Salt Lake City – No one has been to the top of the world more than Apa Sherpa.
But, until now, he has not reached his main goal in life – ensuring that his children receive an education.
With a great deal of help from Draper resident Jerry Mika, Apa and his family arrived recently at Salt Lake City International Airport to begin a new life. Apa will help run a new retail store, Karma Outdoor Clothing Co.
Apa’s exploits in a record 16 ascents of Mount Everest, and his ability to overcome the heartbreak of losing close friends to the world’s highest peaks, are among the tales recounted in a new National Geographic book about the Himalayas.
But to Mika, just as compelling is the story of Apa’s desire for his three surviving children to be properly educated, an opportunity he was denied as a boy.
Apa had dreams of becoming a doctor while growing up in Nepal. But that aspiration evaporated when his father died when Apa was 12. To help support his family, he herded yaks with an uncle, then became a porter for climbing expeditions on Everest and other Himalayan peaks.
He excelled at high-elevation mountaineering, reaching Everest’s summit for the first time in 1990.
In 2003, Mika was a vice president for Nebo Sports when he became acquainted with Tashi Sherpa, a friend of Apa’s, and they decided to launch Sherpa Adventure Gear.
“I loved the idea of building a brand,” said Mika, 42. “I wanted to (portray) Sherpas as unsung heroes. They do all the work for Westerners (in climbing) and don’t get the credit. I wanted to shift ideals and give them credit.” They developed a clothing line and introduced it in Salt Lake City.
Mika then took Sherpa Adventure Gear to a sporting goods show in Europe, finishing second among 126 companies from 23 countries in a ranking of moisture-management products.
By the summer of 2004, Mika said, the company had $1.1 million in sales. And Sherpas were benefiting, with 80 percent of the production done in Nepal.
But 2006 arrived and Apa still had not realized his goal of educating his children – sons Tenjing, 21, and Pemba, 15, and daughter Dawa, 11.
Mika rounded up help for the family. Brian Day O’Connor, son of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, provided financial guarantees that helped get Tenjing into the University of Utah, small compensation for Apa’s guide duties when O’Connor climbed the Himalayas.
Financial assurances in place, Mika was able to obtain immigration visas for Apa and his family.
