Renowned climbing guide Kami Rita Sherpa has left for Khumbu leading a team of climbers to Mount Everest. He will attempt to climb the mountain once again or possibly twice this season which will make it his 29th summit of the world’s highest peak.
The Himalayan Times reported that Sherpa will be carrying the paper’s banner to the summit.
In a conversation with Everest Chronicle earlier this month, Kami Rita, 54, indicated that he was considering his 29th ascent but wouldn’t confirm whether he would climb once or twice, or specify the team he would be leading.
If successful, this will be his 29th ascent of the world’s tallest peak, surpassing his own record for the most successful ascents. In May last year, Sherpa successfully climbed the peak twice -once while fixing the rope and later when he guided an American team, including a US-based Vietnamese billionaire Chinh Chu, to the summit.
Kami Rita is the Guinness record holder with 28 summits of the world’s highest peak, followed closely by a fellow Sherpa, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, who has 27 summits to his name.
Born in Thame village of Solukhumbu district, Kami Rita started his career as a porter before becoming a climbing guide.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Kami Rita climbed Everest for the first time in 1994 when he was 24 years old, and he has since scaled it almost every year.
Pasang Dawa, 46, like Kami Rita hails from the Sherpa stronghold of Khumbu, the home to Everest and several other peaks. He also climbed the peak twice last year. Since he is almost a decade younger, Pasang Dawa may well surpass Kami Rita’s record in the next few years, which Kami Rita has held since 2018.
According to the Department of Tourism, at least 274 climbers have obtained permits to climb Everest from the Nepal side during the ongoing spring climbing season, which runs from April to early June.
There has been a rise in the number of climbers this year due to the high number of Chinese climbers and climbers rushing to climb ahead of Nepal’s decision to raise the permit fee from $11,000 to $15,000 starting 2025 spring season.
