Nobody knows what the view is like from the roof of the world as well as Apa Sherpa -- he has climbed the world's highest mountain a record 16 times.
The wiry 46-year-old with stooped shoulders is regarded as the king of all Sherpas by climbers and peers alike, and last month he risked his life and wife's wrath to return to Everest's 8,848m summit.
While news that he had again conquered the "death-zone" made him the toast of the town in Nepal's Thame, in Solukhumbu district in the foothills of the Himalayas, his worried wife wasn't joining in the celebrations.
"When I said I had retired it was not due to my physical condition, but due to family pressure," says Apa Sherpa, who announced he was quitting in 2003.
"My wife did not know about this season's summit until I reached there. She was very angry," he adds, breaking into an infectious laugh.
Despite his promise to quit, Apa was also back atop Everest in 2004 and last year.
His wife's fears are understandable on a mountain that has claimed more than 200 lives. Danger stalks a climber's every step up Everest, including the indigenous Sherpas who work as support crews to foreign mountaineering expeditions.
Of 11 people killed on the mountain's treacherous, thin-aired slopes fatalities this year, three were Sherpas, one of them his good friend.
"I used to feel quite scared but my level of fear has dropped as I got more confident with every successful ascent," says Apa.
But the work is well paid by local standards and competition for jobs is fierce, despite the risks. Today between 500 and 700 high altitude climbing Sherpas work in Nepal.
Top flight climbing Sherpas can earn up to US$7,000 per season, a fortune in impoverished Nepal where the average annual salary remains around US$240 per year.
Sherpas are now considered as equal to the world's best climbers, but initially they were simply seen as porters by the colonial British.
Their fortunes have been inextricably linked with mountaineers in the Himalayas ever since explorers in Darjeeling first recognized their abilities at the turn of the 20th century.
"Their behavior was excellent. By the end of the trip we were all working together most harmo-niously. Really they are the most splendid fellows," wrote research chemist A.M. Kellas in 1909.
While the term Sherpa refers to an ethnic group, nowadays the term applies to all those who support Himalayan expeditions.
Sherpa Tenzing Norgay took their reputation to new heights when he summited Everest with New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary in 1953 and both assumed legendary status.
More than 1,300 people have climbed Everest since, all with the aid of Sherpas.
Mountaineers tackling Everest usually climb in stages to four camps above base camp. Each camp must be stocked with food and oxygen and it is the Sherpas who undertake most of this work. They also cook for clients and set up camps.
In addition, kilometers of ropes must be laid out and hundreds of ladders fixed across crevasses on the route to the top. Again, the work of the Sherpas.
Frozen cadavers littering the ascent to the top are reminders of the risks.
Apa started climbing in 1987 and works as base camp coordinator.
His knowledge and cautious approach to climbing the deadly peak is legendary in the tight-knit world of mountaineering.
"I check the conditions, I have to control other climbing Sherpas and team members, I help the team acclimatize by going up and down," he says.
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