Sherpa guide breaks own record scaling Everest for 26th time

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA
Associated Press
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An experienced Nepalese Sherpa guide has scaled Mount Everest for the 26th time breaking his own record for the most climbs of the world’s highest peak. Kami Rita reached the 29,032-foot summit on Saturday evening leading a group of Sherpa climbers who fixed ropes along the route so that hundreds of other climbers and guides can make their way to the top of the mountain later this month. Rita and 10 other Sherpa guides reached the summit without any problems and had safely returned to lower camps, said Mingma Sherpa of the Kathmandu-based Seven Summit Treks. Rita, 52, first scaled Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since then.