Ang Dorje Sherpa visits our School

As part of our Erasmus+ project we had a very special visitor to our school recently. Ang Dorje Sherpa is visiting Ireland at the moment and came to talk to Fourth Class in Room 14 about his experiences of growing up in Nepal and climbing Everest. He showed us a number of slides and explained what it was like to live in Nepal. He told us that he has climbed Mount Everest 18 times. This is a truly remarkable feat.

Life in Nepal is very different to life in the western world. The houses and countryside are very different. There are no roads and all goods must be carried. He showed us photos of the paths, houses, animals and people. The earthquake of 2015 wreaked devastation to his home town. He showed us photographs of the devastation and told us of his efforts to fund-raise to help the people affected.

He started working as a porter, carrying heavy loads, at the age of 12. He climbed Everest for the first time when he was 22 years of age. He now lives in The Hague with his wife and two children.

He was part of the expedition which in 1996 met with disaster on the mountain. On this expedition a freak storm caused the deaths of eight climbers. Since then a book called “Into Thin Air” and a film called “Everest” have been based on the events that took place on the mountain.Some of our students asked him questions about his life and experiences. We then took some photographs in the school garden.