Two Nepali Sherpa climbers break own records on Mount Everest

Kami Rita Sherpa breaks his own record with a 32nd climb while Lhakpa Sherpa breaks her own women’s record with an 11th summit of Mount Everest.Two renowned Nepali guides have scaled Mount Everest with one called the “Everest Man” breaking his own record set last year with a 32nd climb and the other, known as the “Mountain Queen”, breaking her own women’s record with an 11th summit.“This is another milestone in Nepal’s mountaineering history,” Himal Gautam, spokesperson for Nepal’s Tourism Department, told the AFP news agency on Sunday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Hundreds of Everest hikers reach safety after snowstorm in Tibetan valleylist 2 of 3In a first, Polish climber skis down Everest without supplemental oxygenlist 3 of 3‘Everest Man’ breaks own record for climbing world’s highest mountainend of listKami Rita Sherpa, 56, first stood on top of the world’s highest mountain in 1994 while working for a commercial expedition. Since then, he has continued to guide clients climbing Mount Everest almost every year, reaching the summit twice in some years.Lhakpa Sherpa, 52, first stood on top of Everest in 2000, becoming the first Nepali woman to successfully summit and descend the Himalayan peak.“Their record gives greater excitement to other climbers,” Gautam said. “By breaking records through healthy competition on Everest will help make climbing safer, more dignified and better managed.”In 2024, after another ascent of the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) peak, Kami Rita said he was “just working” and did not plan on setting records.Kami Rita was born in the same Thame village in Solukhumbu district as Tenzing Norgay, who with Edmund Hillary was the first to climb Everest in 1953.Since then, a climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business.Nepal has issued a record 492 Everest permits this year for the March-May climbing season. More than 8,000 people have climbed the mountain since Hillary and Norgay’s expedition, many of them several times.