Kami Rita Sherpa breaks own record, summits Everest 27th time

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May 18: Kami Rita Sherpa has reclaimed the record for the most summits of Mount Everest.Kami Rita, 53, summitted Everest for a record 27th time at 8.30 am on Wednesday, his expedition company Seven Summit Treks announced on Facebook. He is the only person on the planet to have successfully reached the top of the world’s highest mountain these many times.

Kami Rita is no stranger to record-breaking Everest attempts. He was the only person to have conquered the peak 26 times until Sunday when 46-year-old Pasang Dawa Sherpa matched this number. 

In fact, Kami Rita, a native of Thame, Solukhumbu, has held the overall record of most ascents since 2018, when he scaled Everest for the 22nd time. 

According to Seven Summit Treks, where he works as a senior guide, Kami Rita’s mountaineering career began in 1992 when he joined an Everest expedition as a member of the support staff. However, he completed his first Everest climb only in 1994 at the age of 24. 

Since then, he has scaled the mountain nearly every year except in 2020 when it was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, a partial reopening in 2021 enabled him to achieve his 25th summit.

Kami Rita is also recognised by the Guinness World Records (Guinness Book of Records) as holding the record for the most ascents of mountains higher than 8,000 metres. This record takes into account his summit of Pakistan’s K2 (8,611 metres), Lhotse (8,516 metres) and Cho Oyu (8,188 metres).

Also on Wednesday, British climber Kenton Cool reached the top of Mount Everest for a 17th time, breaking his own record and extending his title as the non-Nepali citizen with the most summits to his name.

Meanwhile, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, husband of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, also reached Everest’s peak at 7.30 am on Wednesday. With this, he has successfully climbed the highest peaks of all seven continents, informed his expedition company Thamserku Trekking.

Lhakpa is the founder and chairman of the Thamserku, executive chairman of Yeti Airlines and managing director of Yeti Mountain Home. His wife Pasang Lhamu was the first Nepali woman to ascend the mountain in 1993, nearly 20 years after Japan’s Junko Tabei made it to the top in 1975. But she tragically died during the descent.

Dhaulagiri dream unfulfilled

But over on Mount Dhaulagiri, 83-year-old Spanish mountaineer Carlos Soria’s 13th attempt to reach the top of the 8,167-metre peak ended in failure. 

As reported by our Myagdi correspondent Thakur Prasad Acharya, Soria had reached the base camp a month ago and, after waiting for the weather to clear, had ascended to Camp III, at an altitude of 7,200 metres, a few days ago. His expedition was being managed by the Seven Summit Treks. 

“Soria was making his way to the summit from Camp III when he sprained his leg,” Thaneshwor Guragain, manager of Seven Summit, told The Rising Nepal. “He is currently returning to the base camp. From there, we are preparing to bring him to Kathmandu.”

Since 1998, Soria has tried for more than a dozen times to reach Dhaulagiri’s summit but has, so far, not succeeded.