Kami Rita Sherpa

Introduction

Kami Rita (कामीरिता शेर्पा) (born 17 January 1970), Thame, Solukhumbu District, Nepal^[1] is a Nepali Sherpa guide who, since May 2018, has held the record for most ascents to the summit of Mount Everest. Most recently, he scaled the mountain for a 29th time on 12 May 2024, breaking his own record set on 23 May 2023.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} His father was among the first professional Sherpa guides after Everest opened to foreign mountaineers in 1950. His brother Lakpa Rita, also a guide, scaled Everest 17 times.^[11][12]

In 2017, Kami Rita was the third person to reach the summit of Mount Everest 21 times, sharing this record with Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa.^[13][14] The latter two subsequently retired.^[15]

On 16 May 2018, at age 48, Kami Rita became the first person in the world to climb Mount Everest 22 times,^[11] achieving the record of the most summits on the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak.^[16][17] In April of the year, he told the news media that he planned to scale Everest 25 times before retirement, “not just for myself but for my family, the Sherpa people and for my country, Nepal”;^[18][11] He completed his 29th summit of Everest on 12 May 2024.^[2][3]

Kami Rita currently holds the record for most 8,000 meter summits, with 39 total. In addition to his Everest completions, his totals include Cho-Oyu eight times (2001, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016), Lhotse once (2011) and K2 once (2014).^{[19][4][2][3]}

Career[edit]

According to Kami Rita’s brother Lakpa Rita,^[20] Kami’s first work on a mountain was in 1992, assisting a Base Camp cook. Another report, however, states that he was already working as a porter, transporting gear to the Everest base camp, at age 12. By age 24, he had scaled Everest.^[21]

In 2018, Kami Rita told a journalist that the government does not support the Sherpas. “We are famous around the world. Many foreigners know us, but our government doesn’t care about us.” He said that when Ang Rita Sherpa hospitalised in Kathmandu in 2017 after a brain haemorrhage the government provided no support.^[22] Although climbing is safer than in the past because of superior equipment and weather forecasts, the occupation is still dangerous, he told a reporter in 2018.

The 2014 Mount Everest ice avalanche killed 16 Sherpas; in 2015, 10 Sherpas died at the Everest Base Camp after the avalanches in the wake of the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. In total, 118 Sherpas have died on Everest between 1921 and 2018.^[24][25]) “The crevasses are deep and the slopes are unpredictable,” Kami Rita said.^[20] An April 2018 report by NPR stated that Sherpas account for one-third of Everest deaths.^[26][27]

In 2018, Kami Rita was earning about $10,000 for each Everest climb because of his extensive previous experience. The highest peaks in Nepal are safe only around May of each year; in the autumn, he guides clients up the country’s smaller peaks.^[20]