Ukrainian climber Valentyn Sypavin reached the summit of Mount Everest for the sixth time in the early hours of Saturday, marking the first successful ascent of the world’s highest peak from the southern face during the 2024 spring season by a non-Sherpa climber.
His ascent comes just a few hours after a ten-member rope-fixing team laid ropes to the summit, opening the fixed route for the climbers. Sanu Sherpa, legendary Nepali climber, leading Sypavin’s expedition, also reached the summit at around 4:00 am, according to Pemba Sherpa, founder of 8K Expeditions.
Valentyn and Sanu are the only climbers to summit the peak on Saturday. The duo followed the rope fixing team to make an early ascent of the world’s highest peak. “It was Valentyn’s plan that needed an early ascent of the peak. He wants to climb Everest thrice in this season,” Pemba told Everest Chronicle.
Valentyn, 41, who has over 300 ascents worldwide, is former vice-champion of Ice Climbing World Cup. He completed the Everest and Lhotse traverse twice, in 2021 and 2023, in collaboration with 8k Expeditions, according to Pemba.
Hailing from the war-torn city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Sypavin is a professional mountaineer and mountain guide who has scaled the highest peaks on 4 continents, including to six ascents of Everest, K2 and Lhotse.
Sanu Sherpa is the first climber to climb all 14 peaks over 8,000 meters twice. He has 40 summits of 8,000m peaks.
