Record holder Lhakpa Sherpa

The authors of the Guinness Book of Records must put pen to paper. The information about the climbers with the highest number of Everest ascents has to be updated – both for women and for men. According to her brother Mingma Gelu Sherpa, Lhakpa Sherpa today reached the summit at 8,850 meters from the Tibetan north side. For the 44-year-old it was the ninth ascent of the highest of all mountains. Lhakpa, who lives in the USA with her two daughters at the age of eleven and 16, has already held this record. By the way, on her first ascent in 2000, Lhakpa Sherpa was the first Nepalese female climber who did not only summit Everest but also returned safe and sound to base camp. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first woman from Nepal on top of Everest, had died in 1993 on the descent.

His goal: 25 times on the summit

Kami Rita Sherpa

For men, there is now a sole record holder. Kami Rita Sherpa, ascending from the south, stood on the roof of the world for the 22nd time today, leaving behind Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi, with 21 Everest summit successes each. The 58-year-old Apa Sherpa had finished his climbing career already in 2011. Phurba Tashi, aged 47, is now only working for Everest expeditions in the base camp – with consideration for his family. The new record man Kami Rita Sherpa, however, wants to continue to climb Everest. “I still feel fit. I can complete 25 ascents,” said the 48-year-old.

Woman power here, technical problems there

South side of Mount Everest

Among the nearly 100 (!) climbers who reached the top of Everest today were Lakpa Yangji Sherpa (30 years old), Pasang Lhamu Sherpa “Phinasa” (37) and Yangdi Sherpa (25). The ascent of these three Sherpani (via the south side) was under the motto “Women’s Confidence”. In advance, Pasang Lhamu had written that the “Women Everest Expedition 2018” was “a great platform to raise the voice for women and their rights and empowering them”.

The team of the US operator Alpenglow Expeditions had unusual difficulties today. The climbers led by Adrian Ballinger had to abandon their summit attempt at 8,500 meters on the Northeast Ridge, because the regulators of their oxygen cylinders failed in series. 50 percent of the devices didn’t work properly, Ballinger wrote on Instagram: “It’s not the experience I wanted to have today.”

Statue of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa in Kathmandu

One drama, two versions. In both the protagonist dies, but the reasons given for her death differ significantly. Tomorrow, Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa becoming the first Nepali woman to reach the 8,850-meter-high summit of Mount Everest. The triumph ended in tragedy. The 31-year-old mother of three children subsequently died on the descent on the South Summit. According to the official Nepalese version, Pasang Lhamu lost valuable time on 22 April 1993 because she helped her teammate Sonam Tshering Sherpa who suffered from high altitude sickness. In addition the weather turned bad, it was said. A report written by the (recently deceased) legendary Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, published in the American Alpine Journal, has a distinctly different tenor.

Too slow

Everest summit and South Summit (r.)

According to her, Pasang Lhamu was known as a very slow climber. It had taken the team 14.5 hours from South Col to summit, Hawley wrote. Normally ten hours are estimated for this section. In Hawley’s words, Pasang Lhamu was so weak at the highest point that the other team members had to drag down her and Sonam Tshering, who was already coughing up blood, from the main to the South Summit, 100 meters below. It took them four and a half hours. Then their last supply of oxygen ran out. According to Hawley, the next day other team members tried to bring up full oxygen bottles from the South Col, but fierce winds drove them back.

“Tremendous courage”

On the stamp

It was not until two and a half weeks later, on 10 May, that another Sherpa was able again to reach the South Summit, where he found Pasang Lhamu dead – sitting in the snow, with her back to the 40-degree slope. Sonam Tshering’s body remained missing. Unusual for that time, Pasang Lhamu’s body was recovered and brought down from an altitude of 8,749 meters. The dead climber was laid out in a stadium in Kathmandu before cremation, thousands of people paid their last respects to the Sherpani. She had “proved that Nepali women are also endowed with such tremendous courage,” the then Prime Minister of the country wrote in a message of condolence to her family. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa became a national heroine and a legend. Stamps with her picture were issued. Roads and schools are named after her – since 1996 a mountain too: the 7350-meter- high Pasang Lhamu Chuli, better known as Jasemba. Even today, every kid in Nepal knows the climber’s name.

Fighter for gender equality

Members of the “Women Everest Expedition 2018” on top of Island Peak

Although her Everest ascent may have been a little less heroic than many Nepali think, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa was a pioneer after all. She bent over backwards to reach her goal of becoming the first woman in her home country to reach the highest of all summits. In the three previous years, Pasang Lhamu had failed three times. In her till then most successful attempt in 1991 as a member of a French expedition, she had had to turn around at 8,700 meters, just 50 meters below the South Summit. For Pasang Lhamu, it was not just about absolute commitment to reach a summit. As a climber she also fought for the equality of women in Nepal. ““Men are considered heroic [for climbing] while women are called irresponsible,” Pasang Lhamu once complained.

