Prakash Adhikari, Executive Director of the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA), died at the age of 54 years in Kathmandu, Nepal, on October 23, 2020, from COVID-19 pneumonia. In Nepali, Prakash means “light.” Prakash was a beacon of light, helping to save the lives of countless trekkers, porters, and pilgrims in the Himalaya. Now that light is only a memory.
Prakash was born and raised in Ghaiyabari village in the Syangja District, located in the western hills of Nepal. He attended Siddhartha High School, Phedikhola, Syangja. Later, he moved to Pokhara, where he earned a bachelor of commerce degree from the Prithvi Narayan Campus of Tribhuvan University.
After completing his university studies, Prakash moved to Kathmandu in search of a job. He completed trekking and tour guide training, then worked as the manager at Natraj Tours and Travels, a prestigious trekking company. After a few years, he moved to Inter-Tours Nepal where he worked as a tour guide and trek leader.
In the spring of 1992, he was assigned as the liaison officer for the Russian Everest Expedition. When giving talks about altitude to Nepalis and Westerners, Prakash loved to tell the story of how he became ill with high altitude cerebral edema at Everest Base Camp. The sirdar (leader) of the expedition sent him down to Pheriche in the night with a reliable guide. Prakash felt so miraculously better when he arrived at Pheriche that he was completely sold on the importance of descent. In 1995 he was hired by the HRA.
The HRA operates clinics for trekkers, guides, and porters on the route to Mt. Everest and on the Annapurna Circuit, one of the most famous trekking routes in the world. As executive director of the HRA, Prakash Adhikari went out of his way to help sick and stranded porters accompanying trekking and mountaineering groups, who could not afford to be airlifted out after suffering from acute mountain sickness and other ailments. He showed that one did not have to be rich to help those in need; all that was required was humanity and compassion. Helping others, especially the vulnerable and disenfranchised, gave him energy. He was not the type to boast about his generosity of spirit. In 1997, Prakash was a founding member of the International Porter Protection Group, a sister organization of the HRA.
Prakash skillfully negotiated with helicopter pilots who were in the Khumbu (Everest region) ferrying trekkers and climbers to fly out sick porters who had no means to pay for evacuation. Insurance paid for medical evacuations of the foreigners. Prakash would convince the pilots to take porters down to lower altitude. This simple intervention saved many lives, because severe altitude illness usually responds to rapid descent.
As though this were not enough, if the sick porter was brought to Kathmandu with no one to help, a frequent occurrence, because porters in the Khumbu are usually from the lower valleys of eastern Nepal, Prakash took it upon himself to meet the porter at the airport, take him to a hospital, and follow up, all the time wondering where on earth he would find the money to pay for the porter's hospital bills. Somehow, miraculously, financial help would always turn up.
Prakash also made sure that trekkers and tourists on the Himalayan trails were treated well, because he realized that by doing so he would be helping everyone, especially people in the tourism sector, so vital for Nepal's economy. His small contribution, he felt, would help alleviate poverty among Nepalis who depended on income from tourism. Thinking about poverty often frustrated him because he was able to do so little.
In addition to his regular duties at the HRA, Prakash was often asked by foreign embassies to help coordinate rescues in the mountains. He spent many hours, often at night, organizing rescues, seldom with any recognition.
Prakash's attention to safety in the mountains was not limited to trekkers, guides, and porters. For 25 years he dedicated himself, through the HRA, to organizing a yearly health camp at Gosainkund Lake (4,300 m), so that thousands of pilgrims to the annual Janaipurnima festival could ascend safely from Dhunche (2,000 m). The emphasis was on prevention and treatment of altitude illness.
Prakash also contributed to academic mountain medicine by helping many young Nepali and Western doctors to cut their professional teeth on altitude medicine, with proper supervision by experienced senior doctors at the HRA clinics and at these high-altitude camps. He encouraged medical research to find out more about the vulnerabilities of pilgrims in Nepal.
As the executive director of the HRA, Prakash actively helped with the research showing that a low dose of acetazolamide (125 mg twice daily) was effective for the prevention of acute mountain sickness, with fewer side effects than the previous standard dose (250 mg twice daily). This was in contrast to the results of a previous meta-analysis in the BMJ. Although the doctors at the HRA planned and conducted this high-altitude research, none of it would have been possible in Nepal's bureaucratic system without Prakash's strong backing and gentle encouragement.
Prakash jumped at the chance to improve his knowledge of the challenges faced by HRA field staff on remote rescues when Hermann Brugger invited him to participate in mountain rescue training in Italy, with a group of Nepali guides and doctors. The training was conducted by the Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine, located in Bolzano, Italy. It was the first time Prakash had ever flown abroad.
In recent years, bureaucracy also involved obtaining official approvals from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, and the Immigration Department in Kathmandu for volunteer doctors to work at the HRA aid posts in Manang (3,519 m), Pheriche (4,300 m), and Everest Base Camp (5,600 m).
Prakash first collected all the certificates from the volunteer doctors, had these vetted by the health professionals at the HRA, and then started his rounds of the ministries and approval boards, with the generous and necessary help of other HRA officials. His caring, friendly nature, and diplomatic skills clearly came in handy as he navigated the corridors of power to seek approvals. We have no idea from where Prakash obtained the relentless strength to do these rounds twice a year, especially when officials in the ministries changed so frequently. But his sense of humor and positive attitude helped.
Prakash received a very modest salary at the HRA. It was almost a voluntary job. Yet, almost every day, he dealt with Nepali trekking agents who earned many times what he was paid. He could easily have jumped ship for better pastures, but Prakash was so focused on his work that he did not let the financial disparity get in the way.
Courteous and honest to a fault, he was also practical, not allowing any financial bitterness and frustration to overshadow his calling. Prakash was a model citizen, the backbone of the HRA, and a truly unsung hero. Nepalis, foreigners, porters, and pilgrims owe him a debt of gratitude, and will miss him greatly.
The fall holiday season of Dasain and Tihar would have been the busiest time at the HRA, with clinics having to be staffed and rescues carried out. Ironically, the same disease that claimed Prakash's life also devastated the trekking seasons in Nepal in 2020. Prakash never took leave at Dasain and Tihar. He was always on call. Amazingly, despite this busy life, he also took very loving care of his family. His son Binamra was so inspired by the help his father provided in the mountains that he recently started medical school. Prakash was overjoyed to know that his son was on the path to being a doctor.
For all the contributions that Prakash Adhikari made to tourism in Nepal, the government should bestow him the highest posthumous honor. There is probably no one who, with no financial incentive, has done so much with so little to promote safe trekking and climbing in the Nepal Himalayas over the past 25 years.
Prakash is survived by his parents, a brother, and a sister. He leaves his wife, Sarita, and two sons, Binamra and Bibek. At the time of his death, Prakash was working on a website called Himalayan Safety (http://himalayansafety.com/home).
This tribute was adapted and expanded from an obituary by Buddha Basnyat that originally appeared in the Nepali Times (https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-light-is-gone/).
Authors' Contributions and Responsibilities
This article was adapted and expanded by K.Z. from an original article by B.B. that appeared in the Nepali Times. B.B., L.F., and K.Z. revised the article. All authors approved the article, as submitted. The Nepali Times has given permission to use the content previously published.
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There was no financial support.
None of the authors has any conflict of interest to report.