Apa Sherpa

Last updated
Apa
Apa Sherpa.jpg
Born (1960-01-20) 20 January 1960 (age 64)
Nationality Nepalese
Other namesApa Sherpa
Appa Sherpa
Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa
Known for21 ascents of Mount Everest

Apa (born Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa; 20 January 1960), [1] nicknamed "Super Sherpa", [2] is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer who, until 2017, jointly with Phurba Tashi held the record for reaching the summit of Mount Everest more times than any other climber. As part of The Eco Everest Expedition 2011, Apa made his 21st Mount Everest summit in May 2011 then retired after a promise to his wife to stop climbing after 21 ascents. [3] [4] He first summited Everest in 1990 and his last time to the summit was in 2011. [4]

Contents

Apa met Edmund Hillary many times, and was on the Expedition with his son Peter Hillary in 1990, which was the first summit for both of them. [4] Apa estimates he has been through the Khumbu Icefall about 1000 times and almost went with Rob Hall's ill-fated 1996 expedition. [4]

When questioned about stopping at 21, Apa stated: "Everyone says 21 is a good number. I have to make my family happy. Every time I go, they worry because Everest is very risky." [4] He was still the joint holder of the world record of Mount Everest summits as of 2017, with Phurba Tashi and Kami Rita Sherpa, but the record was broken in 2018 by Kami Rita Sherpa. [5] [6]

Early life

Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa was born in Thame, a village in the Everest region of Nepal, near the Chinese border. Following his father's death when he was 12 years old, Apa had to take up the responsibilities of his family, consisting of his mother, two sisters and three young brothers. He dropped out of school and earned money working as a porter for mountaineering groups. His climbing career began in 1985, and he worked as a kitchen boy and porter for various groups but was not given the opportunity to reach the summit until 1990. [1]

Personal life

Apa married Yangjin, then also a resident of Thame, in 1988 and has two sons—Tenjing and Pemba—and a daughter Dawa. A fourth child died in 2004. [7] In December, 2006, the family moved to the United States with the help of his friend Jerry Mika to provide their children a better education and for business opportunities. They live in Draper, Utah. [8] [9]

In April 2009, Apa founded the Apa Sherpa Foundation, dedicated to the improvement of education and economic development in Nepal. [10] Although he worked as a guide for years, he wants young people to have other career options. "The Sherpas do all the hard work and they were the only ones taken in this tragedy," he said in 2014 after 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche on 18 April. [11] (In 2015, 10 Sherpas died at the Everest Base Camp after the avalanches in the wake of the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. In total, 118 Sherpas have died on Everest between 1921 and 2018.) [12] [13] "They are doing this [mountain guiding and portering] because they have ... no other choice to make money. With an education they have a choice. Our goal is to give the younger generation a chance to go to school so they don't have to climb." [11]

When not on expeditions, Apa works for Diamond Mold, a precision machining and injection molding company in Salt Lake City, Utah that has also supported his foundation. [14] [15] [16] [17] He then began his career as Sirdar, or chief Sherpa, for many high altitude expeditions. Except for 1996 and 2001, he reached the summit every year between 1990 and 2011; all but three times have been in May. In 1992 he reached the summit twice.

Apa in his May 2010 Trek says that climbing to Everest has become tough due to the melting of ice and rock surfaces. He sees visible changes on the Everest summit due to global warming. [18] [19]

After retirement

After climbing Everest 21 times, he retired in 2011 and eventually moved to the Salt Lake City area of Utah but frequently travels to Nepal. In 2009, he co-founded The Apa Sherpa Foundation, a group striving to provide better education and an improved economy in Nepal. [20] [21]

Ascents of Mount Everest

Apa summitted Mount Everest a total of 21 times and also participated in unsuccessful attempts.

