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David Lama Biwak in Rolwaling, 5080m: First ever in Himalaya

PC: Stefan Voitl

The record holder climber Phurba Tenjing Sherpa and his friend an Austrian national Josef Einwaller had dreamed to make a shelter for trekkers at an altitude of 5000 meter, which can save their lives in bad weather and promote tourism.

The dream came true after they installed “David Lama Biwak” (shelter) at an altitude of 5080 meters across Tashi Lapcha pass, a dangerous pass to cross for the trekkers in Rolwaling region.

Tashi Lapcha is a middle point of the route of Rolwaling to Khumbu Region. It aims at not just saving life of the trekkers but also believes in promoting the entire socio-economic life of Rolwaling valley through tourism.

The site of Biwak (shelter) is located on the border area of Gauri Shankar Rural Municipality and Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality that connects the Rolwaling and Khumbu region, the home of Mt. Everest and popular trekking area.

Josef Einwaller is the concept developer of the project, who wished to contribute to the unfulfilled dreams of his fellow mountaineers who had sacrificed their lives while climbing mountains in Nepal. The 72 years old mountaineering enthusiast has visited Nepal at least 50 times, along with Phurba Tenjing Sherpa explored the very idea with friends in Nepal and abroad to collect the resources for the project.

 The Biwak (shelter) is aimed at minimizing casualties and protect the lives of thousands of trekkers, porters and mountaineers and locals during the emergency caused by severe weather, rockfall, snowfall, strong wind, high altitude etc.

The installation of this Biwak at Tashi Lapcha pass is an exemplary work in the adventure field to promote Visit Nepal Year 2020 (VNY2020) in terms of developing tourism infrastructures.

One can take the advantage of this hut as shelter either for climbing peaks in this region or traveling via Tashi Lapcha pass which is gradually developing into an alternative trekking trail to reach Namche as Tashi Lapcha pass connects Khumbu region with Rolwaling valley, said the statement.

Josef Einwaller (idea initiator), Phurba Tenzing Sherpa as Project Coordinator for Nepal, Stephan Erich Keck as Co-initiator, Ralf Ohnmacht as Developer-Engineer and Martin Seyr as a technician engineer are proactively contributing substantially for the completion of this dream project. Besides, there were 13 beautiful souls from Austria and Germany, who shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make this dream project come true.

Biwak has been installed in many parts of Europe in the mountains. It has insulation and oxygen passing features due to which the hut will be warm during any weather condition and no risk of suffocation is borne. The Biwak has a capacity to accommodate at least 15 persons inside the shelter at one time.

The Austrian hut is named after David Lama who was also a popular alpinist and had died in one of the mountain climbing in Canada who represented heart to heart connection between Nepal and Austria. David’s father hailed from Solukhumbu of Nepal and mother from Austria.

Nepal Bank Limited has supported this project by donating 1.5 million rupees as the partial fulfillment of its social responsibility towards the society.

The project of planting David Lama Biwak is located in the Gauri-Shanker Conservation Region. The hut will be handed over to the locals on completion of the project, added the statement.