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 AFP on Sunday. Kami Rita Sherpa, 56, first stood on top of the world’s highest mountain in 1994 while working for a commercial expedition, and has since guided clients 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. Gautam said their records give greater excitement to other climbers and that healthy competition on Everest will help make climbing safer, more dignified, and better managed.

In 2024, after another ascent of the 8,849-meter peak, Kami Rita said he was “just working” and did not plan on setting records. He was born in the same Thame village as Tenzing Norgay, who with Edmund Hillary first climbed 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.

Among non-Sherpa climbers, the record is held by British guide Kenton Cool with 19 ascents, followed by Americans Dave Hahn and Garrett Madison with 15 each. Cool and Madison are currently on Everest to improve their records.

The high numbers of climbers along with their Sherpa guides expected to head for the summit in the coming days have rekindled concerns about overcrowding on the mountain, especially if poor weather shortens the climbing window.

Source: www.aljazeera.com