Can you climb Mountains in the Himalayas without Sherpas?
This week at the Data School marked the kickoff of Dashboard Week. Today, I built a Tableau dashboard using data on mountain climbing activities in the Himalayas.
My focus for the day was to analyse the impact of Sherpas on expeditions—specifically, how their assistance influenced success rates. Historically, climbing activity has increased significantly over the past 50 years.
Increasing climbers on the Mountain
Since 1905, there have been more than 5,500 expeditions in the Himalayas, involving 70,000 members, with 20% of them being Sherpas. A significant boom in climbing began in the 1970s, followed by a notable increase in Sherpa activity from 2000. Nowadays, commercial climbs are more common, and the rise in Sherpa activity has contributed to this trend. With better support for commercial expeditions, a higher portion of climbers now use oxygen tanks during their climbs.
Commercial vs Non-commercial climbing and Oxygen vs Non-oxygen climbing
For Mount Everest, over 85% of commercial climbs have been successful, while only 8% of non-oxygen climbs have succeeded. Even with the help of Sherpas, climbing Everest without oxygen remains a significant challenge.
The Best Sherpas
There have also been legendary Sherpas who have completed over 200 climbs. For instance, Pasang Sherpa has participated in a total of 257 expeditions, achieving a 79% success rate, followed closely by Jangbu Sherpa. The leader most closely matched with Jangbu Sherpa was Dan Mazur, with whom he climbed together on 26 occasions, demonstrating the remarkable trust between the two.
Today, Sherpas continue to play a crucial role in mountaineering, making an enormous effort to help climbers reach the summit.
If you’re interested, check out my dashboard at the link below: