Kami Rita Sherpa Summits Everest A Record 24 Times

For many people, the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, a unique achievement in life, requiring tens of miles of dollars, diligent training and some good luck. But when Kami Rita Sherpa changed her gaze from the summit to 29,035 feet above sea level yesterday morning, it was a familiar scene. This is because the climber had reached the top a record 23 times before, including the peak of the peak only a few days before.
The two climber trips to the mountain in a week consolidate their record of the highest amount of mountain climbs, established last year when the climbing ended for the 22nd time, exceeding the previous record of 21 summits held by the retired climbers Apa Sherpa and Phurba. Tashi Sherpa
Kami Rita reached the summit for the first time in 2019 on May 15, climbing the mountain during one of the few times a year that the weather at the top is stable enough to allow summit attempts. After returning to Everest base camp at 17,598 feet to rest, The Kathmandu Post reports that the senior climbing guide led a group of Indian policemen to the mountain in search of the Seven Summit Treks team. The arduous impulse to the summit began on Monday night, leaving Camp IV and reaching the top at 6:38 on Tuesday morning.
According to the Associated Press, Kami Rita reached the top of Everest in 1994 and has made a trip to the mountain as a guide almost every year since then, if the weather permits. It has also reached other difficult peaks, including K2 and Cho Oyu. Outside, Anna Callaghan reports that Kami Rita and her older brother, Lakpa Rita, who has reached the top of Everest 17 times, grew up in the village of Thame, near the valley from the mountain. Most of the men in the town have made a living as goalkeepers and guides on Everest since local climber Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary stood on top of Everest in 1953.
Kami Rita's father also served as the Everest mountain guide until he retired to become a yak shepherd in 1992. That same year, Lakpa Rita, who now lives in Seattle, served as the main guide for an expedition and invited to his younger brother to join the Group as a cook. After that, Kami Rita trained as a climbing sherpa and soon showed his things on the mountain, working as a sherpa from 1993 to 2000 and as a sherpa chief, or serving, since then. (Sherpa, confusingly, is both the name of the local ethnic group that lives in the area around Everest and has become the job description for people, not necessarily ethnic Sherpas, who carry loads to the base camp and mountain, set all the Stairs and ropes necessary to ascend the mountain every spring and guide the climbers along the flanks of Everest).
Kami Rita, now 49, tells the BBC he has no plans to stop climbing. “I can climb a few more years. I'm healthy, I can continue until I'm 60 years old. With oxygen, it's not a big deal, "he says." I never thought about making records. I never really knew you could make a record. If I had known, I would have done many more summits before. "
While many lowland inhabitants experience altitude problems and life-threatening problems, such as high-altitude cerebral or pulmonary edema in the high Himalayas, ethnic sherpas rarely experience such problems. A 2017 study found that the Sherpa ethnic group has developed genes that help them cope with altitude, including the most efficient mitochondria, the organs of our cells that convert oxygen into energy. They also have better anaerobic metabolisms, producing more energy in the absence of oxygen.
Still, no season on the mountain is easy, and Sherpas face the greatest danger on Everest. Callaghan reports that in 2014, an avalanche at the Khumbu Icefall, one of the most dangerous places on the Everest trip, killed 16 Sherpas, including one of Kami Rita's uncles. He and his brother were among the first to witness the devastation and helped dig up the bodies. Kami Rita was also at Everest in 2015 when an earthquake and an avalanche killed 19 people in the base camp. However, in the history of Everest, Sherpas are often left out of the narrative.

By: Preeti Narula
Content: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/kami-rita-sherpa-summits-everest-record-24-times-180972268/