Global Courant 2023-05-23 10:48:56
KATHMANDU – A Nepalese Sherpa reached the top of Mount Everest for the 28th time on Tuesday.
Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, reached the 8,849-meter summit via the traditional southeastern ridge route, Nepalese tourism official Bigyan Koirala said, after his 27th ascent last week.
Pioneered by the first mountaineers, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, the route remains the most popular trail to the world’s highest mountain.
“Kami Rita is on her way down from the top,” said Thaneswar Guragai, the general manager of his employer, the Seven Summit Treks company, which says climbing is a passion for the Sherpa.
“He climbed with other customers, but we are waiting for details.”
Kami Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has done so almost every year since, except for three years when authorities closed the mountain for various reasons.
“He developed a deep passion for climbing from a young age and has been climbing the mountains for more than two decades,” the company said last week.
Another Sherpa climber climbed Everest this week for the 27th time, the most summits after Kami Rita.
British climber Kenton Cool climbed Everest last week for the 17th time, the most by a foreigner.
However, the dangers the mountain poses to many climbers was reflected in two more deaths on Everest over the weekend, bringing the toll to 11 since April.
One of them, a Nepalese Sherpa who was cleaning the mountain, died on Monday, the Nepalese military said in a statement. Equipment and other items left behind by climbing expeditions can lie on the mountain for decades.
An Australian engineer died Friday while descending from the summit in the deadly zone above 7,925 metres, which is notorious for the thin air that can cause sudden illness at high altitudes.
Jason Bernard Kennison, 40, probably died due to weakness in the balcony area between the summit and the last camp, said Ang Tshering Sherpa of the Asian Trekking Co.
“He was carried down by Sherpa climbers, but collapsed when he reached the balcony,” he said, but gave no details.
