Kathmandu: A Nepalese Sherpa climbed Mount Everest for a record 27th time on Wednesday, a government official and his hiking company said.
Guiding a foreign climber, Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, climbed the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) mountain along the traditional Southeast Ridge route early in the morning.
Tourism Department official Bigyan Koirala said, “Yes, Kami Rita has climbed Sagarmatha for the 27th time.”
Thaneshwar Guragai, manager of Seven Summit Treks, for whom Kami Rita works, said he reached the summit at 8.30 am (0245 GMT) with the foreign climber.
“We are trying to get details. For now it is 100% confirmed that Kami Rita has scaled for the 27th time,” Guragai said.
He climbed Everest for the first time in 1994 and has climbed almost every year since then except in 2014, 2015 and 2020, when the climb was stopped due to various reasons.
This year, Nepal has issued the highest number of 478 permits for people to climb Everest in the peak season of March-May as compared to the previous record of 408 in 2021.
The Himalayan nation, which is heavily dependent on climbing, trekking and tourism for foreign exchange, has been criticized for allowing too many climbers, many of them inexperienced, to attempt the summit of Everest.
Dangerous congestion can develop, especially at a bottleneck called Hillary Step just below the summit. In 2019, nine exhausted climbers died near the summit after there were queues of climbers going up and down.
According to government figures, climbing contributed $5.8 million to state coffers this year, $5 million of it from Mount Everest.
Everest has been climbed more than 11,000 times, from both the Nepalese and Tibetan sides, since it was first climbed in 1953, with many having been climbed multiple times.
Mountaineering officials said more than 320 people have died on the mountain.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Disclaimer: This report is generated automatically from Reuters news service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.
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