PERSON AND PLACES
A Nepali Sherpa Kami Rita climbed the 8,848.86-metre-high Mount Everest for a record 26th time and established a new world record in climbing Everest by breaking his previous own record set last year.
He started to climb the mountain for the first time in 1994. Last year, he set the record for climbing the mt. Everest 25 times and now he climbed for the 26th time.
The climbing route used by Kami Rita was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and remains the most popular.
He also climbed other World’s highest mountains like K-2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.
The country is heavily reliant on climbers for foreign exchange. This year (2022), the Nepalese government issued 316 permits to climb Mt.Everest. But it was lower when compared to the previous year’s (2021) count. In 2021, the Nepalese government issued 408 permits - the highest-ever - to climb.
The nationals from Nepal and Tibet started to climb the mountain in 1953 for the first time. In 2019, Nepal faced criticism for allowing overcrowding and several climber deaths in the mountains.
Autar Singh Cheema was the first Indian man and the sixteenth person in the world to climb Mount Everest in 1965. The youngest Indian to climb Everest is Arjun Vajpai who climbed at the age of 16 years, 11 months, and 18 days.