Tsering: Everest summiteer who saved multiple lives

By Pramod Kumar Tandan, Kathmandu, Dec 24: People dream of climbing Mount Everest once and if they conquer the highest peak then they celebrate it throughout the life. Even after death, grandchildren remember that incident and pass the message from generation to generation.

But being an 11-time Mount Everest summiter, Tsering Pemba Sherpa is far from all these things. Born in a mountaineering family at Rowaling village of Gaurishankar Rural Municipality in Dolakha in 1985, Sherpa started mountaineering in 2006, after his father's death.

His grandfather Nima Chhiri Sherpa was a postman (mail downer) in the team of the first Mount Everest summiteer Edmund Hilary. Including Tsering's father Ang Chhiring Sherpa, all seven brothers were also mountaineers.

According to Sherpa, the Seven Brothers summited Everest 65 times. After the death of his father Sherpa automatically entered the mountaineering sector and the next year in 2007 May 23 he successfully conquered Mount Everest for the first time. He climbed the world's highest peak recently in May 21 this year.

In the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022 Tsering scaled the world's top summit. A certified mountain guide and member of the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA) Sherpa saved dozens of lives by rescuing them.

"Despite on the way to summit with my team, I have rescued dozens of people who were stranded during mountaineering." Sherpa told to TRN Daily, "I trekked up to 40 hours for rescue effort when I heard one climber fell unconscious who was climbing a mountain without a guide."

Tsering is renowned as a lifesaving hero. According to him, in 2010, he led a rescue operation after an avalanche on Cho Oyu, saving Nepalese and Tibetan climbers' teams. He saved multiple lives in the 2012 Manaslu avalanche.

After the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, Tsering worked tirelessly to rescue over 50 injured climbers at Everest Base Camp. In 2021, he led a six-day mission to recover the bodies of three French climbers after an avalanche on Mingbo Eiger. Recently, in 2024, he saved a Macedonian climber in critical condition during a descent on Mount Lhotse.

While climbing mountains with various teams Sherpa found two unclimbed mountains and climbed them and named them too in 2015, which was later recognised by the government of Nepal. He named the 6125-meter height Bedding Go and the 6646-meter height Khang Karpo.

He successfully conquered Mount Everest 11 times out of 17 attempts. He climbed Manaslu 8 times and   Ama Dablam 15 times. He also climbed K2, Broad Peak, Cho Oyu, Himlung, Kilimanjaro, Denali, and two summits of Lhotse. Sherpa has scaled six 8,000-meter peaks, earning him recognition as one of Nepal’s most accomplished climbers.