Nepali sets Everest record with 27 ascents, Brit does most summits for foreigner

KATHMANDU, May 17 (Reuters) – A Nepali Sherpa climbed Mount Everest for a record 27th time on Wednesday, beating his own record, a government official and his trekking company said.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) mountain early in the morning along the traditional southeast ridge route, guiding a foreign climber.

“Yes, Kami Rita climbed Sagarmatha for the 27th time,” said Bigyan Koirala, an official with the Department of Tourism, referring to the mountain by its Nepali name.

Separately, Ishwari Paudel of the Himalayan Guides company said British climber Kenton Cool, 49, made his 17th ascent of the mountain on Wednesday, the most by foreign climbers. “Cool is now coming down after guiding his own private client to him,” Paudel said.

Thaneswar Guragai, CEO of Seven Summit Treks, for which Kami Rita works, said he reached the summit at 08:30 (0245 GMT) along with the foreign climber.

“We are trying to get details. For now, it is 100% confirmed that Kami Rita climbed for the 27th time,” Guragai said.

Kami Rita, who refers to himself by his first name, first climbed Everest in 1994 and has climbed it almost every year since, except for 2014, 2015 and 2020, when climbing was halted for various reasons. .

Garrett Madison of the US company Madison Mountaineering, who has climbed Everest 12 times, five of them with Kami Rita, described him as a “very strong climber”.

“It’s very inspiring to see a local climber continue to push the limits on Mount Everest,” Madison told Reuters by phone from Everest Base Camp, where he is preparing for his 13th ascent.

Kami Rita’s company said in a statement that he had “dedicated his life to mountaineering and has become synonymous with the world’s highest peak.”

Sherpas are known for their climbing skills and many make a living guiding foreign clients up Everest and other mountains.

May is the ideal time to attempt to summit Everest, with clear weather before the monsoon rolls in from the south, bringing clouds and snow to the peaks and rain to the lowlands.

This year, Nepal has issued 478 permits, the most ever, to climb Everest, up from the previous record of 408 in 2021.

The Himalayan nation, which relies heavily on climbing, trekking and tourism for hard currency, has been criticized for allowing too many climbers, many of them inexperienced, to attempt the summit of Everest.

Dangerous overcrowding can develop, especially at a bottleneck called the Hillary Step, just below the summit. In 2019, nine exhausted climbers died on Everest after queues of climbers built up and down.

Everest has been climbed more than 11,000 times, from both the Nepali and Tibetan sides, since it was first climbed in 1953, and many people have climbed it multiple times.

More than 320 people have died on the mountain, trekking officials said.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Edited by Robert Birsel

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