Everest climbers tell hidden story of Nepal earthquakes

Within days of thinking he was going to die in Nepal, climber Jim Davidson was trying to prevent the Sherpas from suffering that fate.

At Mount Everest's base camp, tents of hundreds of climbers hoping to make the deadly trek span as far as the eye can see. Mere miles away sit villages with hospitals, schools and homes. The villages weren't built to serve tourists; they're home to the Sherpa people.

Davidson, 52, was in his tent on the Everest path above base camp April 25 when the earthquake and ensuing avalanches hit. Off to the right, he heard the rumble of a landslide in the distance. Seconds later, the same sound came from the left. Both were coming right for him.

"My judgment when I came out of my tent was that we probably weren't going to live through this," Davidson said. "Probably (live) another 30 seconds or a minute."

He turtled back into his tent, zipped photos of friends and family under his coat and prayed he'd get to see them again. Twelve days later, he would. Meanwhile, he and the other climbers who were helicoptered down from the various camps above base helped villagers salvage what raw materials were left.

These villages have existed along the side of the Himalaya Mountains for 600 years. Tucked against two major tectonic plates, earthquakes have been a daily threat for generations. The Sherpa people are resourceful, building — and rebuilding — homes out of mud, rocks and lumber that has to be carried from lower elevations.

The materials, including a tree trunk that served as the frame of a home's roof, which Davidson helped salvage, provide the necessary shelter to survive in remote Nepal, especially as monsoon season is scheduled to strike in the coming days.

The continuing struggles of remote Nepal tend not to be at the forefront of foreigners' minds now, a month after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. Davidson and his friend Alan Arnette, 58, who also experienced the avalanches on Everest last month, reminded Fort Collins what's still happening halfway around the world while speaking at the Coloradoan's Nepal relief fundraiser at First Presbyterian Church on Wednesday.

Countries ruined by natural disasters receive international media attention in the hours after the event, showing the world a sad child standing next to rubble. The media share the death toll (7,040 in Nepal) and how much it will cost to return to normal, then move on to the next story. But as the rest of the world begins to forget about Nepal, life there continues.

Did you know three aftershocks with magnitudes of 4.2 or greater rocked the country just Wednesday?

"Here's the real story … (my Nepali friend's) cow died," Arnette said. "... That cow was going to grow into a big cow, and that cow was going to create manure, and that manure was going to be fertilizer to help grow potatoes, and potatoes are a staple of their diet.

"Losing a cow is huge for an agricultural lifestyle. Those are the stories that don't get told. The kids who aren't going to learn English and potentially have a better life because their school was destroyed, maybe their teacher was killed, and they were the only teacher in that village. Who's going to take their place?"

Nepal, one of the poorest countries on Earth, still needs us.

The $2,041.58 donated Wednesday by Coloradoan readers to the Thame Sherpa Heritage Fund is nice, but is nothing in comparison to the $5 billion to $6 billion Nepal needs.

There are plenty of other charities and organizations you can support to help get Nepal back on its feet — the Pangboche Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund, Alex Lowe, the Red Cross, etc. Or you could visit. It's more expensive and time consuming than writing a check, but the primary industry of Nepal is tourism, and it's beautiful. To quote Davidson, the skies are bluer than Colorado — if that's even possible. Kathmandu, the capital, was barely hit by the earthquake and would provide ample points of interest.

Taking a flight halfway across the globe is no small ask, but do something. Give. Pray. Promote.

We live on along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains where our biggest threat of natural disaster is a supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park maybe someday — but probably never — erupting and burying us in ash.

Nepal could be ravaged again tomorrow.

For insight and analysis of athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.