Nepalese mountaineer Kami Rita, 52, managed to make history this Saturday by stepping on the top of Mount Everest for the twenty-sixth time, thus breaking his own record as the man who has managed to reach the summit of the highest peak in the world the most times. “Kami Rita Sherpa made a historic ascent of Everest,” Mingma Sherpa, director of Seven Summit Treks, the largest climbing agency in Nepal, told Efe.
The Nepalese mountaineer reached the top of the highest mountain in the world (8,848.86 meters) at 6:55 p.m. local time this Saturday (1:10 p.m. GMT). as leader of the rope fixing team and accompanied by 10 other climbing Sherpas. The last time he managed to complete his feat was on May 7, 2021, when he summited Everest for the twenty-fifth time.
Rita began her journey in the Himalayas at the age of 12, starting as a porter for foreign climbers who went to the base camp at the top of the world. The experienced Sherpa first reached the summit of Everest on May 13, 1994 and since then has climbed K2 and Lhotse once, Manaslu three times and Mount Cho Oyu eight times.. He also holds the record for the most eight thousand climbs, Mingma said.
The Department of Tourism granted this season 316 climbing permits, figures lower than those registered last year (408), when the country broke its record for concessions in the middle of the second wave of coronavirus. Nepal is home to eight of the fourteen highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, and the money spent by foreign climbers provides a significant source of income for its economy.
An experienced guide can earn up to $12,000 during the Everest climbing season, while a beginner guide can earn as much as $7,000. and high-altitude porters, $4,000. Climbing Everest can cost between $35,000 and $90,000 per person, depending on guides, supplemental oxygen requirements and other supplies. This amount includes the cost of the climbing permit issued by the Government of Nepal, of about 11,000 dollars.