LHAKPA SHERPA HAS CLIMBED
MOUNT EVEREST EIGHT TIMES AND PLAN 9TH EVEREST SUMMIT
'I climb for all
women.In this May 2017 photo provided by Lhakpa Sherpa, Sherpa displays a flag
from West Hartford, Conn., on the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal. Once a
year, Sherpa heads back to her native Nepal to try and break her own record for
successful summits of Mount Everest by a woman Between raising two daughters
and working as a dishwasher at Whole Foods, Lhakpa Sherpa just doesn't have
time for training to climb Mount Everest. Even so, she has done it a record
eight times — and hopes to outdo herself yet again.
The 44-year-old
native of Nepal holds the world record for summits of Everest by a woman and
plans to return this month for what has become an annual expedition to the top
of the world."My body knows that I have already been this high. It's like
a computer. It figures it out very quickly. My body knows the high altitude. It
remembers."Lhakpa Sherpa is recognized by Guinness World Records and is
well known in mountaineering circles, but she spends most of the year living a
modest life in obscurity in Connecticut, where she moved with her now
ex-husband, another well-known climber, in 2002.She gets up most days at 6 a.m.
to walk her two daughters, 16-year-old Sunny and 11-year-old Shiny, to school. Then,
because she does not know how to drive, often walks the 2 miles to her job,
where she washes dishes in the prepared foods section and takes out the
garbage.
"You would never
know she hiked Everest unless you knew her and talked to her about it,"
says Dan Furtado, the manager who hired Lhakpa at Whole Foods. "She's the
most humble person I know, and her work ethic is astounding."Lhakpa says
that she would have liked to be a doctor or an airplane pilot, but that as a
girl growing up in the Sherpa ethnic community with her four brothers and seven
sisters, she wasn't allowed to attend school.Without a formal education, she
has taken jobs in Connecticut cleaning houses, as a clerk at a local
convenience store and as a dishwasher to give her daughters and now-grown son a
chance at a better life in the United States, she said."My rent is
expensive here," she says, "but this is where the best schools
are."Lhakpa said she is used to overcoming adversity. Sherpa girls were
discouraged from climbing, but she was a tomboy and would not be deterred from
helping the men in her family, serving as a porter to bring gear to Everest
base camps.
Becoming a climber
was harder, she said, especially after the first Nepali woman to reach the
summit, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, died on her way down the mountain in 1993.Lhakpa
Sherpa joined an expedition of five women in 2000 who convinced the government
to give them a permit. She was the first Nepali woman to reach the summit and
return alive.The record for successful climbs to the top of Everest is 21,
shared by three Sherpa men who worked as mountain guides. Two have retired from
climbing, but the third, Kami Rita, told The Associated Press in Kathmandu
recently he was heading to Everest to attempt his 22nd climb.Anne Parmenter, a
field hockey coach at Trinity College in Hartford, climbed with Lhakpa on an
ill-fated Everest expedition in 2004. There were serious issues with that
climb, including a physical confrontation between Lhakpa and her husband at the
time that left Lhakpa unconscious.
Parmenter says it is
impressive to see what Lhakpa has been able to overcome, both physically and
mentally.
"She's obviously
been blessed with amazing physiology that allows her to live here, not train,
and go back and adapt very quickly to that high-altitude environment," she
says. "She can do that, function and be really strong."Says Lhakpa:
"I wanted to show that a woman can do men's jobs. There is no difference
in climbing a mountain. I climb for all women."Lhakpa said she does have
some fears about climbing, especially who would take care of her daughters if
there were an accident on Everest. She was at a camp in 2015 when an earthquake
triggered avalanches that killed 19 people on Everest.Her daughter Shiny says
it was a week before they received the phone call telling them their mother was
OK.Lhakpa Sherpa saves up each year for the plane ticket back to Nepal and
climbs with an expedition company run by one of her brothers.
They will guide about
50 people, mostly Europeans, up the mountain this year, she said. Next year,
she plans to make a second attempt to summit K2 — the world's second-highest
peak — for the first time.This season, for the first time, she has a sponsor.
Black Diamond, a mountain sports equipment company, is outfitting her with new
gear and providing monetary support."It's clear from everything about her
life that the word 'can't' is not in her lexicon," says Chris Parker, the
company's content manager.Lhakpa also received a proclamation last month from
her adopted home town of West Hartford that proclaims her the "Queen of
Mount Everest."But to many of her co-workers, she's just Lhakpa."I
don't need to be famous," she says. "I want to keep doing my sport.
If I don't do my sport, I feel tired. I want to push my limits."
Prof. John Kurakar
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