Kami Rita Sherpa first climbed the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) peak in 1994.
Kathmandu, Nepal:
Nepalese mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa on Wednesday set the record for the highest summit of the world’s highest mountain by reaching the summit of Mount Everest for the 27th time.
“He successfully reached the summit this morning while guiding a Vietnamese climber,” Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, the organizer of the expedition, told AFP.
The 53-year-old had held the title since 2018, when he climbed Everest for the 22nd time, surpassing the previous mark he shared with two other Sherpa climbers, who have both retired.
But on Sunday, another climber Pasang Dawa Sherpa (46) made a record by reaching the summit for the 26th time.
Kami Rita Sherpa, a guide for more than two decades, first reached the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) summit in 1994, when he was working for a commercial expedition.
Since then, he has climbed Everest almost every year, several times leading the first team to set a rope and opening a route to the world’s highest point.
“These records were made during my work as a guide, not with the intention of making them,” the Sherpa told AFP last month on his way to base camp.
The Sherpa known as “The Everest Man” was born in 1970 in Thame, a village in the Himalayas famous as the breeding ground of successful climbers.
Growing up, Sherpa watched his father and then his brother climb to join expeditions as mountain guides, and soon followed in their footsteps.
In 2019, he reached the summit twice in a span of six days.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are generally calm.
Officials have issued 478 permits to foreign climbers this year, with an $11,000 fee part of a total cost to summit from $45,000 to $200,000.
Since most will need a guide, more than 900 people – a record – will attempt to summit this season, which runs through early June.
Nepali guides, usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys surrounding Everest, are considered the backbone of the climbing industry and take enormous risks carrying equipment and food, fixing ropes and repairing ladders.
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