Mt. Everest mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher, right, greets a guest at his recent presentation in Tustin last week. Sara Safari of the non-profit Empower Nepali Girls is at center. Joisher was in town to help raise funds for the organization that sends Nepali girls to school and supports their impoverished families.
By THERESA WALKER | thwalker@scng.com | Orange County Register Click here for the Original Article on Orange County Register
Kuntal Joisher turned around from where he stood at base camp on Mount Everest and saw death riding the huge white wave that filled the sky.
There was nowhere for the experienced mountain climber and photographer from India to run. And only seconds to react to what he calls “a snow tsunami.”
“More than fear, I was sad that this was going to be the end,” Joisher says. “My heart just sank.”
Mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher, who took this photograph of Mount Manaslu in Nepal as he approached Camp One, encourages people to take time to enjoy the journey, whether it be climbing a mountain or running a business.
The ground had just stopped shaking from a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25. Joisher and others at base camp survived the temblor only to hear the loud boom that signaled the start of the avalanche roiling behind them.
Joisher, 35, didn’t die that day, thanks to a fellow climber’s quick thinking.
It was his second attempt to become the first vegan mountain climber to scale the world’s tallest mountain. The avalanche of 2014 that killed 16 Sherpas aborted his first try.
Joisher hopes to climb Mount Everest in the future, but first he is putting his energy into helping Nepal recover from the earthquake.
Walking through the crevasse field between Base Camp and Camp One on Mount Manaslu in Nepal felt like playing Russian roulette to mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher. Safety lines got buried under several feet of snow, the heat melted all the ice that served as “glue” for the anchors, and in other places the crevasses had opened so wide climbers had to long jump to cross over.
Last week, he gave a standing-room-only talk at the REI store in Tustin that drew gasps at the beauty of his photos of Nepal and Mount Everest and at the terror he experienced in the avalanche.
Joisher is visiting Orange County at the invitation of a friend who has organized a fundraising exhibit and sale of his photography Thursday evening at the California Center for Digital Arts in Brea.
Joisher’s avalanche story is well known through a nearly three-minute video shot on an iPhone by the same young German climber who saved his life by telling him to breathe from pockets of air inside his jacket.
The video has been viewed nearly 23 million times on YouTube.
The avalanche originated from a peak next to Everest when an ice block the size of a football stadium broke loose. At least 20 people died; six times as many were injured.
Joisher shared some calculations on the avalanche: 1.4 million tons of snow traveling at a velocity of 170 mph with an impact equal to 2 kilotons of TNT when it hit the ground.
“So, yeah,” he told the audience of about 80 people, “this is what happened that day.”
But the toll from the avalanche pales in comparison to the devastation in Nepal from the earthquake: more than 9,000 people dead and in excess of 23,000 injured.
A poor country, Nepal is struggling to recover from the damage and displacement.
Joisher’s talk at REI set the stage for the photo exhibit in Brea, which will benefit an Orange County-based charity called Empower Nepali Girls.
Kuntal Joisher talks about his adventures climbing Mt. Everest during a presentation last week in Tustin. Joisher was in town to help raise funds for locally-based non-profit Empower Nepali Girls.
///ADDITIONAL INFO: avalanche.09xx – 9/17/15 – Photo by PAUL RODRIGUEZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER – Everest mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher gives a presentation in Tustin to help raise funds for locally-based nonprofit Empower Nepali Girls.
Empower Nepali Girls, founded by Cal State Fullerton professor Jeffrey Kottler, focuses on supporting girls and young women in Nepal who are at risk of being forced into early marriage, sold as sex slaves, or abandoned as orphans. Many of the girls helped by the charity lost their homes and schools in the earthquake.
Sara Safari, a local supporter of Empower Nepali Girls, also addressed the REI gathering with her own story about the day of the earthquake.
Safari, who lives in Irvine and teaches electrical engineering classes at Cal State Fullerton, also was on Mount Everest, attempting her first climb. She had gone to raise funds for Empower Nepali Girls.
More important than reaching the top of a summit is to come back down alive and in one piece, says mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher, who took this photo at Island Peak summit in Nepal.
Safari, 34, was above base camp at 20,000 feet when the earthquake struck. She swayed wildly on a hanging metal ladder anchored to a 90-degree ice wall as mountain debris flew around her.
“The noise of the ice breaking was like a plane taking off by my ear,” says Safari, who feared tumbling into sharp ice below but escaped unscathed.
Safari and Joisher both did what they could in the days after the earthquake to help out – delivering blankets, ladling soup, fetching medical supplies.
Their efforts haven’t stopped.
Climbers are roped together as they start their final push toward Island Peak summit in Nepal. The first light of dawn was hitting the mountain when climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher took this photo.He describes the sight as “out of this world.”
Joisher’s visit here was arranged by David Reeve, a marketing consultant from Brea who met Joisher years ago when he was living and working in the United States. Reeve is not a mountain climber, but he is a fellow photographer.
Says Reeve: “I am struck when I see amazing photography by a guy with an amazing story.”
At the fundraiser, prints of Joisher’s images of Nepal will sell for $125 and other images mounted on aluminum plates will sell for $300.
Joisher encourages mountain climbers, hikers and those who love the adventure of travel to help the people of Nepal recover by visiting the country.
“The most sustainable way to rebuild is to contribute to the economy so they can rebuild themselves,” he says. “It will be a life-changing experience. Despite such devastation, the people of Nepal are ready to welcome everybody.”
Mount Pumori Camp one provides this stunning view of the entire Everest mountain range in Nepal, says mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher. He took this photograph after a two-hour trek from the base camp to a flat rocky area at about 19,000 feet elevation. The air was thin and cold, but “once you are here you forget all your woes and soak in the beautiful Himlayan scenery,” he says.
Mountain climber and photographer Kuntal Joisher calls this “living on the edge.” He captured this view of Mount Manaslu during one of his trips to Nepal. Joisher, who lives in Mumbai, India, has twice attempted to climb Mount Everest. Both times, in 2014 and this year, natural disasters prevented him from completing the climb.
Climbers walk past a massive crevasse on their way to Camp Two on Mount Everest. Photographer Kuntal Joisher says he is often asked about how deep the crevasses are whenever he shares his photos. His answer: They can be as shallow as a few feet and as deep as thousands of feet.
People ask Kuntal Joisher why he climbs mountains. His answer is a story he tells about this photo he took of two climbers ascending through a gully of ice towers as Mount Manaslu in Nepal peeked out behind them. To get to this point after a heavy snow storm, the climbers had to navigate on their own because their safety lines were buried. “It’s to experience these moments,” he says. “Until you go and experience this for yourself, you’ll never know.”
Contact the writer: twalker@ocregister.com
Theresa Walker
Theresa Walker is a Southern California native who has been a staff writer at The Orange County Register since 1992. She specializes in human interest stories and social issues, such as homelessness. She also covers nonprofits and philanthropy in Orange County. She loves telling stories about ordinary people who do the extraordinary in their communities.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]