Two Nepali women’s expeditions on the south side

Five young journalists in Namche Bazaar

This year’s spring season in Everest proves that her message was not allowed to fade away and that in contrary the seed has germinated. Just on the south side of Everest, more than a dozen Nepali women climbers will tackle the highest mountain on earth. So the “Women Everest Expedition 2018” of the 30-year-old Lakpa Yangji Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa “Phinasa”, aged 37, and the 25-year-old Yangdi Sherpa is themed with the slogan “Women’s Confidence”. The expedition is “a great platform to raise the voice for women and their rights and empowering them,” writes Pasang Lhamu. This week the three women scaled the 6189-meter-high Island Peak near Everest to get acclimatized. At the same time, the members of the “First Women Journalists Everest Expedition 2018” are still on the trek to Everest Base Camp. The Nepali journalists Kalpana Maharjan (33 years old), Rosha Basnet (29), Rojita Buddhacharya (26), Deuralee Chamling (35) and Priya Laxmi Karki (27) want to set an example for the “the equality of all people, undifferentiated by race, caste, community, or gender”.

Lhakpa Sherpa wants to beat her own record

Record holder Lhakpa Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa can climb Everest without messages, because she herself is a message: that women can not only succeed on Everest, but can even do it in series. With eight summit successes, the 44-year-old Nepali, who lives in the US state of Connecticut, is already listed in the Guinness Book of Rekords as the woman with the most Everest ascents. This spring, the mother of two daughters, aged eleven and 16, wants to climb up again from the Tibetan north side to achieve her summit success number nine. “My body knows that I have already been this high,” says Lhakpa. “It’s like a computer. It figures it out very quickly. My body knows the high altitude. It remembers.” Achieving her first success on 17 May 2000, Lhakpa Sherpa had become the first woman of Nepal who did not only summit Everest but also returned safe and sound to base camp. However, she did not become a legend like Pasang Lhamu Sherpa in her home country, despite this first and her many other Everest summit successes.

North side of Everest in the last daylight

If a mountain could breathe a sight of relief, Mount Everest would probably do it now. A total of more than 1,000 climbers on both sides of the highest mountain on earth have left the base camps and have returned home. There is silence again on Chomolungma, as the Sherpas call the mountain. Time to take stock. The exact figures are not yet available, but this spring some 600 summit successes have been recorded, increasing the number since the first ascent in 1953 to more than 8000.

Discussion about Jornet’s double ascent

Kilian Jornet on Everest

The most spectacular performance was made by the Spaniard Kilian Jornet, who climbed up to the summit twice within a week without the use of bottled oxygen. He set off for his first ascent from Rongbuk Monastery and climbed in a single push to the highest point, with only a short stopover in the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,400 meters. Only 38 hours after his departure from the Monastery he returned to ABC. A few days later he made his second ascent. This time it took him 17 hours from ABC to the summit at 8,850 meters. Afterwards, discussion arose because the 29-year-old did not present summit pictures or GPS data to document his ascents. Jornet promised to publish the data of his GPS clock. Already in 2007, Pemba Dorje Sherpa had made an Everest double ascent without breathing mask within a week.

Three eight-thousanders in five days?

Nirmal Purja

Nirmal Purja, a soldier of the British Gurkha regiment, also climbed Everest twice this spring, albeit with the use of bottled oxygen: on 15 and 27 May. Eight hours after his second summit success on Everest, the 34-year-old stood on top of Lhotse – and on 1 June he reached the summit of Makalu. Three eight-thousanders in five days? According to the Nepali Ministry of Tourism, the information is still being examined.

Kuriki wants to return

Overall, there were at least five successful Everest ascents without supplemental oxygen this season, possibly even nine: According to Indian media reports, four members of an Indian army expedition reached the summit without bottled oxygen. Other mountaineers failed, like the German Ralf Dujmovits in his eighth and, according to his own words, “definitely last” Everest attempt without breathing mask. The Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki also returned without summit success – from his now seventh attempt. He had wanted to climb via the West Ridge and the Hornbein Couloir to the summit. “I’ll be back,” the 34-year-old said.

Seven deaths

A total of seven people did not return from Everest this spring. Six climbers and a base camp cook died. Above all, the death of the Swiss top climber Ueli Steck made headlines all over the world. The 40-year-old fell to death during an acclimatization climb on Nuptse. A report on four dead climbers found in a tent on the South Col proved to be a hoax.

For the 21st time on top of Everest

Kami Rita Sherpa on the summit

Two records were achieved by Sherpas. The 46-year-old Kami Rita Sherpa from the village of Thame in the Khumbu area summited Everest for the 21st time. So he closed the gap on Apa Sherpa (also born in Thame), and Phurba Tashi Sherpa from the village of Kumjung, who have also 21 ascents under their belts. Lhakpa Sherpa had already been the woman with the most Everest ascents before this season. The 43-year-old Nepalese, who lives in the USA, bettered her own record to eight summit successes now.

