Vietnam’s Ngo Hai Son completes Everest Triple Crown in four days
Doctor becomes first Vietnamese climber to summit Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse in rapid succession, in a record-fast Himalayan feat.
A Vietnamese doctor, Ngo Hai Son, has become the first climber from Vietnam to complete the Everest Triple Crown, and is reported to have set a record for the fastest completion of the feat, according to expedition organisers.
Son, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Viet Duc University Hospital in Hanoi, summited Everest (8,848m), Lhotse (8,516m) and Nuptse (7,861m) in rapid succession between May 20 and May 24, alongside Nepali guide Nima Sherpa. Satori Adventures, expedition organiser, claimed the pair completed the Triple Crown in just four days, which is the fastest climbed recorded.
The Everest Triple Crown is an informal but increasingly recognised mountaineering challenge involving ascents of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse—three adjacent peaks in the Khumbu region that require sustained exposure to extreme altitude in the so-called “death zone” above 8,000 metres.
Son’s sequence began with Everest, which he reached at around 3 a.m. on May 20 with fellow Vietnamese climber Nguyen Thanh Binh. The pair then descended and continued to Lhotse, which they summited on May 21. After returning to Everest Base Camp, Son pushed on with Nima Sherpa to Nuptse, reaching its summit at 6:20 a.m. on May 24.
Organisers said Son became the first Vietnamese climber to summit Everest and Lhotse within a 27-hour window, and also the first from the country to reach Nuptse.
Nuptse, although lower than Everest and Lhotse, is widely regarded as technically demanding, with steep mixed terrain and complex route-finding requirements. Son himself described it as “very difficult” despite its comparatively modest altitude.
The achievement has drawn attention in climbing circles for both its pace and its sequencing, coming amid a busy Himalayan spring season marked by high summit traffic and an increasing number of rapid ascents enabled by improved logistics and weather forecasting.
Born in 1987 and widely known as Dr Kai, Son is also among Vietnam’s most accomplished high-altitude climbers. In 2024, he became the first Vietnamese to summit K2, the world’s second-highest mountain at 8,611 metres.
Including Son, only a small number of Vietnamese climbers have reached Everest over the past two decades, underscoring the relative rarity of high-altitude Himalayan ascents from the country, though participation has grown steadily in recent years.