At one time, Apa held the world record with 21 ascents of Everest, which he then held jointly with Phurba Tashi and later, with Kami Rita Sherpa. In 2018 however, the latter made his 22nd ascent on 16 May, putting Apa and Tashi in a tie for second. [22] In May 2019, Kami Rita Sherpa scaled Everest for the 23rd time, breaking his own record. [23]

#DateExpedition
1May 10, 1990International
2May 8, 1991Sherpa Support/American Lhotse
3May 12, 1992New Zealand
4October 7, 1992Everest International
5May 10, 1993American
6October 10, 1994Everest International
7May 15, 1995American On Sagarmatha
8April 26, 1997Indonesian
9May 20, 1998EEE
10May 26, 1999Asian-Trekking
11May 24, 2000Everest Environmental Expedition
12May 16, 2002Swiss Everest 50th Anniversary Expedition 1952–2002
13May 26, 2003American Commemorative Expedition
14May 17, 2004Dream Everest Expedition 2004
15May 31, 2005Climbing for a cure
16May 19, 2006Team No Limit
17May 16, 2007Super Sherpas
18May 22, 2008The Eco Everest Expedition
19May 21, 2009The Eco Everest Expedition
20May 22, 2010The Eco Everest Expedition
21May 11, 2011The Eco Everest Expedition

On his 19th expedition, the team spent half an hour at the top of the mountain, unfurling a banner that said "Stop Climate Change". [24] The team brought down five tonnes of mountain trash that includes parts of a crashed helicopter, tin cans and climbing material. [2] On this expedition, a friend and fellow Sherpa, Lhakpa Nuru, was swept away in an avalanche on May 7, 2009, and died. [25] [26]

Great Himalayan Trail

In April 2012, he successfully led the first expedition to complete the Great Himalaya Trail, a 1,700-kilometre (1,050-mile) trek spanning the entire length of the Nepalese Himalayas. [27] The Great Himalaya Trail is considered to be one of the world's most difficult treks. [27] Sherpa and three companions set off in January on the Climate Smart Celebrity Trek, an expedition promoting tourism and highlighting the effects of climate change. [27] The adventurers set out from the shadow of the world's third-highest peak, Mount Kanchenjunga, in the east and finished at Nepal's border with Tibet in the west, 20 days ahead of schedule. [27] Along the way they traversed some of the world's most rugged landscapes, ascending beyond 6,000 metres (19,600 feet). [27] Dawa Steven Sherpa, a member of the expedition who has climbed Everest twice, said the group found mountain communities that rely on subsistence farming were suffering the effects of climate change. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Everest</span> Earths highest mountain

Mount Everest 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherpa people</span> Tibetan ethnic group

The Sherpas are one of the Tibetan ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal and Tibetan Autonomous Region. The term sherpa or sherwa derives from the Tibetan-language words ཤར shar ('east') and པ pa ('people'), which refer to their geographical origin in eastern Tibet.

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.

Marco Siffredi was a French snowboarder and mountaineer who hailed from a climbing family; his father was a mountain guide, and his older brother Pierre had died in an avalanche in their hometown of Chamonix, France. Siffredi was the first to descend Mount Everest on a snowboard, completing this feat in 2001 via the Norton Couloir. In 2002, he disappeared after making his second Everest summit, while attempting to snowboard the Hornbein Couloir; his body has never been found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Mount Everest expeditions</span>

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,849 metres (29,031.7 ft) above sea level. It is situated in the Himalayan range of Solukhumbu district, Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 Mount Everest disaster</span> Death of eight climbers

The 1996 Mount Everest disaster occurred on 10–11 May 1996 when eight climbers caught in a blizzard died on Mount Everest while attempting to descend from the summit. Over the entire season, 12 people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest season on Mount Everest at the time and the third deadliest after the 23 fatalities resulting from avalanches caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 16 fatalities of the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche. The 1996 disaster received widespread publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phurba Tashi</span> Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer

Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer known for his numerous ascents of major Himalayan peaks. These include 21 ascents of Mount Everest, five on Cho Oyu, two on Manaslu, and one each on Shishapangma and Lhotse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himex</span> Mount Everest guiding company

Himex is a Mount Everest guiding company. It was founded in 1996 by New Zealander Russell Brice. The name is a truncated version of the full name "Himalayan Experience". National Geographic said Himex was the "largest and most sophisticated guiding operation on Everest" in a 2013 article. Himex's team is known for fixing lines on Mount Everest, although in 2012 other teams did this work.

