Lhakpa Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa (Nepali : Lakhpa Sherpa; born 1973) ^[1] is a Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber. She has climbed Mount Everest ten times, the most by any woman in the world. ^{[2] [3]} Her record-breaking tenth climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financed via a crowd-funding campaign. ^[4] In 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to climb and descend Everest successfully. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. ^[5]

Contents

• Early life
• Career
• Climbing career achievements
• Personal life
• Family and relationships
• Media appearances
• See also
• References

Early life

Lhakpa Sherpa was born in a cave in the region, and had no formal education. ^[2] She grew up in Balakharka, a village in the Makalu, Nepal region of the Himalayas. ^{[6] [7]} She is one of 11 children, and is a single mother of two daughters and a son. ^{[8] [2]} Since in Nepal, only boys were allowed to go to school, she carried her brother two hours to school and back.

Career

In 2000 she was the leader of an expedition sponsored by Asian Trekking. ^[6] On May 18, 2000 she became the first Nepali woman to summit Mount Everest and survive (see also Pasang Lhamu Sherpa). ^{[6] [7]} This climb was with the Nepali Women Millennium Expedition. ^[9]

In 2003, the U.S. PBS noted that she had summited Mount Everest three times, the most for a woman. ^[10] In May 2003 she reached the summit with her sister and brother; Ming Kipa and Mingma Gelu. ^[11]

By 2007 Lhakpa Sherpa had summited Everest six times since 1999 and her husband summited nine. ^[12] That year they hosted a presentation about their 2007 Everest trip, with donations taken for Quaker Lane Cooperative Nursery School. ^[12] Gheorghe and Lhakpa summited Mount Everest five times together. ^[13]

In 2016 she summited Mount Everest from Tibet (China), making her seventh summit. ^[14] The president of Mount Everest Summiteers' Association, a Nepali woman and high-altitude worker Maya Sherpa also summited, but from Nepal. ^[14] Maya Sherpa is another record-setting Nepali woman, and she has also summited K2. ^[14]

Climbing career achievements

Everest summitings:

1. 2000 ^[15]
2. 2001 ^[13]
3. 2003 ^{[13] [10]}
4. 2004 ^{[13] [16]}
5. 2005 ^{[13] [17]}
6. 2006 ^{[13] [18]}
7. 2016 ^{[19] [14]}
8. 2017 ^{[20] [1]}
9. 2018 ^[3]
10. 2022 ^[4]

K2 Summits:

1. 2023 July 27th ^[21]

Additional expeditions:

• Expedition to climb K2 in 2010, did not summit but made it to camp 3 before being turned back by bad weather. ^{[9] [22]}
• Expedition to Everest in 2015; made it to base camp in Tibet, but turned back by the Spring earthquakes in the Himalayas. ^[22] (see also 2015 Mount Everest avalanches and/or April 2015 Nepal earthquake)

In 2016, she was listed among the BBC's 100 most inspirational and influential women. On 24 April 2023 Lhakpa won India's prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure award. She has also received sponsorship to climb K2.

Personal life

Lhakpa is named for the day of the week she was born on (Wednesday). ^[13] Although born in Nepal, she is now a U.S. resident and works at various jobs and takes care of her three children. ^[13] She has worked at the U.S. store 7 Eleven. ^{[22] [13]} She worked at Whole Foods Market. ^{[23] [24]}

However, in interviews she noted her desire for the mountain, a condition previously seen in such climbers as George Mallory and Yuichiro Miura according to U.K. media outlet The Daily Telegraph . ^[25]

She has two daughters and one son, ^[22] and was married to Gheorghe Dijmărescu, a Romanian-American, for 12 years. ^[22] They met in 2000 in Kathmandu, Nepal and got married in 2002. ^{[15] [13]} After marriage, she left her permanent residence in Nepal and moved to US where Gheorghe worked in construction. Gheorghe was abusive throughout their marriage, pulling and screaming at his 5 year old daughter. In 2008 Gheorghe got cancer. ^[25] In 2012 when Dijmărescu became violent, and beat Lhakpa Sherpa to the point she was taken to the emergency room; a hospital social worker placed her and her two girls in a local shelter where they stayed for eight months. ^[24]

In 2016, she began again receiving recognition in various news arenas as the woman with the most Everest summitings, and completed her seventh summit that year. ^{[13] [19]}

Family and relationships

Her little sister Ming reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 22, 2003 when she was 15 years old (she climbed with Lhakpa and Gelu), ^[11] thus becoming the youngest person known to have summited Mount Everest (see also Temba Tsheri and Jordan Romero). ^{[26] [27]} Her brother is Mingma Gelu Sherpa and is noted to have reached the summit of Mount Everest eight times by 2016. ^{[22] [13]} The BBC noted that when the three of them reached the summit together in 2003, that was the first group of three siblings on the summit at the same time, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. ^[9]

