The Lion of Khum Jung

Chapter 4-1

4

Frank sat back and watched the ridge slide past his passenger side window. They’d soon be landing in Lukla and heading for Everest. But there was something else on his mind right now, specifically, John Patterson. John was the Everest expedition leader for Andersen Expeditions, and the two of them had never gotten along well. The man was just too reckless for Frank’s taste, and more than once he had taken on clients who had no business being on the mountain.

That was one of the big problems with Everest. Too many clients had too little experience with high-altitude climbing. And while it was true the Nepalese Ministry required evidence of their ability, they often looked the other way once it came to the profitable fees required for the permits. Twenty-five thousand dollars turned heads, especially when a bribe was in an envelope attached to it.

That left “Judge Gerry,” as she was referred to, as a last defense against folks ending up dead on Everest. As the mountain’s historian, she alone collected the valuable data, which was in constant use by the climbing community. Frank liked her. She was a shrewd woman who had seen it all, and it was near impossible to fool her. But she was only one person in this Wild West, as she liked to call it.

That left the final decisions as to whether their clients were capable or not to the expedition leaders. And competition for the wealthy or well-sponsored men and women who wanted to experience the ultimate adventure was fierce, so the leaders often passed the client’s lack of experience onto the shoulders of their Sherpa leaders. That, in a nutshell, was where the rubber met the road, or in this case the crampon met the ice. The more experienced the Sirdar Sherpa was, the more coveted he was by the expedition leader.

So when one of Andersen’s Sirdars defected to Khum Jung Mountaineering two years ago, John didn’t take it well. The Sirdar, Ang Da-wa Phu-Dorje, was highly respected and losing him had been a serious blow to John. Suddenly the uneasy but acceptable coexistence between Andersen and Khum Jung Mountaineering on the mountain changed overnight into a bitter war of accusations that erupted into a heated exchange last year between John and Frank.

Frank didn’t know for certain if John was behind the IRD’s review of his financial affairs, but he had a good idea he was. The question became, how much money was John feeding the IRD’s taxation agent, Mr. Karthacharya, and more importantly, how much was it going to cost Khum Jung Mountaineering to make this back tax issue go away?

If John had all of Andersen’s vast resources behind him, KJM was toast. But Frank didn’t think so. Andersen was a huge trekking conglomerate with outfits all over the world. They would more than likely order John to just find another Sirdar rather than send a lot of money down the proverbial toilet over what they would perceive as a petty dispute. Still, one never knew. It had been weighing heavily on Frank’s mind for quite some time, but the plane shuddering as it touched down on the tiny airstrip ripped the thought away. There would be time enough for that later. Right now, he had clients to attend to.