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FEATURE: Austrian program brings Sherpas to learn management skills in the Alps

A pretty, young Asian woman with a big smile and long, black hair bows with her hands in prayer, the Nepalese way, as she greets her guests and welcomes them to the Austrian Alps.

Nima Dickey is one of 30 Nepalese Sherpas working in Austrian mountain huts over the summer to earn some money and learn Western-style lodge management.

Launched by Wolfgang Nairz, who participated in the first Austrian expedition up Mount Everest in 1978, the program is in its fifth year and has had tremendous success.

“We have about 200 applications” every year, Nairz said.

Not to mention 200 letters from German and Austrian trekkers returning from Nepal who constantly write to him, recommending potential candidates.

Although he did not initiate the idea, Nairz helped legalize it.

“There were already individual cases where Sherpas were invited to work in mountain huts, but illegally, and they were caught and the cabin manager was penalized because they were here without a permit,” he said. “So they came to me, because I’ve spent a lot of time in Nepal and know a lot of people there, and asked if I could do something.”

As non-EU citizens, Nepalese cannot get seasonal work permits in Austria, but Nairz got an exemption for 30 trainees in Tirol.

The Nepalese Mountaineering Association and mountain hut owners help him select the candidates every year, based on who is most likely to benefit from the program.

“The prerequisite is that they work in the trekking business, as a guide, in a lodge, or as the owner of a lodge,” he said. “When you travel around Nepal, you can tell now which lodges are managed by people who were in Austria: From a hygiene point of view, from the way they’re managed — the cleanliness — they’re just better,” Nairz said.

In Tirol, the Sherpas — a word meaning “eastern people” in Tibetan but often used to describe Himalayan porters — learn how to deal with Western tourists, handle supplies, repair damaged paths and cook local food.

Nima, 28, has been working at the Lienzer Huette in Tirol since mid-June and has become an expert at making Kaiserschmarrn, a pancake served with plum compote.

“That’s her thing, she’s really mastered it,” said her boss Berni Baumgartner, smiling.

Nima owns a lodge in eastern Nepal, but had to close for the rainy season and left her husband and three young children behind to come and work in Austria for three-and-a-half months.

With no German and only halting English, language was a problem when she arrived.

“Now it’s okay but at the beginning it was very hard,” Baumgartner said.

While the Sherpas take home invaluable experience, their motives for coming to Austria are often more basic.

“I think it’s really about the money, to be able to feed their family,” said Baumgartner, who hosted another Sherpa before Nima and has repeatedly traveled to Nepal.

Like all the hut owners, she pays for the flights to Austria and gives her trainees a new set of clothes when they arrive.

Back home, Nima has had trouble paying for her children’s schooling.

“What I get here is big money. In Nepal, it’s small money,” she said.

“For them, it’s like winning the lottery. After three or four months, they’re going home with 5,000 euros [US$7,360]. That’s 450,000 to 500,000 Nepalese rupees,” Nairz said.

A teacher in Nepal earns 10,000 rupees per month and a doctor 5,000 rupees, he said.

Each Sherpa can take part in the program three times.

“I just want to help these people, I’ve been to Nepal so often and had so many lovely experiences, so I want to give back a little of what I received,” Nairz said.
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