Nepalese climber Kami Rita Sherpa summited Everest for the 27th time this Wednesday, setting a new world summit record, the expedition’s organizer said.
“He successfully summited this morning while guiding a Vietnamese climber,” told AFP Mingma Sherpa, of the company Seven Summit Treks.
Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, held the record since 22nd ascent to the summit of Everest in 2018, beating a previous record he shared with two other Sherpas, both of whom are now retired.
On Sunday, another Nepalese climber, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, had climbed Everest for the 26th time, tying the previous record.
Kami Rita Sherpa has been a guide for over 20 years and first reached the 8,848 meter summit in 1994.
Since then, the Nepalese has climbed Everest almost every year and on several occasions even led the first team of technicians responsible for paving the way to the summit.
“These records were not set with the intention of achieving them, but as part of my work as a guide,” Sherpa told AFP in April as he made his way to base camp.
Nicknamed “the man of Everest,” Sherpa was born in 1970 in Thame, a Himalayan village known as a breeding ground for talented climbers.
Nepalese guides, mostly Sherpas from the valleys surrounding Everest, are considered the mainstays of the Himalayan mountaineering industry. They take enormous risks to transport equipment and food and to repair ropes and ladders.
Home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks, Nepal welcomes hundreds of climbers each spring, when temperatures are warmer and winds are generally calm.
This year, authorities issued 478 climbing permits to foreign climbers.
Source: DN
