Rockclimbing
Record: Sherpa conquers Mount Everest for the 26th time
Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world at 8848 meters. Photo: Niranjan Shrestha/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Sherpa Kami Rita conquered Mount Everest for the first time in 1994. Now he was back on top of the world.
Nepalese mountain guide Kami Rita has scaled Mount Everest for the 26th time, beating his own record.
The 52-year-old reached the summit of the world’s highest mountain at 8,848 meters on Saturday around 6:55 p.m. local time with ten other Sherpas, his expedition company said. The task of the group led by Kami Rita was to use ropes to prepare the routes for mountaineers from abroad.
Kami Rita conquered Everest for the first time in 1994. He also scaled several other eight-thousanders in the Himalayas. Sherpas are a Himalayan ethnic group whose members often work as guides and porters for mountaineers.
Because of the difficult weather conditions, the peak season for climbing Mount Everest is limited to a few weeks in spring. Every year, hundreds of climbers try to climb the mountain on the Nepal-Chinese-administered Tibet border from the Nepalese side in the short window of opportunity. Since the first ascent of Everest in 1953, more than 5,000 people have made it to the summit. Several hundred died in the attempt.