Kathmandu: A Nepali sherpa reached the summit of Mount Everest for a record 28th time today, an official said, completing his second ascent in just a week, as the toll in this year’s climbing season reached 11.
Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, reached the 8,849-metre (29,032-feet) summit by the traditional southeast ridge route, said Nepali tourism official Bigyan Koirala, following his 27th climb last week.
Pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, the route remains the most popular path to the world’s tallest peak.
“Kami Rita is on his way down from the summit,” 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 clients 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 scaling the mountains for over two decades,” the company said last week.
Another sherpa climber scaled Everest for the 27th time this week, the most summits after Kami Rita.
British climber Kenton Cool last week climbed Everest for the 17th time, the most by a foreigner.
