The last survivor of the expedition that achieved the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, Kanchha Sherpa, died at the age of 92, his family announced this Thursday, October 16.
“He had not been feeling very well for a few days. He died,” announced one of his grandchildren, Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa.
Born in 1933, Kanchha Sherpa was 19 years old when he was hired as a porter on the team led by New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who conquered the highest peak on the planet (8,848 m) with Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953.
“We lost our goalkeeper”
During this ascent, the young porter reached the famous “death zone”, more than 8,000 meters above sea level, without any previous experience in mountaineering.
“He was a living legend and a source of inspiration for all mountaineers and those who work in this sector,” reacted the president of the Nepalese Mountaineering Association, Fur Gelje Sherpa. “We lost our goalkeeper,” he added.
Members of the victorious 1953 expedition gathered in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and walked for two weeks to reach base camp carrying tents, food and equipment.
“Everyone had to walk because there was no road, no vehicle, no plane,” Kanchha Sherpa said in an interview with AFP in 2013.
Numerous expeditions over 20 years.
Over the years, the surname Sherpa has become the common name for Nepalese climbers hired by foreign mountaineers to enable their ascents.
Members of the same ethnic group carry the material or equip the routes, work without which most ascents would be impossible.
After the 1953 expedition, Kanchha Sherpa continued participating in numerous expeditions for twenty years, before giving up at the insistence of his wife.
He later ran a shelter in Namche and established a foundation that financed the education of impoverished families.
Source: BFM TV
