For the few mountaineers who do choose to take on the world's highest peak, reaching the top would usually be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but one man has just scaled Everest for the 29th time, breaking his own record.
Sherpa guide Kami Rita reached the 29,032-foot peak at 7:25 a.m. on Sunday, according to a post on X by Seven Summits Treks, where he works as a Senior Guide. Rita posted an image to his own Instagram page just a few hours ago, which you can see below, reporting that he is now safely back at Base Camp after his impressive feat.
The 54-year-old Sherpa first climbed Everest in 1994, and has been climbing it nearly every year since. According to ABC News, he has been in competition with fellow guide Pasang Dawa for the title of most summits of Everest. Last year, Rita took the lead when he climbed Everest for the 27th time on May 17, then climbed it again one week later.
Rita was born in Thame, a village in Nepal that is home to many mountaineering Sherpas, including Tenzing Norgay, who made the first ascent of Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary. In an interview with The Independent in 2018, his wife revealed that she wishes he would give up mountaineering, and the couple do not want their two children to follow in his footsteps.
In addition to Everest, Rita has climbed many of the world's most dangerous mountains, including K2, Cho Oyu, Lhotse, and Manaslu.
