Nepali Sherpa guide Kami Rita Sherpa on May 23 ascended Mount Everest for the 28th time setting the record for most ascents of the World’s tallest peak, beating his own record with the highest number of ascends on the World’s highest peak, according to Seven Summit Trek, the expedition organising company.
“This morning at 9:23 am, Kami Rita Sherpa successfully summited Mount Everest for an incredible 28th time as a part of the Seven Summit Treks Everest Expedition 2023,” said Seven Summit Trek.
This is his second ascent of Mt Everest (Sagarmatha) of the season; earlier he climbed the peak on May 17, 2023.
Kami Rita Sherpa, a native of Thame village in Solukhumbu, Nepal, working as Senior Guide at Seven Summit Treks, has dedicated his life to mountaineering and has become synonymous with the World’s highest peak.
Born on January 2, 1970, he developed a deep passion for climbing from a young age and has been scaling mountains for over two decades.
His mountaineering journey began in 1992 when he joined an expedition to Everest as a support staff member. Since then, Kami Rita has fearlessly embarked on numerous expeditions, summiting Everest multiple times.
Kami Rita’s achievements extend beyond Everest, as he has also conquered other formidable peaks, including K2, Cho Oyu, Lhotse, and Manaslu.
Kami Rita had scaled Mt Everest for the first time in 1994 May 13. Between 1994 to 2023, he scaled the peak 27 times, K2 and Lhotse once, Manaslu thrice, and Cho Oyu eight times. Kami Rita Sherpa, as such, holds the record for ‘Most climbs over 8000m’.
Summit for the World’s highest mountain formally started on May 14 this year after the rope fixing team from Imagine Nepal set the line to the top. The summit window for this year’s spring opened late because of unfavourable weather conditions high in the Himalayas which has recorded heavy snowfall in recent weeks.
This year, Nepal is seeing a high influx of climbing aspirants as the Department of Tourism has issued permits to 478 individuals, the highest number on record. Earlier in 2021, Nepal had issued a record 409 permits, which had overcrowded the summit, which often is blamed for the high fatalities that year.
A year later, the number dropped to 325, taken as an impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and recession that is coming forth this year. Nepal charges USD 11,000 to foreign climbers to take permits for Mount Everest, but the expenses range between 40,000 to 90,000 USD to climb the mountain.
The cost of an expedition rises further when the weather is not favourable, as it usually lasts for only two weeks in a year. Close to 7,000 mountaineers have climbed Mount Everest from Nepal’s side since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and New Zealander Edmund Percival Hillary first set foot atop the World’s highest peak in May 1953.
(with inputs from ANI)
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