Kami Rita summits Sagarmatha for record 29th time

Kathmandu, May 13: Mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa has set yet another record by summiting Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) for a record 29 time.  

Sherpa achieved the feat on Sunday morning. Both the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Seven Summit Treks, for which Sherpa has been working as a senior guide, confirmed the 29th ascent to the highest peak by Sherpa.

“Kami Rita Sherpa climbed Mt. Everest for the 29th time on Sunday morning, and he is now descending,” Rakesh Gurung, Director at the Department of Tourism and Chief of the Mountaineering Section under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, told The Rising Nepal.

Kami Rita ascended the 8848.86-metre high peak for the first time on May 13, 1994, and reached the highest peak in the world for the 28th time on May 23, 2023. He had climbed Mount Everest twice in a single season in 2023 – May 17 and 23 and in 2019—on May 15 and May 21. After Kami Rita, Pasang Dawa holds the highest record of assent on Mt. Everest. He scaled the peak 27 times as of 2023.  

Mountaineers from across the world have been making their attempts to reach the highest peak since Tenzing Norgey and Edmund Hillary put their step on it first in the late morning on May 29, 1953.  

According to Gurung, altogether 70 mountaineers, including 20 from the Seven Summit Treks, made it to the top of the highest peak on Saturday and Sunday after the rope-fixing work concluded on Saturday. “We have received information from our field office at Mt. Everest that all the 70 mountaineers are descending and the weather on the mountain is fine today,” he added. 

However, he said that the weather was likely to become worse in the region on May 14 and 15.  

Similarly, Thaneshwar Guragain of Seven Summit Treks also said that 20 mountaineers including Kami Rita Sherpa from their company made successful assent at 7.25 am on Sunday.

“Our senior guide Kami Rita Sherpa scaled the peak for the 29th time today while one woman climber each from Slovakia and Kazakhstan conquered the peak for the first time,” Guragain said. Lucia Janicova became the first Slovak woman and Anar Burasheva became the first Kazakh woman to climb Mt. Everest, said Guragain.

  Of the 20 mountaineers who made successful ascent on Sunday, 13 were Nepali nationals. They included Kami Rita Sherpa, Pasang Dukpa Sherpa, Lakpa Thendu Sherpa, Dharche Bhote, Chhedar Bhote, Rinjin Bhote, Rima Rinje Sherpa, Gelje Sherpa, Phuri Sherpa, Dawa Phinjo Lama Bhote, Angi Bhote, Chhiring Nuppa Bhote and Dawa Finjhok Sherpa. Of the seven international climbers, two each from the USA and Kazakhstan and one each from the United Kingdom, Canada and Slovakia reached the peak through the Seven Summit Trek, according to Guragain.