Nepali Sherpa ascends Mt Everest for 26th time, second person to do so

Kathmandu: Nepali Sherpa climber Pasang Dawa Sherpa on Sunday ascended the world's highest mountain Mount Everest for the 26th time. With Sunday's summit, he becomes the second person for most ascents to the summit.
Kami Rita Sherpa is the first person to hold the record of most ascents of Mount Everest which he was able to make last year. Pasang Dawa also known as Pa Dawa stood atop the summit of Everest on Sunday morning at around 9 (Local Time), accumulating the 26th successful climb of the world's highest peak.

"On May 14, 2023, at 9:06 am NPT, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, also known as Pa Dawa, made history by equalizing the previous record for the most ascents of Mount Everest with Imagine Nepal. At age 46, Pa Dawa successfully climbed the mountain for the 26th time, matching the record held by Kami Rita Sherpa," Imagine Nepal Trek and Expeditions, the expedition organizing company of Pasang Dawa said in a statement.

The 46-year-old Sherpa Climber born in Pangboche, a village near the Everest Base Camp (EBC) first summitted the Everest in 1998. He has recorded a single climb on Everest in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017. While he made double ascends of Everest in the year 2001, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Along with Pasang Dawa, 5 clients from Imagine Nepal from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Hungary, China and Pakistan also have made it to the top of Mount Everest becoming the first international team to reach the summit for the season.
"From Imagine Nepal our 5 clients and 5 Sherpas made it to the summit and are safely back to Camp IV. Tomorrow they will descend down to Camp II," Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa told ANI.

The Summit of the world's highest mountain formally started on Sunday after the rope-fixing team from the same expedition organizing company set the line to the top on the 14th of May. The summit window for this year's spring opened late because of unfavourable weather conditions high in the Himalayas which have recorded heavy snowfall in recent weeks.
Kami Rita Sherpa- the first person to hold the record of the highest ascend on Mount Everest, earlier this month had announced making a summit bid this month.

This year, Nepal is seeing a high influx of climbing aspirants as the Department of Tourism has issued permits to 478 individuals, the highest number on record.

"The issuance of permits has almost ended for this season," said Bigyan Koirala, official from the Tourism Department of Nepal.
Nepal, earlier in 2021, had issued a record 409 permits which had overcrowded the summit which often is blamed for the high fatalities that year. A year later, the number dropped to 325 taken as an impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and recession that is coming forth this year.

Nepal charges 11,000 USD to foreign climbers to take permits for Mount Everest but the expenses range between 40,000 to 90,000 USD to climb the mountain. The cost of an expedition rises further when the weather is not favourable as it usually lasts for only two weeks in a year.
Close to 7,000 mountaineers have climbed Everest from the Nepal side since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and New Zealander Edmund Percival Hillary first set foot atop the world's highest peak in May 1953. (ANI)