Kami Rita sets another Everest record after 10 days

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May 23: Breaching his own previous record of 29th ascent set 10 days ago, mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa has set yet another record by summiting Sagarmatha, the highest peak in the world, for a record 30th time. 

Sherpa achieved the feat at 7.49 am on Wednesday.

This was his second ascent of this season. Earlier on May 12, he had reached the top of the 8848.86-metre peak.

The Department of Tourism Board under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Seven Summit Treks with which Sherpa is associated as a senior tourist guide confirmed his 30th ascent on Wednesday.

Narayan Khanal, focal person of the Department of Tourism, confirmed the feat achieved by Kami Rita.

Khanal, who is now at the Sagarmatha Base Camp, told The Rising Nepal that Kami Rita Sherpa reached the highest peak and he was descending from the peak.

Likewise, the Seven Summit Treks on its official Facebook page congratulated the mountaineer for his 30th successful ascent on Wednesday morning.

Sherpa, 54, of Thame village in Solukhumbu, first conquered the peak on May 13, 1994. He made his 28th ascent on May 23, 2023. Like this year, he made two ascents in 2023—on May 17 and May 23 -- and in 2019—on May 15 and 21. 

After Kami Rita, Pasang Dawa has the highest number of ascents at 27, with the last ascent in 2023. 

According to Khanal, 80 per cent of climbers who received permission to scale Mt. Everest this season, had scaled the peak.

As the weather in the region is fine, other climbers will also make ascent in the remaining days. 

However, Khanal could not mention the exact number of climbers who succeeded in climbing the highest peak this season. 

As the climbers to both Lhotse and Mt. Everest pass through the same route, I have been unable to calculate the exact number of mountaineers who make it to the highest peak, he said over the telephone. 

Meanwhile, two mountaineers went missing in Mt. Everest on Tuesday. According to a statement issued by the Department of Tourism on Wednesday, a British mountaineer and his Sherpa guide went missing on Tuesday morning during the descent.

British climber Daniel Paul Peterson, 40, and his 23-year-old guide Tenzi Sherpa slipped towards Kangsung Face at an altitude of 8,750 metres near South Summit at 7:00 am on Tuesday and went missing, read the statement. 

Search for the missing climbers was going on by mobilizing six experienced guides, it said. 

Earlier last week, two Mongolian climbers died during the descent.