Nepalese mountaineer Kami Rita, 52, broke his own record for the most climbs to the top of Mount Everest after successfully reaching the summit of the world’s tallest mountain for the 26th time.
On Saturday, the veteran Sherpa guide safely scaled the 29,032-foot summit while leading a group of Sherpa climbers.
Sherpas are an ethnic group in Nepal who live at high altitudes. The term is also used to refer to the trek guides themselves. Their skills and expertise have become essential to the safety of foreign climbers who want to reach the top of Everest.
The expedition, composed of Rita and 10 other guides, reached the summit at around 7 p.m., which is considered late by Everest climbing standards. At night, climbers are vulnerable to risks of deteriorating weather that could cause them to lose their way back down.
The group attached ropes along the route to help other climbers and guides who are set to climb the mountain in a few weeks.
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After the trek, the group returned without a hitch to lower camps, according to Mingma Sherpa of the mountaineering company Seven Summit Treks.
Nepal’s Department of Tourism Director General Taranath Adhikari declared: “Kami Rita has broken his own record and established a new world record in climbing.”
Kami Rita’s wife Lakpa Jangmu expressed happiness over the experienced climber’s remarkable feat, although in earlier interviews has expressed wishes that her husband would quit his dangerous job as a guide.
“I keep telling him we could look for other jobs, start a small business. But he does not listen to me at all,” she told The Independent in 2018 when her husband was set to attempt his 22nd Everest summit..
Rita, whose father was among the first Sherpa guides, has also scaled some of the world’s other highest peaks, including K-2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.
Rita has made climbing Mount Everest an annual trip since first reaching its summit in 1994. For his latest trek, he used a route pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Mount Everest has been climbed 10,000 times since 1953, with the treacherous path to the summit having claimed at least 311 people so far.
Featured Image via Sherpa Adventure Gear
