Kami Rita Sherpa to make record 26th Everest climb

Kathmandu, March 22 (EFE).- Kami Rita Sherpa, a Nepali climber born in eastern Solukhumbu district that is home to Mt. Everest, has announced plans to break his own record by climbing the world’s highest peak for the 26th time this May.

Sherpa scaled the 8,848.86-meter (29,031.69-foot) high mountain for a record 25th time on May 7, 2021.

“I will be a part of the rope fixing team this year,” Sherpa told EFE on Tuesday. Sherpa is leading an eight-member team to prepare the route to the summit of Mt. Everest as the spring climbing season begins in Nepal.

On Tuesday, seven members of his team left for the mountain. Trekkers and climbers usually fly to Lukla airport, a small landing strip carved into the side of a mountain at an altitude of 2,860 meters, from Kathmandu.

The climbing season lasts till the end of May, before the onset of the monsoon.

Yaks and ponies are used to transport supplies to the Everest base camp situated on 5,380 meters above sea level, where hundreds of foreigners set up colorful tents and wait for favorable weather conditions to make the climb.

Although the actual climb to the summit generally takes place in May, climbers get to the mountain as early as March to acclimatize to the challenging conditions.

Icefall doctors, the dedicated team of high-altitude experts who fix the ropes and ladders up to Camp 2 (6,600 meters) to make the path easy for climbers, have already gone to work.

“After the Icefall doctors prepare the route up to Camp 2, a team mobilized by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, we will prepare the route up to the summit from there,” Sherpa said.

“We have planned to fix the summit rope by the first week of May, but all depends on the weather,” said Sherpa.

Mingma Sherpa, managing director of Seven Summit Treks – Nepal’s largest Everest expedition organizer -, told EFE that last year even amid the pandemic, the number of climbers touched an all-time high.

Last spring, Nepal issued nearly 750 climbing permits, of which 408 were to climbers seeking to climb the world’s highest peak.

“This year, we are not expecting many climbers because of the Ukraine-Russia war, which has affected tourists’ movement from other European countries to Nepal,” said Mingma Sherpa.

“Also, Nepal’s second-largest tourist source market, China, has still not opened its borders,” he added.

It costs $35,000 to $90,000 per person to climb Everest, depending on guides, oxygen and other supplies. This amount includes the climbing permit cost of $11,000, charged by the Nepal government. EFE

sp/sc