Dear Kilu Brother,
We wish we were writing about your return.
We wish we were waiting to write about the moment you walked through the gates of Tribhuvan International Airport, back home in Nepal, after standing on the summit of Broad Peak.
We wish this story carried photographs of you arriving with the same quiet smile, the Nepali flag still in your hands, and your friends and family waiting to welcome you home.
Just three weeks ago, on July 21, we published your story.
We wrote about Kilu the quiet man from Rolwaling who had climbed all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, stood on Everest 15 times, helped make history on K2 in winter, guided climbers to summits they had spent decades dreaming of, and still remained largely unknown beyond the climbing world.
We wrote about you with immense pride.
We thought we were telling the world about a mountaineer who had finally completed his own long journey and could now look back on three decades of climbing with the satisfaction of a dream fulfilled.
But the mountains had written another ending.
On July 30, while guiding Wang Zhong toward the summit of Broad Peak, you were caught in an avalanche that swept through a 10-member expedition. None of them survived.
And now, instead of writing about your arrival, we are writing about your farewell.
That is the part we never wanted to write.
The Journey That Began in Rolwaling
You had just completed the dream you had spent decades pursuing. Fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. A journey that began when you were a teenager from Beding in Rolwaling, carrying loads as a young high-altitude porter, and eventually took you to some of the highest and most dangerous places on Earth.
You were born in 1980 in Beding, a small Sherpa settlement at almost 3,800 meters in Dolakha district, in Nepal’s Rolwaling Valley. For you, mountaineering was less an adventure than an economic necessity.
You entered the trade at sixteen as a high-altitude porter, carrying equipment through the Khumbu and the Karakoram, and worked your way up from there, expedition after expedition, until you became one of the most experienced guides in the country.
You summited your first 8,000-meter peak, Manaslu, in 2002. The following year, on May 22, 2003, you reached the top of Everest for the first time. You kept coming back 2004, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 until your Everest tally reached 15 summits
In January 2021, you were one of ten Nepali climbers who made the first winter ascent of K2, a mountain that had turned back every attempt before it. You all waited below the summit so you could reach it together.
Later that year, working alongside Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, known as Mingma G, you helped identify the true summit of Manaslu and establish a safer route resolving one of mountaineering’s long-standing controversies.
You guided Xia Boyu, a double-leg amputee, to the summit of Everest in 2018, and Rustam Nabiev, another double-leg amputee, to the summit of Manaslu in 2021. Both climbs made headlines. Few of those headlines mentioned the guide standing beside them the whole way.
And then, this year, came Nanga Parbat Base Camp on June 30, Camp 1 the same day, Camp 2 on July 1, Camp 3 on July 2, and the summit on the morning of July 3. Your fourteenth eight-thousander. Three decades of quiet, difficult work, completed without a press conference or a fireworks show just a quiet man, one more summit, and a long way still to walk down.
The Work Was Not Finished
But even after finishing your own list, you did not stop.Your list was complete.The work was not.
You returned to the mountains to help another climber chase his dream and that was where the mountain took you.
On July 30, while guiding dreamers toward the summit of Broad Peak, you and the rest of the expedition were caught in an avalanche that swept through the team of ten. All ten lost their lives in one of the most tragic accidents on the mountain in recent years.
It is devastating in a way that is hard to put into words after years of pursuing your own fourteen-summit goal, you completed it, and almost immediately returned to help another climber do the same.
The Journey Home
Today, Kilu, your body is finally coming home. You, Gelu, and Nima are scheduled to arrive in Nepal this afternoon, August 11, at 4:45 p.m. Nepal time.We wish this had been your triumphant return.Instead, it is your final journey home.
What Mingma G Remembers
Mingma G, Managing Director of Imagine Nepal, who worked with you for more than a decade, said it still feels utterly surreal that you have left this world.
He remembered you as the most humble and tirelessly dedicated climbing partner, always leading from the front with a heavy pack on your back.
You shared the same birthplace and the same upbringing, and he said that with you by his side on any mountain, he never once felt the grip of fear your presence was his anchor. He said that every expedition he undertook with you was met with ended in success, and that this time, because of your professional duties, you could not celebrate your own monumental achievement of summiting all fourteen peaks a sorrow he said he will carry forever.
Mingma G also remembered that you always carried the Nepali flag to the summit of every mountain you climbed, a reflection of your deep respect for the nation. He said he hopes the Government of Nepal will honor “such a glorious son of the soil” with the highest accolades and a solemn farewell, and that your completion of all fourteen peaks, your historic first winter ascent of K2, and your pioneering new route to the summit of Manaslu will always keep your memory alive. He said the community will soon finalize a location in the district to erect a statue in your honor, so that your legacy endures for generations, and that he trusts the Nepali government will arrange a proper, state-worthy tribute for its legends.
Quietly, Without Demanding Recognition
But perhaps the best way to remember you is not through the way you died, but through the way you lived quietly, without demanding recognition, carrying heavy loads, leading from the front, and helping other people’s dreams reach the summit.
You spent three decades letting the mountains speak for you. Now, it is our turn to speak for you.
Dear Kilu brother, you may no longer be walking among us, but the mountains you climbed, the people you carried, the lives you changed, and the summits you helped make possible will continue to tell your story.
And we will keep telling it too.
