A Nepali sherpa scaled Mount Everest for a record 26th time, beating his own previous record set last year, a government official said on Sunday.
Highlights
- Kami Rita Sherpa, 52, scaled the 8,848.86-meter (29,031.69-foot) mountain on Saturday.
- The climbing route used by the 52-year-old Sherpa was pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
- This year Nepal has issued 316 permits to climb Everest in the peak season, compared with 408 last year.
- The Himalayan nation, which is heavily reliant on climbers for foreign exchange, faced criticism for allowing overcrowding and several climber deaths on the mountains in 2019.
- It has been criticized for allowing over-the-air space in the mountains.