A Nepali Sherpa just broke his own Everest ascent record amid busiest year for permits ever

Climbing any mountain is a tremendous feat; scaling Mount Everest is an astounding achievement; doing the latter on multiple occasions is remarkable; what “Everest Man” Kami Rita Sherpa did yesterday is, quite truly, unheard of, as the 56-year-old Nepali mountain guide completed his 32nd successful Everest summit, breaking his own record set last year.

Rita wasn’t the only one reaching new heights on the mountain over the weekend either, after Lhakpa Sherpa, the “Mountain Queen,” set a new record for women, completing her 11th Everest ascent yesterday as well.

Peak time

Despite hopeful climbers having to pay more than ever for an official permit to trek up the 29,032-foot mountain, after Nepal officials raised the price for a spring season pass from $11,000 to $15,000 last September — the first price hike in nearly a decade — the government has still granted a record 492 permits for the March-May period.

That might sound a safety alarm for those who have already been raising concerns around overcrowding dangers at the top of the world’s highest peak, with the number of successful ascents having hovered around all-time highs in recent years.

According to figures from The Himalayan Database and mountaineer, climbing coach, and all-round Everest enthusiast Alan Arnette, there were an estimated 846 successful Everest summits last year, including those made by support climbers, guides, and Sherpas like Kami Rita and Lhakpa. While that estimate is down slightly from the 2019 peak, there were also less than half as many deaths (four) last year, compared to the 11 that The Himalayan Database reported in the spring season seven years ago.