Sherpa Preparing Expedition

"Climbing Sherpa" have their own way to prepare "mentally" their job of Himalayan mountaineering.

Two Sherpa (Tendi and Lakpa brothers) spend one morning before leaving out to the expedition at the Bouddha, Kathmandu

As its mortality says the sport is not only scary to their foreign participants but also to the Sherpa.  Foreign mountaineers, as they intentionally and eagerly plan an expedition and "enjoy" it, they of course have very specialized way of dealing with the intimidation of the danger.  Indeed, most of the skill in the sport is about how to avoid dangerous situation--mountaineering is sometimes defined as the "skill to come back home alive".  To most of their mind, if they can acknowledge and avoid all the dangerous situation then they would likely to be successful in their climbing.

However, Sherpa might be different.  In many occasions their special way of considering "danger" in mountaineering gave rise to absurdity from the westerner's mind.  A huge avalanche, for example, to a particular group of people would have for Sherpa been regarded as an "anger of the mountain to them."  

It becomes therefore an important issue for them to protect themselves from the "anger of the mountain."  It is heard "unfortunately" religious; however, I believe all climbers--not only Sherpa but the "scientific" westerners"--should also have, in order to progress on the mountain, any sort of religious mind that would define for them the unknown force of the mountain, their future, their meanings of the world, and their selves.