Two Sherpas aim set up new record for most summits on Mt Everest

Two Nepalese Sherpas, a man and a woman, are aiming to set new world record for most of the summits on Mt Everest this season.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 48, would be climbing the peak from the Nepal side for record 22nd time while his compatriot, a 45-year-old woman, Lhakpa Sherpa will be ascending the summit for record 9th time from Tibet side.

A resident of Thame village of Solukhumbu district of eastern Nepal, Kami Rita, who has worked as a guide on Everest for over two decades, will embark upon his journey towards the base camp of Mt Everest early next week.

But for him climbing to 8,848 metres is just a job, not a record-shattering feat.

"It is my passion to climb mountains, my intension is not only to set a record," he said.

Kami Rita had stood atop Mt Everest 21 times, a feat that has put him in the league of Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa, who had created the world record last year of climbing the summit 21 times..

He said, his aim is to reach a atop the Mt Everest 25 times.

He had climbed the 8,848 metre peak for the first time in 1994 at the age of 24. Till date, he has climbed most of the above 8,000 m peaks, these include Mt K2, Cho-oyu, Lhoste and Annapurna among others.

Meanwhile, Lhakpa Sherpa, a 45-year-old woman who was born in Shankuwasabha district of eastern Nepal but now lives in the US, plans to break her own record of climbing Mt Everest 8th time from Tibet side in the last spring. No other woman has climbed the summit so many times.

Lhakpa, who started climbing from Nepal side in 2008, also said she aims to break her own record and climb the mountain for the record 9th times.

Except Lhakpa, no other woman in the world has scaled the peak so many times till date.

She is going to break her own record this season, said Mingma Gelu Sherpa, Managing Director at Seven Summit Adventure.

The mother of three will be arriving Kathmandu on April 6 to begin her journey to Mt Everest being part of an expedition team led by Russian climber Alex Abramov.