The 'Tigers' were old, toothless and not very articulate. Until you mentioned the snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas, that is. Then, their eyes would light up and they would transport into their favourite world.

Tobgay Sherpa, Nawang Gombu, Ang Tsering. They are the Himalayan Tigers, the legendary sherpas who have scaled some of the highest peaks in the world. Proud winners of the Tiger's Badge, instituted by Britain's H W Tobin and given by the Himalayan Club to sherpas who have achieved remarkable success in their careers. Out of the 20 recipients of the special badge to date, only Sherpa, Gomgu and Tsering are alive today.

It is hard to believe these short, stocky figures have conquered the highest peaks in the world. That they have rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sir John Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary and the other famous mountaineers who were lured by the magical mystery and mysticism of the Himalayas. Sherpa, Gombu and Tsering have witnessed some of the greatest triumphs and starkest tragedies of mountaineering. In fact, there were times when they barely survived the hazards posed by some peaks.

Today, these men live in Darjeeling. "It is a quiet life," says Tobgay Sherpa, who obviously did not mind being woken up for this interview. I asked him what kept the sherpas going. "Oh, there are still many virgin peaks -- 60, perhaps even 70 -- in the Himalayas (peaks that have not been climbed yet). They may not be as high as the Everest, but climbing them can be quite tough."

Sherpa -- who has conquered Everest, Saser Kangri and the Swiss Alps -- was a member of Sir John Hunt's 1953 team, the first to scale Everest. The previous year, he accompanied the Swiss expedition, which was hampered by bad weather and had to give up their assault on the highest peak on the planet. "We encountered some terrible blizzards at around 27,000 feet," he remembers, "and could not go ahead."

Humble and soft-spoken, Sherpa is the acknowledged guru of hundreds of climbing enthusiasts who have learnt vital, lifesaving lessons from him at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering at Uttarkashi. "Mountaineering has changed," he acknowledged. "In our days, we depended on individual skills and team work. We did not have high tech gear or satellite phones to help us. The radio provided us with weather forecasts, that was all. Today's sherpas have the advantage of being trained in mountaineering institutes."

In his days, sherpas like him carried heavy loads, including oxygen cylinders, as they climbed over 20,000 feet in rarefied atmospheres. "It was my life," he explains without rancour. "Climbing came naturally to us. We could not do anything else."

Having been a part of Indian, German, British, Canadian, Japanese and Swiss expeditions, he is in the perfect position to rate them -- and the Swiss are, according to him, the best. "They were always the best when it came to being organised and they had a passion for climbing. Many of them had some experience with the Alps, before they decided to challenge the Himalayan peaks."

He has two sons and two daughters; the former have opted for white collar jobs in Darjeeling.

As for Ang Tsering, it was impossible to believe he was 98 years old! He was just a boy when he accompanied the ill-fated 1924 Everest expedition. Two members of that team -- George Mallory and Andrew Irvine -- just disappeared from the north face of the peak at around 26,000 feet. No one still knows for sure what exactly happened to them. The expedition chose to climb Everest from the Tibet side. Tsering clearly remembers a lama from the Rongbuk monastery warning them against the climb.

The 1924 expedition was only the beginning of the heroic Tsering saga. Ten years later, he faced greater adversity when climbing Nanga Parbat. He was then part of a German expedition. Hit by savage snow storms and never-ending snowfall, the team's rations and fuel ran out. As its members began dying, the leader, Will Merkl, asked Tsering to attempt a descent and try and bring help.

What followed was a terrible 10 day ordeal, as Tsering attempted the impossible without proper equipment, food or water. "I can still remember those awful days," he says. "Many members of the German team and the sherpas died because of exhaustion and starvation. Most of the time, I survived by eating fistfuls of snow. Then, I went to find help. Finally, I managed to reach Camp IV; the people there could not believe I had survived the ordeal. I was desperate to drink the entire flask of tea which was given to me, but was allowed to have only one spoonful at a time because of the state of my body."

The hero of Nanga Parbat spent nearly a year in hospital, where he was treated for frostbitten toes. Germany honoured him with the Order of the Red Cross.

The third Himalayan Tiger, Nawang Gombu, was the youngest member of Sir John's successful 1953 Everest expedition. Their most unforgettable moment was when they heard that Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had conquered the elusive peak. Gombu himself achieved that landmark first in 1963 (as the member of an American expedition) and, then again, in 1965 (when he was part of an Indian team).

A much honoured climber (the Queen Elizabeth Coronation medal, the Padma Bhushan, the Arjuna award), Gombu has conquered peaks all over the world including Mount Blanc and Mount McKinley, theb tallest peaks in Europe and America. He has trained enthusiasts at the Darjeeling Mountaineering Institute for nearly 40 years.

Photographs: Courtesy The Himalayan Club. Design: Dominic Xavier.

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