Tashi Tenzing

Tashi Tenzing (born November 30, 1965, in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India) is a Sherpa mountaineer. He is the youngest son of Pem Pem, the eldest daughter of Tenzing Norgay, who made the first ascent of Mount Everest on 29th May 1953.

Tashi spent his childhood in Darjeeling, the famed British hill station and tea growing area in India. He attended St Paul's School, Darjeeling – a private boarding school in the strict British tradition. He made himself quite a name in the outdoor education field, excelling at distance and sprint running, soccer, cricket, gymnastics, karate, hockey and horse-riding as well as in more artistic pursuits such as oil painting and batik.

Tashi then went on to the University of New Delhi to gain a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. But his first love has always been the outdoors and, especially, climbing. He was solely responsible for establishing the Delhi University Climbing Club and excelled at all the climbing and outdoor adventure courses at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. His grandfather, Tenzing Norgay, established this Institute after his ascent of Everest to offer professional climbing instruction to all Indian people. It now has a great tradition and a successful history of expeditions to the great Himalayan peaks. Tashi graduated from HMI as an instructor and still sometimes takes courses there as a guest instructor.

But since leaving University Tashi has been almost solely employed in leading trekking and climbing trips in Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Kashmir and the Indian Himalaya. He has trekked widely in Nepal – especially the Everest region – and also in Kashmir, Ladakh, Sikkim and in the eastern Himalaya of Bhutan. Since his childhood he has emulated his grandfather's love of mountain exploration and he has managed to maintain this quest by researching and leading many new treks and expeditions. However the desire to climb Everest has always been in Tashi's heart and his passion for this never waned. He knew one day his time would come.

In 1993 Tashi led the 40th Anniversary Everest Expedition to mark the 40th anniversary of the first successful expedition of his grandfather, Tenzing Norgay. At last his dream seemed in reach but it was also important to him for the sake of his Sherpa people who supported him to the fullest in this bid. His team were successful, getting two members to the summit on the 10th May. Sadly Tashi's uncle and climbing partner, Lobsang Tshering, fell to his death on the descent from the summit. Tashi missed the summit by just 400 metres having to turn back with snow blindness.

However, on 23rd May 1997 Tashi at last succeeded in reaching the summit of Everest – his life's dream fulfilled and the road now clear to take on new adventures. In 1998/99 he spent 9 months working for the Australian Antarctic Division at Mawson Station in the Antarctic and now plans to add guiding in this icy wilderness to his travel work.

Tashi again reached the summit of Mount Everest for the second time in 2002.

Tashi was married to Australian Judy Pyne, and they have a son and daughter. However he made the decision to return to Nepal and married Bandi Nima Sherpa and now lives in Kathmandu and runs a trekking company "Tenzing Asian Holidays".

On 16th May 2007, he reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Tibetan side.Tashi is a contributor of [http://www.summitjournal.com/author/ttenzing SummitJournal.com] , an international adventure and exploration project.

External links

* [http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article.asp?UAN=952 interview]
* [http://www.tenzingasianholidays.com Tashi Tenzing's Trekking company]
* [http://www.summitjournal.com/author/ttenzing SummitJournal.com]