Sherpas back in Salt Lake after Everest climb

While Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa climbed the world's tallest peak earlier this month, his wife, Fulli, was back at home in Draper climbing her own mountain, one made up of the time and distance that had separated her for so long from her husband and three children in Nepal.

It had been six months since she had seen her children, Ang Dawa, Nima and Tashi. They had been at a boarding school in Katmandu until their parents were able to successfully navigate immigration laws to secure the proper visas for them to come to the United States.

After two months without Lhakpa, Fulli was at the Salt Lake City International Airport on Wednesday to embrace her entire family.

"I'm so sad," she said about the wait. "Now, I'm happy."

Lhakpa said it was hard getting his children out of Nepal and to their new home in Utah. He thanked Utahns Jerry Mika and Roger Kehr for their help with all of the red tape.

"I'm so very happy," Lhakpa said. "Everyone is together."

Lhakpa and fellow Draper resident Apa Sherpa made history May 16 in Nepal when they led an all-Sherpa team of climbers, dubbed the SuperSherpas Expedition, to the summit of Mount Everest. It was Apa's 17th Everest summit — a world record.

During the trip, he and Lhakpa also helped recover the bodies of two Korean climbers. Base-camp manager Jerry Mika said this season has been a particularly deadly one on Everest, which claimed the lives of three people who had been close to members of the SuperSherpas team.

Foreign travelers usually pay huge sums of money to outfitters for a go at reaching the mountain's 29,035-foot peak. Members of Nepal's isolated Sherpa community, living in the high Himalayas, are typically hired by the outfitters as porters.

Sherpas, who often share the same last name although they are not directly related, carry heavy loads so that the foreign climbers can stay light and have an increased chance of reaching the summit. The Sherpas endure the same extreme weather conditions as their clients. And Sherpas, like Lhakpa and Apa, set ropes for climbers, keep them out of danger and even rescue those who get in trouble on the mountain.

But after the high-paying customers reach the peak, all the glory in the media goes to them, while Sherpas comparatively get little recognition.

"They don't mention anything about Sherpas," Apa Sherpa said. "I don't know why."