Nepal climber Kami Rita scales Mount Everest for record 27th time

Kathmandu, May 17 (EFE).- Nepal climber Kami Rita Sherpa, who holds the record for the most ascents of Mount Everest, broke his own record on Wednesday by climbing the world’s highest peak for the 27th time.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, reached the summit of the 8,849-meter mountain at 8:30 am, Mingma Sherpa, the managing director of Seven Summit Treks, the company organizing the expedition, told EFE.

Kami Rita’s mountaineering career began in 1992 when he began working as a porter for an Everest expedition team. Since then, he has climbed Mount Everest almost every year.

Rita also broke his own record last year, when he reached the summit for the 26th time leading a group of 10 Sherpa climbers to fix ropes along the route.

He has also climbed Cho Oyu, at 8,201 meters, eight times, Manaslu, at 8,163 meters, three times and K2 and Lhotse, which are 8,611 and 8,516 meters above sea level respectively, once each.

Nearly 7,000 climbers have climbed Mount Everest from the Nepal side since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and New Zealand’s Edmund Percival Hillary first set foot atop the world’s highest peak in May 1953.

Bigyan Koirala from the Department of Tourism, in charge of issuing climbing permits, told EFE that the government agency has issued permits for Everest to a record 478 fee-paying people this season, which lasts until the end of May.

“The permit issuance has been stopped. This is the highest number of permits we have issued for Everest,” Koirala said.

The highest number until now was in 2021, when the Department of Tourism issued 409 permits for people to climb Mount Everest.

This number declined to 325 in 2022, as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which prevented climbers from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and other European countries from traveling to Nepal.

Six people have died on Everest so far this season, according to the mountaineering officials. EFE

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