Why Would a Sherpa-Only Team Scale Everest? Because It’s Their Turn : Climbing: After decades of guiding mountaineering tourists, the tough Nepal Buddhists reach a personal summit on third try.

The full Khumbu moon lit the ice like frozen lightning. On the flanks of the world’s highest mountain, which borders the land where they have lived for centuries, the Sherpas were at work.

But this expedition was unique: For the first time an all-Sherpa team was climbing Mt. Everest. The men of the 1991 Sherpa Everest Expedition carried the pride of their people.

“It is for all the Sherpas,” said team member Sonam Dendu, who had topped Everest twice before.

An ethnic enclave of 35,000 Buddhists living mainly in the Hindu kingdom of Nepal, the Sherpas are well-known as high-altitude porters for mountain expeditions and guides for tourist treks. But that image is both recent and superficial.

Until Westerners created a job market in the early 1900s, Sherpas had never scaled mountains. They passed among them with respect, acknowledging distant peaks as the homes of gods.

Since Nepal opened its borders in 1949, Sherpa culture has been tested. The economy has been restructured by mountaineering and commercial trekking. Gore-Tex parkas have replaced chubas , the traditional robes, and Snickers bars have become as common as yak butter.

Although the Sherpas’ lives have improved materially, some fear for their culture. In the mid-1980s they began an effort to regain their ethnic bearings, reviving traditional ceremonies and building cultural centers.

A 32-year-old guide named Lopsang Sherpa began dreaming of an all-Sherpa Everest climb to honor legendary Sherpa mountaineers.

American Peter Athans, who had scaled Everest in 1990 with Lopsang’s assistance, helped raise money for the expedition. Jim Carrier was invited to write about the Sherpa people for National Geographic through the window of this historic climb.

“As they reached for the heights of the Earth, I would explore the heart of their culture,” he wrote.

When Carrier first visited Khumbu, the Sherpa region closest to Mt. Everest, in March, 1991, he was dispirited by the commercialization.

As Carrier and his guide, Sherap Jangbu, made the two-day hike to Namche Bazar, Khumbu’s unofficial capital, they passed the Apple Pie restaurant and the Cheap Lodge.

Amid the rock-and-ice jumble of the Everest Base Camp, at 17,600 feet, Carrier met the other seven Sherpa climbers. A support team, including Athans and other foreigners, would aid their push.

On April 1, the Sherpa expedition began its ascent. The Sherpas burned incense as an offering and headed for the peak they call Chomolungma, “goddess mother of the world.”

Sherpas first reached this part of the Himalayas in the 16th Century, migrating south from eastern Tibet. ( Sherpa means “eastern people” in Tibetan.) In the harsh, high Khumbu area they raised yaks and traded.

In 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa raised in Khumbu, became the first to reach Everest’s 29,028-foot summit. Some Sherpas accused Tenzing of killing the golden goose. They thought the feat would end mountaineering in the Himalayas.

It did the opposite. By 1976, all but eight of Nepal’s 25,000-foot-plus peaks had been topped.

Today, more than half of all Sherpas live off tourism and mountaineering. Cooks, guides and camp staff are among the best-paid people in Nepal. Sherpas themselves rarely carry loads on tourist treks. They hire $3-a-day porters from among Nepalese ethnic groups who aspire to be “sherpas,” which has become a job title for a mid-level camp assistant.

The Sherpas who climb on hazardous high-altitude expeditions are the elite. They can get from $1,600 to $2,000 for three months’ work. For most Sherpas it is a job, but they’re not immune to the challenging spirit. Seventy-three Sherpas have reached Everest’s summit.

Sherpa grace, selflessness and generosity under pressure come from Tibetan Buddhism. Sherpas believe that life is an endless cycle and that a holy life guarantees reincarnation as a human, rather than as a snake or dog.

Sherpas earn religious merit by their gentle thoughts, nonviolence, good deeds and gifts to lamas. Religion is practiced daily.

Assimilation into Nepal’s Hindu majority threatens Sherpa culture even more than Western wealth does. Most government officials are Hindu and tend to regard Sherpas as backward.

When Hillary climbed Everest, there were no public schools for Sherpas. After parents petitioned him, he built the first Sherpa school in 1961. He has since helped build and equip 25 others.

By April 14, the Sherpa expedition had established camps as high as 26,000 feet on a barren ridge where 100 m.p.h. gusts buffeted the climbers.

On May 1, a second Sherpa attempt at Everest’s summit had been repulsed by 60-m.p.h. winds. The team’s strength and time were running out. They would have one more chance.

On May 8, a runner reached Namche with the crucial message: The Sherpa team had left at 2:30 a.m. for the final push. At 9 a.m. they radioed back: “We’re on top.”