Anything else? As the second blind climber after the American Erik Weihenmayer, the 50 year-old Austrian Andy Holzer reached the summit of Everest. The 26-year-old British Mollie Hughes was ranked number 15 in the circle of female climbers who summited the highest mountain on earth from both the north and the south side.

10-year ban for mountaineers without a permit

The fact that morality on Everest is not exactly the best was proved again this season. Some climbers missed oxygen bottles, which they had previously deposited in high camps and obviously had been stolen. The South African Ryan Sean Davy was caught on the south side trying to climb the highest mountain without a permit. The Pole Janusz Adamski, who climbed from the north to the summit and then descended via the southern route, had no permit for the Nepali side too. Both of them were banned from mountaineering in Nepal for the next ten years. The actually due fine of $ 22,000 was not imposed in both cases. Why, remained open.

Where is the Hillary Step?

Has the Hillary Step gone?

There has also been much talk about this spring’s weather on Everest, which according to meteorologists was as difficult to predict as never before. And, of course, about the Hillary Step, which – in the opinion of the six-time Everest summiter Tim Mosedale – is no more. Sherpas contradicted, and the Nepalese government said: “The Hillary Step is still intact and is covered with snow.” Last year too, there had been speculation as to whether the striking rock formati

Top of Everest (from the Northeast Ridge)

The Everest wave rolls, at least on the Tibetan north side of the mountain. According to an Indian operator, six clients of their commercial expedition team reached the summit on Saturday, accompanied by ten Sherpas. Among those who stood on the highest point on 8,850 meters was reportedly also Lhakpa Sherpa. It was her eighth summit success on the highest mountain on earth. The 43-year-old Nepalese who lives in the USA remains the woman with the most Everest ascents. Other commercial expeditions have started their first summit attempt.

No rope to the main summit

“That lower summit is Makalu summit on 10 May. We opened route from there to main summit on 11 May,” writes Mingma.

Meanwhile, there is more clarity about the ascents on Makalu last Wednesday. As the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol did before, Masha Gordon, who was born in Russia and lives in London, also confirmed that they climbed only up to the lower pre-summit. “We all reached the foresummit deeming the last few meters of the corniced ridge too fragile and hyper dangerous to cross,” the 43-year-old wrote to me via Twitter. Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who said, he reached the summit of Makalu one day later, on Thursday, described the situation on Facebook as follows: “Rope was not fixed to the main summit.” He did it himself, says Mingma adding that afterwards his two companions, Tashi Sherpa and a Chinese client, climbed up to the highest point. “I felt like it’s completely nonsense to say Makalu is one of the easy 8000ers.”

Melissa Arnot

Female Power on Mount Everest. There were two women among the handful of climbers who have so far reached the 8850- meter-high summit without bottled oxygen this spring season: Melissa Arnot and Carla Perez. Before them, only six female climbers had succeeded this feat: Lydia Bradey (New Zealand, in 1988), Alison Hargreaves (UK, in 1995), Francys Arsentiev (USA, in 1998, she died on descend), La Ji (China, in 2004), Nives Meroi (Italy, in 2010) and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (Austria, in 2010).

A constant on Everest

Carla Perez

Melissa Arnot is the first American woman who reached the summit of Everest without breathing mask and returned alive. She ascended from the Tibetan north side. The 32-year-old is meanwhile a constant on the highest mountain on earth because she has worked there as a mountain guide for years. It was already Melissa’s sixth success on Everest after 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. During her first five ascents, all via the normal route on the Nepalese south side, Arnot had used bottled oxygen. In 2013, she had witnessed the attacks of angry Sherpas against the European top climbers Ueli Steck and Simone Moro. Courageously Melissa had placed herself between the parties and had tried to settle the dispute.

Dream fulfilled

Like Arnot, the 33-year-old Ecuadorian Carla Perez scaled Everest from the north. She was the first woman from her South American homeland on the highest point on earth – even without breathing mask. “A few hours ago, we were at the top of Mount Everest,” Carla wrote on Facebook. “Without oxygen, exhausted, not knowing how we made it up but happy to have fulfilled our dream.” It was her third eigth-thousander after Manaslu in 2012 and Cho Oyu in 2014. Perez had done these ascents without bottled oxygen as well.

Strong Sherpani

Two Sherpani have also set exclamation marks on Everest – even though they used breathing masks. Lhakpa Sherpa scaled the highest mountain – as reported – for the seventh time. The 42-year-old, who born in Nepal and living in the US, remains the woman with the most Everest ascents.

Maya Sherpa

Maya Sherpa was at the top for the third time. She was the only woman among the Climbing Sherpas on the Nepalese side, saying: She worked on the mountain. In 2014, Maya had made headlines when she had scaled – along with her countrywomen Dawa Yangzum Sherpa and Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita – the 8611-meter-high K 2 in Pakistan, the second highest mountain on earth. “Being a professional climber since 2003, I have always tried my best to launch myself in the eyes of all those guys who think women are pathetic in this field,” Maya Sherpa wrote me early in 2015. I take my hat off to Maya, Lhakpa, Carla and Melissa. Bravo!