Their mission on Mount Everest is twofold: to finish the journey started by their late husbands, and to bring inspiration to other single women.
Furdiki Sherpa's husband died in 2013 while fixing ropes for climbers, and Nima Doma Sherpa's husband was one of 16 sherpas killed in a 2014 avalanche. On Wednesday, the pair announced that in May they will "climb the mountain to close our pain and to honor our husbands by reaching the peak they could not."
Furdiki told Reuters they are "undertaking the expedition to spread the message that widows can accomplish even such hard adventures." Both have finished training and successfully climbed two smaller mountains. Since 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa reached Everest's summit, 4,833 people have climbed the mountain, with an estimated 500 being women.
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