Only way is up for sherpa in record 27th Everest climb

Conquering Everest is regarded by many as a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. But for Kami Rita, the feat has almost become a habit.

Veteran sherpa Kami Rita on top of the world after scaling Everest for a record 27th time.

Conquering Everest is regarded by many as a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. But for Kami Rita, the feat has almost become a habit.

Known as “Everest Man”, the Nepali sherpa has climbed the world’s highest mountain for the 27th time, breaking his own ­record while guiding a foreign climber.

“He successfully reached the summit this morning guiding a Vietnamese climber,” Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, his expedition organiser, said.

Now 53, Rita first reached the 8849m peak in 1994, and has been doing so almost every year since.

The guide is renowned for his stamina and skill.

“He is a household name in Nepal; his name is linked with ­Everest,” said Yuvaraj Adhikari, a shopkeeper in Kathmandu.

“Everyone knows him and young people are inspired by him because he is very humble, despite his achievements.”

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and ­welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are ­typically calm.

The amount of interest in climbing Mount Everest is ­making base camp look like a bus station. Nepal has issued 478 permits for this season, the highest ever. And sherpas are making climbing Everest look as easy a catching a bus: on Sunday, Rita’s friendly rival, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, scaled Everest for the 26th time.

Sherpas are known for having been compelled by poverty to take up climbing Everest and other mountains as guides to foreigners. Rita and Pasang come from the same village of Thame in the district of Solukhumbu in eastern Nepal which has become known as something of a nursery for mountaineers.

Rita’s father was among the first professional sherpa guides after Everest was opened to foreign mountaineers in 1950, and his brother is also a guide who has scaled Everest 17 times.

Rita holds a second record too – the greatest number of ascents of mountains over 8000m. He has notched up 40.

After an earlier ascent, he told the media that he climbs Everest “not just for myself but for my family, the Sherpa people and for my country, Nepal”. Rita has made sure his children are educated so that they have other, less-dangerous career choices.

Everest has been climbed more than 11,000 times since it was first scaled in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Many people have climbed it multiple times, including the British mountaineer Kenton Cool who reached the world’s highest point for the 17th time on Wednesday, extending his own record for the most summits by a non-Nepali.

A 46-year-old Moldovan climber died on Everest the same day, the fifth fatality of the season.

The Times