The Women

Compared to most foreign expeditions, the Nepalese women's team is young, inexperienced and financially disadvantaged. A normal Everest expedition team would have had the experience of climbing at least one other peak at an altitude of 6,000 meters or more. The 1996 Indian women's Everest expedition, for example, trained rigorously and climbed the 7,822 meter Nanda Devi peak prior to their Everest attempt.

However, what the Nepalese women's team lacks in experience, it makes up for in courage, drive and determination. There is also a strong fatalistic element that surrounds this climb. The women believe that they will succeed and that God will see them through. The limitations of their climbing abilities or experience seem secondary.

Kesang Dikki Sherpa, member

25 year-old Dikki Sherpa joined the women's team at the last minute. Dikki had also done the Austrian climbing training, but she had been better at the lodge management aspects of the course than the more physically demanding climbing techniques. Nonetheless, she says, "I've done the training course and I think I should pursue it further. ... I may not be as strong as the others, but I still want to try."

Dikki, who looks more like a dancer than an athlete, had gone to a well-known missionary school and speaks good English. Unlike her teammates, she has little experience as a porter as she's grown up in Kathmandu city. Her physical abilities notwithstanding, she was equally determined to be part of the expedition.