An extraordinary record. Nepalese mountaineer Kami Rita reached the summit of Everest for the 29th time on Sunday, breaking his own record for climbing the world’s highest mountain, the organizer of his expedition announced.
“Kami Rita reached the summit this morning (this Sunday). He set a new record of 29 Everest ascents,” Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks told AFP. A mountain guide for more than twenty years, Kami Rita climbed for the first time in 1994 to the summit of Everest, at an altitude of 8,849 m, for a commercial expedition.
Since then, he has climbed the world’s highest mountain almost every year, driving clients. “I found myself faced with the unpredictable challenges of Mother Nature,” he wrote on Instagram this Tuesday, discussing his 29th ascent. “Despite difficult weather conditions, our team continued with unwavering courage and determination,” he continued.
In 2023, he climbed to the summit of Everest twice, each time achieving a new record after being overtaken by another Nepalese guide, Pasang Dawa Sherpa. Kami Rita has in the past assured that he was only “working” and did not aim to set records.
A Briton also breaks a record on the roof of the world
Everest is not the only peak on the list of this father of two, who has also climbed K2 (8,611 m), the second highest peak in the world located in Pakistan, Lhotse (8,516 m), as well as Cho Oyu (8,188 m), eight times.
During the same time, Briton Kenton Cool, aged 50, reached the summit of Everest for the 18th time, a record for a non-Nepalese climber. For the record, the British mountain guide was supposed to no longer be able to walk without crutches following a climbing accident which broke both of his heel bones in 1996.
Nepal has issued 414 permits to climb Everest this year for the spring climbing season, which runs from April to early June. Most climbers set out with a Nepalese guide. More than 800 people are expected to tackle Everest in the coming weeks, after the departure of a first group of Nepalese on Friday.
Eight of the ten highest mountains on the planet are in Nepal, which welcomes hundreds of adventurers every spring, when conditions are more favorable. In 2023, more than 600 climbers reached the summit of Everest, which saw a record number of 18 deaths.
