Sherpas race to Mt Everest record

A Nepalese sherpa set a record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest on Monday by reaching the top of the world’s highest mountain i...

A Nepalese sherpa set a record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest on Monday by reaching the top of the world’s highest mountain in 10 hours and 56 minutes, the Tourism Ministry said.

Lhakpa Gelu, 35, smashed the earlier record of 12 hours and 45 minutes set just three days ago by another sherpa, Pemba Dorjie, as Nepal geared up for the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest. Lhakpa was part of a German expedition.

Pemba Dorjie Sherpa smashed the previous record set in 2000 of 16 hours 56 minutes by legendary sherpa Babu Chhiri, when he reached the summit in 12 hours 45 minutes.

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Lhakpa, who reached the Everest this morning started the ascent from the base camp on Sunday at 5pm. Lhakpa, making his tenth ascent of the world’s highest peak, undertook the entire climb in darkness, sources said.

Normally, climbers take about a week to get from base camp at 5,350 metres to the summit of the 8,850 metre mountain.

A ministry statement said another sherpa, Aapa Sherpa, created a record for the maximum number of Everest climbs when he reached the summit of the Himalayan peak for the 13th time on Monday.

Aapa, 43, improved his own record of 12 ascents when he reached the summit from the popular Southeast Ridge route, pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953. Aapa was part of a US team focusing on picking up some of the trash left by climbers.

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Hillary is in Nepal to attend events in Kathmandu this week to mark his ascent of Everest.

A PTI report from Durban added that game ranger Sibusio Vilane, 32, became the first African to climb Everest. Vilane, who has South African and Swaziland nationality, is a trainee ranger in South Africa’s Mpumulanga province, near Swaziland.