Nepali Sherpa Pasang Dawa climbs Mt Everest record 26th time

A Nepali Sherpa guide climbed Mount Everest for the 26th time, officials said, matching the record set by a fellow Nepalese guide, Kami Rita Sherpa, for the most ascents of the world’s highest peak.

Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, stood atop the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak on Sunday, becoming the world’s second person to achieve the feat, Bigyan Koirala, a government tourism official, said on Sunday.

Kami Rita, who is also climbing Everest now, could set another record if he makes it to the top of the world’s highest mountain.

Pasang Dawa Sherpa reached the summit on Sunday morning along with a Hungarian climber, according to expedition organiser Imagine Nepal Treks.

“They are descending from the top now and are in good shape,” the official, Dawa Futi Sherpa, told Reuters news agency.

Sherpas, who mostly use their first names, are known for their climbing skills and make a living mainly by guiding foreign clients in the mountains.

Dawa Futi said a Pakistani woman, Naila Kiani, who also climbed the peak on Sunday, was the first foreign climber to summit Everest in this year’s climbing season, which runs from March to May.

This could not be independently confirmed as many foreign climbers are now headed for the peak, a day after the ropes to the top were fixed.

Kiani, a 37-year-old banker based in Dubai, had climbed four of the world’s 14 highest mountains before Everest, The Himalayan Times newspaper said.

Nepal has issued a record 467 permits this year for foreign climbers seeking to reach the summit of Everest.

Climbers generally reach the base camp of the mountain in April and spend weeks acclimatising to the high altitude, rough terrain and thin air before they go up the mountain’s slopes. By the first or second week of May, they are usually making attempts for the summit.

Each climber is usually accompanied by at least one Sherpa guide, fuelling fears that a narrow section below the summit, known as the Hillary Step, could get crowded.

This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay. It has been climbed more than 11,000 times since then.