The Nepali American Sherpa works in a 7-Eleven store in Connecticut.
AB Wire
Lhakpa Sherpa, a 42-year-old woman born in Nepal and who now lives in Connecticut, climbed Mount Everest for the seventh time on Friday, breaking her own record for the most summits of the world’s highest mountain by any woman.
Sherpa, a resident of West Hartford, who works in a 7-Eleven store, reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak from the Tibetan side, said Rajiv Shrestha of the 7 Summits Adventure Company that organized her expedition.
The Hartford Courant reported one of her brothers, Mingma Galu, has reached the Mt. Everest summit eight times. Her sister Ming Kipa once held the distinction as the youngest female to reach the summit.
Sherpa, one of the 11 children of a Nepali family, was born in eastern Sankhuwasabha district where the world’s fifth highest mountain, Makalu, is located.
Two men have ascended Mt. Everest 21 times, the record for the most number of overall ascents.
An Associated Press Report reported Sherpa was one of 18 climbers to reach the summit. Her previous six successful climbs of Mr. Everest were between 2000 and 20006, before she moved to the US.
“She has broken her own record,” Shrestha told Reuters. She was accompanied to the top by a Nepali guide.
Three hours later, eight members of a Russian team and eight of guides also climbed from the same northern route, he said.
The Telegraph of London reported that Sherpa was at Advance Base Camp in Tibet, preparing for her final ascent. The goal of Sherpa’s first ascent, the Telegraph reported, was to follow in the footsteps of Pasang Lhamu, who was the first Nepali woman to reach the top of Everest but died on the way down.
Sherpa made five of her ascents with her now ex-husband Romanian-American climber, George Dijmarescu.
Sherpa has three children, and lives in West Hartford. Two of her children are students in West Hartford Public Schools – one at Sedgwick and the other at Charter Oak International Academy. According to the Courant, Sherpa brought a small Charter Oak International Academy banner on her expedition.
Sherpa reportedly has recently worked as a housekeeper too.
More than 330 climbers have climbed Everest from the Nepali side this month after expeditions were forced off the world’s tallest peak by last year’s devastating earthquake that killed at least 18 people at Base Camp, reported Reuters.
In total, 9,000 people were killed across Nepal in the 7.8 magnitude quake, the worst disaster in the country’s recorded history.