“No mountains, no mountaineering.”
an arranged marriage when she was 14. This year, Gurung ran mayor in her hometown, the rural municipality of Panchapokri Thangpalin in the Sindhupalchowk district, with gender justice as one of her core issues. Despite losing, Gurung continues to help the local youth and women with their education and livelihood.
All of these women climbers are demanding that authorities come up with concrete plans to tackle gender injustice as it relates to climate change. But how the climate crisis will affect women and girls disproportionately, the mountaineers say, needs to be louder within that discourse.The entire Everest region is feeling the heat of global warming. Lhakpa Phuti Sherpa, a climber who scaled Everest in 1993 with Pasang Lhamu Sherpa — the first Nepali woman to reach the mountain's summit — said erratic weather is changing lives in her hometown Lukla, in northeastern Nepal.