Sherpa Guides 'Backbone' of Mount Everest Expeditions

Nepal's Sherpa guides know what it's like to be on top of the world.

For more than six decades, the Sherpas have been the unsung heroes of Mount Everest climbing expeditions and have helped thousands of climbers scale the world's highest peak.

These elite mountaineers, who also carry heavy loads, have guided adventurers through the treacherous terrain that challenges even the most experienced climbers. Their unmatched skill has made high-altitude tourism a pillar of Nepal's economy.

Sameer Jung Thapa/AFP/Getty Images

Nepalese mountaineer Apa Sherpa, who has scaled Mount Everest a record-breaking 21 times, is photographed while on the Great Himalaya Trail, one of the longest and highest trekking routes in the world, in the Nepalese Himalayas on January 22, 2012.

"These expeditions wouldn't happen without them. They’re the backbone of all the organizations up here," Australian climber Gavin Turner told ABC News. "Without the Sherpas, it just wouldn't happen."

The average elite Sherpa can make as much as $5,000 working on Everest for two months, according to National Geographic, while local farmers are lucky to make $1,000 a year.

Sherpas are aware of the danger of the job, but the high pay makes it vital for survival.

"Every year I must go on an expedition. I need the money for my children’s education, for my family," one Sherpa told the National Geographic.

Namgyal Sherpa/AFP/Getty Images

This picture taken on May 26, 2010 shows a Nepalese sherpa packing garbage collected from the Everest clean-up expedition at Everest Base Camp. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers, including some top summiteers collected 1,800 kilograms of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world's highest peak.

Not everyone is cut out for the job.

A 1976 study from the National Institutes of Health found that after living in the high-altitude region, Sherpas had undergone genetic adaptations that allowed them to better tolerate being in high altitudes with low oxygen.

More than 4,000 climbers have scaled the summit since 1953 when it was first conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

Press Association via AP Images

Sherpa Tenzing is seen in this June 30, 1963 file photo, wearing the clothing and oxygen equipment in which he and Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Mount Everest.

Hillary was deeply touched by his experience and started a charity to help the Sherpa community after his ascent.

"To many Western eyes the Everest region is a place of great beauty and high mountains to be conquered," he once said, according to his charity, the Himalayan Trust. "For the Sherpas who live there however, life has few privileges. Medicine and education are scarce, bridges and paths are often destroyed and the forest on which they depend are rapidly depleting."

Tshering Sherpa/AFP/Getty Images

Flags lie on the summit of Mount Everest in this May 23, 2013 file photo.

A place of such great beauty has also been the site of tremendous tragedy.

Hundreds have died attempting to reach the peak. A high-altitude avalanche today killed 12 Sherpas and left four missing, according to Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The Sherpa guides were fixing ropes for other climbers when the avalanche hit, according to a witness.

It was the deadliest recorded disaster since a snowstorm killed eight climbers on May 11, 1996. That disaster was chronicled in Jon Krakauer's bestselling book "Into Thin Air."

In 1924, George Mallory attempted to scale the mountain, but never returned. It wasn't until 1999 when the British explorer's body was found at 26,755-feet on the north face of the mountain.

Sherpas in the Himalayas, Nepal. 

SOURCE : http://abcnews.go.com