A 48-year-old Nepalese woman climbed Mount Everest for the 10th time on Thursday (May 12), breaking her own record for the most summits of the world’s tallest mountain by a female mountaineer, her hiking company announced.
“Lhakpa broke her own record and became the first woman to reach 10 summits,” her brother Mingma Gelu Sherpa, an official with her hiking agency Seven Summit Club, told Reuters.
A Nepalese tourism official, Bhishma Kumar Bhattarai, confirmed that she had reached the summit.
One of 11 children, Lhakpa was born in the eastern district of Sankhuwasabha, home to the world’s fifth highest mountain, Makalu.
Fewer than 10 total black climbers had previously summited, but this is the first time that all members of an expedition have been black, trek officials said.
Everest has been climbed 10,657 times since its first ascent in 1953 from the Nepalese and Tibetan sides. Many have climbed it more than once and 311 people have died.
Lhakpa Sherpa image via Reuters.