Nepali Sherpa scales Mount Everest for a record 32nd time

KATHMANDU- A renowned Nepali Sherpa guide scaled Mount Everest for the 32nd time on Sunday, an official said, smashing his own record set last year.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 56, reached the 8,849-metre (29,032 foot) peak - the highest in the world - while guiding clients from the 14 Peaks Expedition company.

Nepal's Department of Tourism congratulated the Sherpa for achieving the “historic milestone” and for his contributions to promoting mountain tourism.

He reached the summit at 10:12 a.m. (0427 GMT) on Sunday, it said in a statement adding that a Sherpa woman, Lakhpa, 52, had made her 11th ascent to the peak, the most by a woman. Details of the climbs were not available.

Kami Rita was born in the same Thame village in Solukhumbu district as Tenzing Norgay. Norgay and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary were the first to climb Everest in 1953.

Kami Rita climbed the peak for the first time in 1994 and has repeated the feat every year except in 2014, 2015 and 2020 when expeditions to Everest were closed for different reasons. He reached the summit twice in some years.

More than 8,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, many of them several times, since it was first scaled by Norgay and Hillary.

Among non-Sherpa climbers, the record is held by British guide Kenton Cool who has accomplished the feat 19 times followed by American climbers Dave Hahn and Garrett Madison with 15 climbs each. Cool and Madison are currently on Everest to improve their records.

Guiding foreign climbers to Everest and other peaks provides crucial family income to many Sherpas, natives of the Solukhumbu district where Everest is located.

Authorities have issued 492 permits to climbers for Everest for this March-May climbing season, while three Nepali climbers have died on the mountain this month.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)