On the 2004 Connecticut Everest Expedition her then-husband Dijmărescu struck Lhakpa. ^[28] According to Michael Kodas, a journalist present during the expedition, Dijmărescu, "hook[ed] a blow with his right hand to the side of his wife's head." ^{[28] [29]} This altercation "sparked a sort of media sensation in the mountaineering world". ^[9]

Media appearances

Sherpa is the focus of Lucy Walker's 2024 documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa . ^[30]

See also

• Apa Sherpa
• Chhurim
• Lakpa Gelu
• List of Mount Everest records
• List of Mount Everest summiters by number of times to the summit
• Shriya Shah-Klorfine (Canadian woman who died on descent of Everest)
• List of 20th-century summiters of Mount Everest

Related Research Articles

Mount Everest, known locally as Sagarmatha or Qomolangma, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation of 8,848.86 m was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa was the first Nepalese woman to climb the summit of Mount Everest.

Lakpa Gelu, often spelled Lhakpa, is a Nepalese Sherpa climber born in Jubing - 1, KhariKhola, Solukhumbu, Nepal. He is known for holding a world record for the fastest climbing of Mount Everest in only 10 hours 56 minutes and 46 seconds. Gelu's record-breaking trip was his tenth trip to the summit of the mountain.

Pemba Doma Sherpa was the first Nepalese female mountaineer to climb Mount Everest via its north face, was the second Nepali woman to summit from both the north and south faces, and is one of six women to have summited Everest twice. She was the leader of the 2002 Nepalese Woman Everest Expedition. Pemba Doma Sherpa climbed Cho Oyu from the Tibetan side on 28 Sep 2005.

Nimdoma Sherpa from Gauri Sankar, Dolakha District is a Nepalese mountain climber. In 2008 she became the youngest woman to climb Mount Everest and in 2009 she joined the Seven Summits Women Team, a team of Nepalese women whose goal is to climb the Seven Summits.

Chhang Dawa Sherpa : is a Nepalese mountaineer and the youngest climber till 2019 to summit the 14 highest peaks. Dawa and his brother Mingma Sherpa together hold the world record as "first brothers to summit the 14 highest peaks", a single record shared by the two.

Gheorghe Dijmărescu was a Romanian-American known for escaping from the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu by swimming across the Danube River, and for his extreme physical violence against his wife Lhakpa Sherpa and their two girls. He was also on mountaineering expeditions including summiting Mount Everest multiple times in the early 2000s.

The Mount Everest climbing season of 2017 began in spring with the first climbers reaching the top on May 11, from the north side. The first team on the south side reached the top on May 15. By early June, reports from Nepal indicated that 445 people had made it to the summit from the Nepali side. Reports indicate 160–200 summits on the north side, with 600–660 summiters overall for early 2017. This year had a roughly 50% success rate on that side for visiting climbers, which was down from other years. By 2018, the figure for the number of summiters of Everest was refined to 648. This includes 449 which summited via Nepal and 120 from Chinese Tibet.

Kami Rita, Thame, Solukhumbu District, Nepal 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 the 30th time on 22 May 2024, breaking his own record set on 12 May 2024. His father was among the first professional Sherpa guides after Everest was opened to foreign mountaineers in 1950. His brother Lakpa Rita, also a guide, scaled Everest 17 times.

Mount Everest in 2016 covers events about Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth located in Nepal and Chinese Tibet in Asia. It is a popular climbing destination for extreme high altitude climbers, with several hundred climbing each year despite various dangers.

Mount Everest in 2018 is about events in the year about the highest Earth mountain, Mount Everest, a popular mountaineering tourism and science destination in the 2010s. In 2018, 807 climbers summited Mount Everest, which is a popular mountaineering goal. This year is noted for an especially long weather window of 11 days straight of calm, which reduced crowding at the high base camps. With over 800 reaching the top, it was the highest amount ever to reach the top in recorded history, besting the previous year by over 150 summitings.

Dawa Yangzum Sherpa also known as Dawa Yangzum is a Nepali born mountain climber and the first woman to become an international mountain guide from Nepal.

Tashi Lakpa Sherpa (born 1985) in Makalu Region, Sankhuwasabha District) is a Nepalese mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest eight times, Cho Oyu twice and other 7000 metre and 6000 metre peaks. He has also climbed the Seven Summits. Everest, Denali, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro Aconcagua, Vinson and Kosciuszko.

Seven Summit Treks is a commercial adventure operator established in 2010 based in Kathmandu, Nepal. They specialize in expedition climbing trips to the eight-thousanders of Nepal, China, and Pakistan. The company was established by four Sherpa brothers, Mingma Sherpa, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa and Pasang Phurba Sherpa. Mingma and Chhang Dawa are the first siblings and first South Asians to have climbed all 8000ers.

Nima Rinji Sherpa : is a Nepalese mountaineer recognized by the Guinness World Records as the youngest person to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks. Achieving this milestone at 18 years, 5 months, and 21 days, Nima completed his record-breaking accomplishment over a period of just 740 days. He reached his final summit on October 9, 2024, at Shishapangma in China, marking the last of the fourteen highest mountains in the world.

References