Lhakpa Sherpa is a Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber. She has climbed Mount Everest ten times, the most of any woman in the world. Her record-breaking tenth climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financed via a crowd-funding campaign. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Everest in 2017</span> Mount Everest climbing season

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Everest in 2013</span>

The Mount Everest climbing season of 2013 included 658 summits and 8 deaths. Due to avalanches in 2014 and 2015, this was the last big summiting year until 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kami Rita</span> Record-setting Sherpa mountain climber of highest peaks

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 a 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Everest in 2018</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Summit Treks</span> Nepalese adventure operating company

Seven Summit Treks, is a commercial adventure operator, based in Kathmandu, Nepal. They are specialized in expedition climbing trips to the eight-thousanders of Nepal, China, and Pakistan. It was established by four Sherpa brothers,Mingma Sherpa, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa and Pasang Phurba Sherpa. Mingma and his brother Chhang Dawa are the first siblings to have climbed all 8000ers, Mingma was the first and Dawa was the second South Asian to do so.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Sherpas of Everest Series: Apa Sherpa". EverestHistory.com. Archived from the original on 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  2. 1 2 "The world's most renowned Sherpa talks Mt. Everest". Washington Post. 5 May 2014. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  3. "World Record: Apa Sherpa's Everest summit no 21". Archived from the original on 2017-06-30. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Clash, Jim. "Meet The Man Who Has Been To The Top Of Everest A World Record 21 Times". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
  5. "Kami Rita Sherpa scales Mt Everest for record 22 times". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
  6. "Sherpa eyes record-breaking 22nd Everest climb". Gulf Times. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
  7. Fahys, Judy (2007-01-19). "Utah's own sherpa to set record on Everest". The Salt Lake Tribune.
  8. "Sixteen summits later:Everest climber begins a new life in Utah". The Santa Fe New Mexican. 2006-12-28.
  9. Gorrell, Mike. "Climber from Nepal reaches for personal summit in SLC". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on 18 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  10. "World record holder Apa Sherpa to create new foundation". Archived from the original on 9 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  11. 1 2 "Apa Sherpa: After deadly avalanche, 'leave Everest alone'".
  12. "Everest 2018: Summit Wave 9 Recap - More Sherpa Deaths with Summits". 22 May 2018.
  13. "Will Everest's Climbing Circus Slow Down After Disasters?". 13 May 2015. Archived from the original on May 15, 2015.
  14. Archived November 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  15. [ dead link ]
  16. Howe, Steve. "The Porters' Progress". Backpacker. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2015-06-20.
  17. "Another man conquers highest peak". Aiken Standard. 10 May 1990.
  18. "WWF - Climate Witness: Apa Sherpa, Nepal". Wwf.panda.org. 2009-10-15. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9555-9. S2CID   155024036. Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-20.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. "Climate change making Everest more dangerous: Sherpa". Physorg.com. Retrieved 2015-06-20.
  20. "Team".
  21. "This veteran Sherpa is trying to reach the top of Everest for a record-breaking 22nd time" . Independent.co.uk . 11 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07.
  22. "Kami Rita Sherpa scales Mt Everest for record 22 times". The Himalayan Times. 2018-05-16. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  23. "Sherpa climber scales Mount Everest for a record 23rd time". Chicago Tribune .
  24. "Utahn Apa Sherpa tops Everest for the 19th time". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  25. "Sherpa swept away in Mount Everest avalanche". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  26. "Appa summits Everest for 19th time". Republica. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Nepal's 'Super Sherpa' crosses the Himalayas". AFP. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2012.