Nepali Sherpa guide Kami Rita breaks record for Mount Everest climbs
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British climber scales Everest for 17th time, sets a non-Sherpa record
Kenton Cool, a British mountain climber, broke his own record with his 17th climb of Mount Everest, a record for non-Sherpa guides.
Ryan Ross, USA TODAY
A Nepali Sherpa guide has regained his title for most summits of Mount Everest after reaching the peak for a world record 27th time.
Just three days after a fellow Sherpa climber tied his previous record, Kami Rita reached the 29,032-foot peak while guiding a group of climbers on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
Rita, 53, set the previous record last year when he scaled the world’s highest mountain for a 26th time. Pasang Dawa tied that record Sunday.
Also on Wednesday, 49-year-old British climber Kenton Cool completed his 17th climb of Everest, which marks the most ascents of any foreign climber, Ishwari Paudel of travel company Himalayan Guides told Reuters.
Rita’s history of scaling the world’s highest peaks
The 53-year-old guide first scaled Everest in 1994 and has climbed the mountain almost every year since then.
Rita has climbed several of the world’s highest peaks, including K-2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.
Rita is one of many Sherpa guides who help other climbers reach the top of the mountain every year. His expertise is vital to the safety and success of those trips.
More than 6,000 people have summitted Everest. It is one of the most dangerous undertakings in the world; from 1950 to 2019, more than 180 people died while attempting the climb, according to the Himalayan database.
May is safest time to climb the mountain
May is the best month to climb Everest, because it has the best weather conditions, the AP reported. After May, climbing the mountain is considered dangerous.
Nepalese authorities have issued nearly 470 permits for Everest this spring. The first wave of climbers this season reached the peak last weekend as Sherpa guides fixed ropes and made paths for the hundreds of climbers who will attempt to scale the peak this month.
On May 29, 1953, New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit.
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Contributing: The Associated Press