Published: 16 August 2017 Making rugged Norwegian nature accessible for more than just expert hikers and extreme sports enthusiasts is not a task just anyone could perform. For more than ten years, the work has been carried out with award-winning precision by the representatives of a group of people who live in, off of, and for the mountains – the Sherpas, whose traditional home is in eastern Himalaya, India, Tibet, and Nepal. The men who are tidying things up in Norwegian nature come from the last-mentioned country. They have already managed to leave indelible traces in our nation’s mountains, and the stories about their physical strength are enough to astonish the average Norwegian couch potato.

Sherpas .

Photo : Haaken M. Christensen

Immense respect for nature “The Sherpas are among the world’s most robust ethnic groups. They have amazing stamina and can work at the same fast pace for months. As a rule-of-thumb, they can carry their own body weight for days without experiencing fatigue. Of course, they can also carry heavy loads and cover great distances. In Nepal, I have seen some of them carry more than 200 kilos.” Trail-builder, mountain farmer, and master carpenter Geirr Vetti is a prime mover in this field. For years – twelve, to be exact – he has arranged contact between Sherpas from Nepal and various trail-building projects all across Norway. He believes the Sherpas’ intimate awareness of their surroundings is a perfect match for Norwegian conditions. “The Sherpas are people of nature. They build trails in Nepal in the same way as they do here in Norway.” Although the farmer from Luster in Skjolden received the Cultural Heritage Award from the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage in 2012 – partly because of his commitment to helping arrange work programmes, initiating projects and cultural monuments, according to the Directorate – it is the labourers from the east (“Sherpa” translates directly as “easterner”) whom Vetti praises when he talks about the work they have done together.

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“They have immense respect for nature and life on Earth. If the rest of the world had a fraction of this respect, we would not have problems with the climate and pollution.” He believes there is only one thing they might learn from us: “Organising.” Mountain Goat of the Year – 2017 Geirr Vetti is not the only one who has won an award for this work. Earlier this summer, when NRK’s “Summer Train” stopped at Åndalsnes, it was the Sherpas themselves who walked away with the award for “Mountain goat of the year”, which is awarded annually by The Norwegian Trekking Association and the Norwegian Mountain Festival to “recipients who have contributed to getting more people outdoors and on hikes in a nature-friendly manner”. The award committee stated as their basis: “They have made a major contribution to the Norwegian mountain heritage through their efforts to facilitate access. In Romsdalen, examples of this include the trail up to Nesaksla as well as various sections of the Romsdalseggen mountain ridge. The Sherpa people are humble in their relationship to the mountains, nature, and mountain-goers, which makes them worthy recipients of the 2017 Mountain Goat of the Year award.” Sonam Sherpa accepted the award on behalf of his fellow labourers with pride and humility: “Thank you very much. We Sherpas are a mountain people. And we are very happy to have the opportunity to come to Norway where we are building stone stairs in the mountains. I will take this award that we have received home to my people, the Sherpas”, he said to NRK during the award ceremony on the TV programme “Summer Train.”

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