Their Husbands Died on Everest. Now They'll Climb It Themselves

Their husbands were Sherpas who died trying to ascend Mount Everest. Now, Furdiki Sherpa and Nima Doma Sherpa have announced they're about to make their own climb up the treacherous mountain, both to inspire other single women and to help with their own healing, per Reuters. "We are going to climb the mountain to close our pain and to honor our husbands by reaching the peak they could not," the women said in a statement Wednesday. The women, who plan on attempting the feat in May, say they've already been through training and conquered two smaller peaks in Nepal.

The husband of 42-year-old Furdiki Sherpa, with whom she had two children, died in 2013 while trying to secure ropes to help his clients making the climb. Meanwhile, the husband of Nima Doma Sherpa, 36, perished in 2014 in an avalanche at base camp, along with 15 other Sherpas. Climbing officials say of the nearly 5,000 people who've climbed the mountain, only 500 or so have been women. "The death of my husband is not the end of my life," Furdiki Sherpa says. "I am undertaking the expedition to spread the message that widows can accomplish even such hard adventures." (Global warming is making the Everest climb more dangerous.)