JACKSON (AP) - When Nepalese Sherpas showed Jackson snowboard mountaineer John Griber how they tied a knot, he couldn't believe what he saw: a big bunch of rope twisted and hitched around itself.

He laughs now at the Khumbu-region invention known as "the yak bunch knot."

The high-mountain people of eastern Nepal, known as "Tigers of the Snow" rely on their knot to keep them safe traveling over crevasses and atop cliffs. But it's not working.

"It's like giving someone a rope who doesn't climb and say make something that doesn't come undone," said Jimmy Chin, a Victor, Idaho, photographer and mountaineer who taught at the school in 2005, "It's like 40 granny knots," he said of the yak bunch.

The bunch knot is why Griber - and Chin the year before - went to the small village of Phortse, Nepal, in January to teach Sherpas technical climbing skills at the Khumbu Climbing School. Griber, who is focusing more these days on adventure filming, was asked by filmmaker Michael Brown to help him shoot the annual project as part of "The North Face Expeditions Television Series."

It was the vision of North Face athlete Conrad Anker to create the school, now in its third year. After surviving an avalanche on 26,289-foot-high Shishapangma that killed companions David Bridges and Alex Lowe, Anker began to think beyond the challenge of climbing mountains. Anker decided to help the indigenous people of Nepal through the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation that was started by Lowe's widow, Jenni.

"Sherpas have a reputation for being the strongest climbers on Everest - and in fact, they almost always are far stronger than any of the foreign climbers who hire them," Anker wrote in the December issue of Outside magazine. "But most Sherpas have been taught little or nothing about avalanche forecasting, crevasse rescue or even such rudimentary skills as how to tie into a rope properly. And as a consequence, too many Sherpas die in easily preventable accidents."

The school in January consisted of 72 students. Seven days were spent climbing frozen waterfalls, rock pitches and trees. The students were tested on the last day, graded from 0 to 3. Certificates were given for "Participation" (a nice way to give an F), "Level 1" (equivalent to a C), "Level 2" (or a B). The most competent earned "Honours."

Back in Jackson last month, Griber recalled a couple of his students. He still contacts them via e-mail, even though Internet access for them is a day's walk away.

There is 27-year-old DaNuru who has summited Everest six times, and PhuNuru, 25, who at 17 climbed the world's sixth highest peak, Cho Oyu. PhuNuru has been on seven Everest expeditions and summited the world's highest peak three times.

Griber calls them and the rest of the talented pool of Sherpas the "Phortse Boys" (though 11 women were in the school). Of the 300 in the village, he said, 35 had stood atop Everest.

"We all feel like the Sherpas are all superstars," he said. "They are humble, kind, giving. They always have a smile. They are incredibly strong. … They have the strength and knowledge and have summited the peaks, but they don't have the technical knowledge." That doesn't mean the Sherpas lack confidence in their own methods.

"They are totally comfortable with the yak knot," Griber said, even though it looks like something a 3-year-old would tie.

But the purpose of the school, Griber and Chin said, is to get them to learn the technical knots, and contemporary climbing techniques so they can become safe, self-sufficient guides.

"I thought it would be a really great idea to give something back to them," Chin said, "to give them some real instruction and training to pass down."

He said Sherpas make an annual income of about $300, but they can make about $1,000 on an expedition.

"Lots of pride goes into the job," Chin said. "It's competitive, too."

Like Anker, Chin and Griber are North Face athletes. In 2004, The North Face teamed up with philanthropic group GlobalGiving to add an altruistic angle to its mission as an outdoor manufacturing company. Since then, the sponsored expeditions have been about giving back to the community whether it is building shelters on Baffin Island for abused women or doctoring eyesight ailments.

Griber recently went to Boulder, Colo., for the world premiere of a film based on an expedition he participated in last spring. Sight to Summit was a trip a group of North Face climbers took to help two doctors cure 250 high-mountain people of cataracts in an astounding surgery that took a few minutes and cost only $10 per eye. The team members then climbed 21,128-foot Cholatse just because they could.

"You realize you have a lot to give," Chin said, "and we have so many resources, and a little bit that we give can go a long way over there."