Nepal's Kami Rita Sherpa, who holds the record for most ascents of Everest, surpassed his own mark on Wednesday by climbing the highest mountain on the planet again with 27 ascents in three decades of career.
Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, climbed the 8,848.86-meter mountain on Wednesday at 8.30 am (4.45 GMT). Kami Rita's mountaineering career began in 1992 when he joined an Everest expedition team as a porter.
Rita last broke her own record last year, when she reached the summit for the twenty-sixth time as leader of a rope fixing team and accompanied by 10 other Sherpa climbers.
In addition to Everest, the Sherpa climbed eight times the Cho Oyu, 8,201 meters high, three times the Manaslu, 8,163 meters, and once the K2 and Lhotse, which rise 8,611 and 8,516 meters above sea level, respectively.
The Himalayas from the top of Mount Everest. Photo AFP.
Nearly 7,000 mountaineers have climbed Everest from the Nepal side since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and New Zealander Edmund Percival Hillary first set foot on the summit of the world's highest peak in May 1953.
Official Bigyan Koirala, of the Department of Tourism, the government agency that issues climbing permits, told EFE that they granted permits for Everest to a record 478 people who pay this climbing season, which lasts until the end of May.
The issuance of permits has stopped. This is the largest number of permits we have issued for Everest, Koirala said.
So far the highest number was in 2021, when Nepal's Department of Tourism issued 409 authorizations.
Nepalese mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa greets upon arrival after climbing Mount Everest. Photo Reuters.
This number was reduced to 325 in 2022, as a consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that prevented the travel of potential climbers from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and other European countries.
So far this season, according to mountaineering officials, six people have died on Everest.
Source EFE
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