Apr 18, 2015

A year ago, at the start of the climbing season for Mount Everest, 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche on the world’s tallest mountain. The season was over for foreign climbers, and the disaster led to demands for better pay for the locals who make the ascents possible, and larger payouts to the families of those who were killed. A new season is about to begin, and the lost are remembered in Nepal.

: A trekking path (lower right) is dwarfed by high-altitude peaks including Ama Dablam (center) in a valley leading north into Nepal’s Khumbu region, which is home to Mt. Everest. This region is flooded by hikers and climbers this time of the year. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: A Nepalese porter is surrounded by pine forest as he carries a load of duffle bags while heading up a trail that leads out of Namche Bazar and towards the upper Khumbu region, which includes Mount Everest. The porters working for hikers and climbers that flood the Khumbu region this time of the year normally carry loads weighing up to 30 kg (66 lbs) in elevations that can reach above 5,000 mts, for a wage equivalent to about 1,400 USD per year. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: A Nepalese girl watches a horse from the front door of her home in the upper part of the north-eastern town of Namche Bazar, a usual stop for trekkers and climbers heading to upper reaches of the Kumbhu region, which is home to Mount Everest. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: Nepali porter Milan Rai, 14, rests as he makes his way up a rocky path high above the north-eastern town of Namche Bazar on his way to making a delivery to a hotel in a nearby town at higher elevation. This day Rai was carrying sacks of flour but he and others like him ferry goods between towns for a living. Rai said he makes around 3,000 Nepalese Rupees ($30) a month. Namche Bazar, seen in the background, is a usual stop for trekkers and climbers heading to the upper reaches of the Kumbhu region, which is home to Mount Everest. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: Nepalese porters walk up a path high above the north-eastern town of Namche Bazar, as they head to pick up goods from a town at an upper elevation. Local porters like these two men make roughly anywhere from $40-60 USD a month for their back-breaking work, often at altitudes above 3,000 meters. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: A Nepali porter walks across a suspension bridge over a deep valley near Labja Dorhan on his way to the north-eastern town of Namche Bazar. In the Himalayan town of Lukla, excitement mingles with fear as mountaineers make their way up to Everest a year after an avalanche killed 16 guides and triggered an unprecedented shut-down of the world’s highest peak. Some are returning after being forced to abandon their attempt on the summit in 2014 during the chaos and recriminations that followed the deadliest disaster ever to hit Everest. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: Nepalese villagers decend from higher elevations above the town of Namche Bazar as they head to market day in town to purchase merchandise they will take back to their village for resale. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: A Red Billed Chough flies over the mountain side near the north-eastern Nepalese town of Shyangboche as a bank of clouds creeps up the Dudh Koshi river basin. Trekkers and climbers heading towards the Peaks and glaciers deep in the Khumbu region, including Mount Everest follow this valley as they head north. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: Nepali porter Milan Rai, 14, starts his trek on a rocky path high above the north-eastern town of Namche Bazar on his way to making a delivery to a hotel in a nearby town at higher elevation. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP-Getty Images)

: The three daughters of Ang Kaji Sherpa, one of the 16 sherpas who died in the Everest Avalanche one year ago, pray during a memorial organized in the Lhundrup Choeling monastery for the memory of their father in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: Buddhist monks hold bells during a memorial organized in the Lhundrup Choeling monastery in memory of Ang Kaji Sherpa, one of the 16 sherpas who died in the Everest Avalanche one year ago in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: One of the daughters of Ang Kaji Sherpa holds a candle during a memorial organized in the Lhundrup Choeling monastery in memory of her father in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: Chhechi Sherpa, the daughter of Nepali sherpa Ang Kaji Sherpa, who was killed in an avalanche on Mount Everest offers prayers during a ritual to mark the one-year anniversary of his death at Lhundrup Choling Monastery in Kathmandu. Hundreds of mountaineers and Sherpas in Nepal paid emotional tribute to 16 of their fellow guides who died in an avalanche on Everest a year ago, suspending climbing for the day. The avalanche tore through a group of Sherpas who were hauling gear up the mountain on the morning of April 18, 2014, sending shock waves through the climbing community. (Bikash Karki/AFP-Getty Images)

: The wife and a son of Aas Bahadur Gurung, one of the victims of last year’s avalanche on Everest, sit for a memorial organized by Nepal Mountaineering Association in Kathmandu, Nepal. The day marked the first year anniversary of an ice avalanche that killed 16 guides in the mountain’s deadliest disaster. (Niranjan Shrestha/Associated Press)

: A group of Buddhist monks pray during a memorial organized in the Lhundrup Choeling monastery for the memory of Ang Kaji Sherpa, one of the 16 sherpas who died in the Everest Avalanche one year ago in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: Relatives of Ang Kaji Sherpa, one of the 16 sherpas who died in the Everest Avalanche one year ago, attend a memorial organized in the Lhundrup Choeling monastery held in his memory in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: A man stands while a minute of silence is observed during a memorial organised by the Nepal Mountaineering Association for the 16 sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in the Everest avalanche in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: A man pays tribute during a memorial organized by the Nepal Mountaineering Association for the 16 sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in the Everest avalanche in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

: A man leaves a flower on a table during a memorial organised by the Nepal Mountaineering Association for the 16 sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in the Everest avalanche in Kathmandu, Nepal. Friends and family of the 16 Sherpas who lost their lives one year ago in an avalanche on Mt. Everest gathered on today for a tribute in memory of those lost. On the morning of April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed the 16 Sherpas who were carrying gear up the mountain and led to growing demands for better pay and death and injury benefit payouts to the families of Sherpas. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

Remembering the lost in Mount Everest’s deadliest disaster

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