Nepalese climb Mount Everest to set a record for the 26th time

Kami Rita Sherpa, a Nepalese mountaineer, waves toward the media in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 25, 2019. Kami Rita capitulated Mount Everest on May 7, 2022, for the 26th time, surpassing the record set last year, REUTERS/Navish Chitrakar

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A Nepalese Sherpa family member has scaled Mount Everest for the 26th time, a government official said on Sunday, overtaking the previous record set last year.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 52, climbed the 8,848.86-meter (29,031.69-foot) mountain on Saturday along the traditional Southeast Hills Trail that leads 10 more Sherpa climbers.

“Kami Rita has broken his own record and set a new world climbing record,” said Taranath Adhikari, Director General of Tourism Department in the capital Kathmandu.

Kami’s wife Rita, who called her Gangmo, said she is happy with her husband’s accomplishments.

The climbing route used by Kami Rita was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and remains the most popular.

Nepal this year issued 316 permits to climb Mount Everest in the peak season, which runs through May, compared to 408 permits last year, the highest number ever.

The Himalayan country, which relies heavily on climbers for foreign exchange, has faced criticism for allowing overcrowding and the death of many climbers on the mountains in 2019.

Mount Everest has been climbed 10,657 times since it was first ascended in 1953 from the Nepalese and Tibetan sides — it has ascended many times, and 311 people have died so far, according to the Himalayan Mountains Database.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma

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