Bisola David
Kami Rita Sherpa of Nepal has broken the previous record for most summits of Mount Everest by climbing to the peak for the 27th time on Wednesday, reclaiming the record for the most summits of the world’s highest mountain.
According to Aljazeera, the leader of his expedition, Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, reported that “he successfully reached the summit this morning while leading a Vietnamese climber.”
The 53-year-old Kami Rita Sherpa had been holding the overall championship ever since he made his 22nd ascent of Everest in 2018, breaking the previous record he had previously shared with two other Sherpa climbers who have since retired.
But on Sunday, another climber, 46-year-old Pasang Dawa Sherpa, tied the mark by making it to the summit a record-tying 26 times.
Kami Rita Sherpa, a guide for more than 20 years, reached his first summit while working for a commercial expedition in 1994.
He has climbed Everest virtually every year since then, several times leading the first rope-fixing party to open the route to the summit.
Last month, as he was making his way to base camp, Sherpa stated, “These records were made during my employment as a guide, not with a goal to make them.
Sherpa, known as “the Everest man,” was born in 1970 in Thame, a Himalayan region well known for producing excellent mountaineers.
Sherpa learned about mountain guiding by seeing his father and brother as a young boy, and he soon followed in their footsteps.
He made two summit attempts in 2019 over the course of six days.
Since it was first scaled in 1953, Mount Everest has been climbed more than 11,000 times, from both the Nepalese and Tibetan sides.
More than 320 people have died on the mountain, hiking officials said.
