An inspiration: Nepal's Kami Rita Sherpa ascents Mt Everest for record 25th time amid pandemic

Here is some good news in the middle of the pandemic, Nepal's illustrious climber Kami Rita Sherpa ascended the Mount Everest for a record 25th time on Friday. 

Kami made his way to the top along with 11 other Sherpas from the Nepali side, becoming one of the first climbers in the season to conquer the 8848.86-meter-high peak situated along the China-Nepal border

Kami Rita Sherpa, a Nepali mountain guide, broke his own record by climbing the world`s tallest Mt. Qomolangma for the 25th time on Friday, Mira Acharya of the Department of Tourism reported.

Kami has climbed most of the peaks of mountains above 8,000 meters in the world, including K2, the second highest peak of the world, and Annapurna. He holds the record for 'Most climbs over 8000m.'

With the weather around Mt Everest turning favourable for the climbers, a small window for climbing the world's tallest peak opened on Friday.

The first team of climbers reached the top of Everest — whose height was jointly revised by Nepal and China last year as 8848.86-metre, on Friday evening — becoming the first climbers of the season to conquer the peak, Mingma Sherpa, chairman at Seven Summit Treks, said

Kami, 51, scaled Mt. Qomolangma in May 1994 for the first time and he achieved a feat of climbing the mountain twice in a single season in 2019 within less than a week as he reached the top for the 23rd and 24th times.

Between 1994 and 2021, he scaled the peak 25 times, K2 and Lhotse one time, Manaslu thrice, and Cho Oyu eight times.

 

This year, over 400 climbers have been granted permission to climb the Everest. The Nepal government greenlighted mountaineering this spring and issued a record 408 climbing permits, according to the Department of Tourism.

Kami's latest success has provided encouragement to the mountaineering community around the world at a time when the world is under the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic.