(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –A Nepali Sherpa is hoping to summit Mount Everest for a record-breaking 22nd time next month, during the busy climbing season that each year sees hundreds of climbers reach the top of the world.
But to Kami Rita Sherpa, who has worked as a guide on Everest for over two decades, climbing to 8,848 metres is a job, not a record-shattering feat.
“I did not start climbing to set a world record. But in the course of my work in the guiding industry, this is going to be my 22nd ascent. It wasn’t for any competition,” Kami Rita told the AFP news agency in Kathmandu before setting out for the mountain.
When 48-year-old Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994, he was one of just 49 climbers to reach the peak.
“I am not extremely happy, excited or very sad no matter how many times I climb. There are many Sherpas who have held world records, I am just starting.”
“My life is just normal,” he added as he headed off for the top of the world.
(aljazeer)
