and then works for trekking groups. Dawa said that business is down 70 percent in the Annapurna Sanctuary alone, circling back to the “donations” demanded by the Maoists. I did the math: If a guide service has to pay $150 extra per client — say, in a commercial group of 12 — the trip costs would jump by nearly $2,000. This brass tax, coupled with the risks of operating inside Maoist-controlled areas, has definitely impacted visitation.
“Everyone is scared to come there,” Dawa explained with a furrowed brow. He must support a wife and three small girls, and this situation has pushed him to the verge of bankruptcy. A moment later Dawa smiled warmly, poured me another Sherpa tea, and said, “We need the white monkeys to keep climbing here.”
At a Namche Bazaar hotel, a well-educated Nepali conservationist, Sonam, waved me over to chat about “the situation” in Nepal. Only two days ago I had stood on Ama Dablam’s frozen summit, and now I was crashing hard from the oxygen-rich altitude. Sonam offered me a glass of high-octane local Chang — perfect to sedate me, ideal to open him up.
Sonam, like many at the time, saw Gyanendra as a symbol of hope. “I felt he was a good leader and could steer this country,” he explained. For more than 45 minutes, we drank Chang and I watched Sonam run through an array of emotions, from a proud and passionate Nepali to a guarded statesman. “Five, maybe 10 years ago, people had hope, but today we have no leaders and we have no faith,” he explained.
I leaned in close, breaking a personal space boundary. My eyes searched his for the answer I had been seeking for two expeditions. Finally, I asked him the million-dollar question: “Who is running this country?”
Sonam slowly set down his glass and leaned in even closer, his eyes wide as moons. He took a deep breath and whispered, “Fear is ruling here.”