Hughes trek makes fitting final tribute

For all the heartfelt tributes that have flowed in the months since Phillip Hughes lost his life playing the game that so warmly embraced him, it's difficult to imagine one more poignant than the one that will unfold over the next 49 days starting in the Nepalese mountain settlement of Lukla.

To honour a pledge from the passionate cricket nation that, like so many, felt deeply the shock and pain of Hughes's passing – and with the blessing of the fallen batsman's family – Nepal's record breaking climber Chhurim Sherpa will carry a bat and two playing shirts to the rood of the world.

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Weather permitting, Chhurim – who in 2012 entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first female mountaineer to successfully scale Mount Everest twice in the same climbing season (those ascents coming within a span of 11 days) – will stand atop the world's highest peak in late May.

There, she will raise Hughes's bat to the heavens at the point where the earth meets the sky in a tribute that is symbolic in many more ways than the culmination of the 'put out your bats' gesture that generated such global meaning and momentum in the weeks that followed Hughes's death.

For like Hughes, 31-year-old Chhurim is diminutive in stature yet a giant in her field.

Another trait she shares with Hughes, who died just days shy of his 26th birthday, is a quiet, unassuming demeanour that masks a steely drive to achieve.

In receiving her Guinness certificate of recognition at a formal reception in 2013, Chhurim struggled to hide the same innate shyness she showed in Kathmandu yesterday when she took possession of Hughes's bat, Test and ODI shirt from Cricket Australia Chairman Wally Edwards.

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Chhurim Sherpa with CA Chairman Wally Edwards in Nepal // cricket.com.au

Speaking to cricket.com.au having retreated to a quiet corner of the hotel function room where the media conference and presentation event was held, she nursed a cup of Nepalese chai tea and nibbled a choc-chip biscuit as she smilingly confirmed she knew little about cricket.

A game that requires large expanses of flat playing field is not best suited to the mountain village of Ghunsa in the in the shadow of Mount Kangchenjunga near the nation's eastern border with India.

That's where Chhurim and her brother Dawa (who like his sister, now runs a Kathmandu-based trek and expedition business) grew up amid Sherpa families before her taste for adventure took her to the capital.

But as a young woman pursuing a career that has claimed many lives, and as one of only 21 Nepalese women to sit among the almost 4,000 climbers to have conquered Everest in the past six decades, she is acutely aware of the solemnity and symbolism of her next climb.

The mantra she voiced upon becoming a record-breaker and national hero, and which she continues to live by, could well have been lifted from Hughes's insatiable appetite to improve himself as a cricketer and to extract every last drop from his sizeable talent.

"If you're really determined, you can definitely take yourself to new heights, and that's what I've done," Chhurim said, fully aware of the playful irony.

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The climbing permit for the Phillip Hughes expedition // cricket.com.au

It's a philosophy echoed by Hughes's still grieving family in a letter they jointly penned to the Cricket Association of Nepal and to the Himalayan nation's people, which was read by Edwards at yesterday's media event.

"The Hughes family would like to thank the Cricket Association of Nepal and everyone else involved in organising this special tribute to Phillip," the open letter said.

"Phillip's death moved many people around the world in ways that we don't fully comprehend – to us he was our son, our brother and we miss him beyond words.

"To so many other people he was a young cricketer working hard to achieve his dream of playing cricket for Australia.

"While achieving this dream he also touched many individuals and left behind a new meaning of working hard and giving hope to children that anything is possible.

"We know our loss is shared by many and we thank you for honouring Phillip in this special way.

"Words cannot express our gratitude to everyone who has mourned with us during this time. Regards Gregory, Virginia, Jason and Megan Hughes."

Edwards, a great champion for the growth and development of cricket in Nepal, also noted that: "The offer to take Phillip's cricket equipment to the top of Mount Everest is something that can only be offered by Nepal.

"And we are pleased that Nepal has made this very, very generous offer."

The 'summit' climbing season on Mount Everest, the 8,848m formation known as Sagarmāthā in Nepalese and which has claimed the life of more than 200 climbers, operates in a small window during spring and prior to the onset of the summer monsoon.

If weather conditions allow, Chhurim will begin her ascent on April 17 when she will make the six-day trek from Lukla (2,860m) to the Everest base camp and then, over the ensuing three weeks, gradually acclimatise to the altitude beyond the initial camp at 5,380m.

Once weather forecasts have been assessed, Chhurim will embark on the 10-hour push for the summit of Everest between May 17-25 heading out from the final camp site (7,470m) at around midnight to ensure sufficient time is allowed for the difficult descent.

She is then expected to return to Kathmandu by May 31 where Hughes's bat and shirts will be presented to Australia's Ambassador in the capital, Glenn White, who will house the items at the Australian Embassy where they will be available for public viewing.

That display will also feature the trophy that the Cricket Association of Nepal commissioned for the Tribute Match in Hughes's name, which Cricket Australia has confirmed will become an annual fixture that from next year will host a full representative Australian XI.

Given the enormous interest in Saturday's inaugural tribute match that drew more than 15,000 spectators, the passion of the young cricketers who attended a clinic with Australia coaches Ryan Carters, Matthew Elliott and Charlie Burke at Kathmandu's TU Stadium yesterday, and the strong bond forged between CAN and CA, Phillip Hughes's spirit will endure in more than memory.

His too-brief life has provided the genesis of a mutually-beneficial alliance between two otherwise disparate cricket nations.

A relationship that will reach its maiden high point – at a place that universally stands as the physical pinnacle of human achievement – six weeks from today.

When a willow-hewn blade that held so many hopes and was wielded with such unrestrained joy is lifted one last time in defiant, silent acknowledgement at the top of the world.