Apa (born Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa; 20 January 1960),
nicknamed "Super Sherpa",
is a
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
ese
Sherpa Sherpa may refer to:
Ethnography
* Sherpa people, an ethnic group in north eastern Nepal
* Sherpa language
Organizations and companies
* Sherpa (association), a French network of jurists dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility
* ...
mountaineer
Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...
who, until 2017, jointly with
Phurba Tashi
Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa ( ne, फूर्वा तासी शेर्पा, 1971) is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer known for his numerous ascents of major Himalayan peaks. These include twenty-one ascents of Mount Everest, five on Ch ...
held the
record for reaching the summit of
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
more times than any other person. As part of The
Eco Everest Expedition
Eco Everest Expedition is an annual expedition drill, started by Asian Trekking Pvt. Ltd. in 2008, with the sole aim of clearing and removing accumulated debris on Mount Everest.
Background
Mount Everest, the highest mountain on earth, has attract ...
2011, Apa made his 21st
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
summit in May 2011 then retired after a promise to his wife to stop climbing after 21 ascents.
He first summited Everest in 1990 and his last time to the summit was in 2011.
Apa met
Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached t ...
many times, and was on the Expedition with his son Peter Hillary in 1990, which was the first summit for both of them.
Apa estimates he has been through the
Khumbu Icefall
The Khumbu Icefall is located at the head of the Khumbu Glacier and the foot of the Western Cwm, which lies at an elevation of on the Nepali slopes of Mount Everest, not far above Base Camp and southwest of the summit. The icefall is considered ...
about 1000 times and almost went with
Rob Hall
Robert Edwin Hall (14 January 1961 – 11 May 1996) was a New Zealand mountaineer. He was the head guide of a 1996 Mount Everest expedition during which he, a fellow guide, and two clients died. A best-selling account of the expedition was g ...
's ill-fated
1996 expedition.
When questioned about stopping at 21, Apa stated: "Everyone says 21 is a good number. I have to make my family happy. Every time I go, they worry because Everest is very risky."
He was still the joint holder of the world record of Mount Everest summits as of 2017, with
Phurba Tashi
Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa ( ne, फूर्वा तासी शेर्पा, 1971) is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer known for his numerous ascents of major Himalayan peaks. These include twenty-one ascents of Mount Everest, five on Ch ...
and
Kami Rita Sherpa
Kami Rita (born 17 January 1970, Thame, Solukhumbu District, Nepal is a Nepali Sherpa guide who, since May 2018, has held the record for most ascents to the summit of Mount Everest. Most recently, he scaled the mountain for a 26th time on 7 May 20 ...
, but the record was broken in 2018 by
Kami Rita Sherpa
Kami Rita (born 17 January 1970, Thame, Solukhumbu District, Nepal is a Nepali Sherpa guide who, since May 2018, has held the record for most ascents to the summit of Mount Everest. Most recently, he scaled the mountain for a 26th time on 7 May 20 ...
.
Early life
Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa was born in
Thame
Thame is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the county border wi ...
, a village in the Everest region of
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
, near the Chinese border. Following his father's death when he was 12 years old, Apa had to take up the responsibilities of his family, consisting of his mother, two sisters and three young brothers. He dropped out of school and earned money working as a porter for mountaineering groups. His climbing career began in 1985, and he worked as a kitchen boy and porter for various groups but was not given the opportunity to reach the summit until 1990.
Personal life
Apa married Yangjin, then also a resident of Thame, in 1988 and has two sons—Tenjing and Pemba—and a daughter Dawa. A fourth child died in 2004.
In December, 2006, the family moved to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
with the help of his friend Jerry Mika to provide their children a better education and for business opportunities. They live in
Draper, Utah
Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah counties in the U.S. state of Utah, about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. As of the 2020 census, the population is 51,017, up from 7,143 in 1990.
Draper is part of two metropolitan areas; ...
.
In April 2009, Apa founded the Apa Sherpa Foundation, dedicated to the improvement of education and economic development in
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
.
Although he worked as a guide for years, he wants young people to have other career options. "The Sherpas do all the hard work and they were the only ones taken in this tragedy," he said in 2014 after 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche on 18 April.
(In 2015, 10 Sherpas died at the Everest Base Camp after the
avalanches
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain.
Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...
in the wake of the
April 2015 Nepal earthquake
The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,964 people and injured 21,952 more. It occurred at on Saturday, 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8 Mw or 8.1 Ms and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (''Extreme ...
. In total, 118 Sherpas have died on Everest between 1921 and 2018.) "They are doing this
ountain guiding and porteringbecause they have ... no other choice to make money. With an education they have a choice. Our goal is to give the younger generation a chance to go to school so they don't have to climb."
When not on expeditions, Apa works for Diamond Mold, a precision machining and injection molding company in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
that has also supported his foundation.
He then began his career as ''Sirdar'', or chief Sherpa, for many high altitude expeditions. Except for 1996 and 2001, he reached the summit every year between 1990 and 2011; all but three times have been in May. In 1992 he reached the summit twice.
Apa in his May 2010 Trek says that climbing to Everest has become tough due to the melting of ice and rock surfaces. He sees visible changes on the Everest summit due to global warming.
After retirement
After climbing Everest 21 times, he retired in 2011 and eventually moved to the
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
area of Utah but frequently travels to Nepal. In 2009, he co-founded The Apa Sherpa Foundation, a group striving to provide better education and an improved economy in Nepal.
Ascents of Mount Everest
Apa summitted Mount Everest a total of 21 times and also participated in unsuccessful attempts.
At one time, Apa held the world record with 21 ascents of Everest, which he then held jointly with
Phurba Tashi
Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa ( ne, फूर्वा तासी शेर्पा, 1971) is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer known for his numerous ascents of major Himalayan peaks. These include twenty-one ascents of Mount Everest, five on Ch ...
and later, with
Kami Rita Sherpa
Kami Rita (born 17 January 1970, Thame, Solukhumbu District, Nepal is a Nepali Sherpa guide who, since May 2018, has held the record for most ascents to the summit of Mount Everest. Most recently, he scaled the mountain for a 26th time on 7 May 20 ...
. In 2018 however, the latter made his 22nd ascent on 16 May, putting Apa and Tashi in a tie for second. In May 2019, Kami Rita Sherpa scaled Everest for the 23rd time, breaking his own record.
On his 19th expedition, the team spent half an hour at the top of the mountain, unfurling a banner that said "Stop Climate Change".
The team brought down five tonnes of mountain trash that includes parts of a crashed helicopter, tin cans and climbing material.
On this expedition, a friend and fellow Sherpa, Lhakpa Nuru, was swept away in an
avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain.
Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...
on May 7, 2009, and died.
Great Himalayan Trail
In April 2012, he successfully led the first expedition to complete the
Great Himalaya Trail
The Great Himalaya Trail is a route across the Himalayas from east to west. The original concept was to establish a single long distance trekking trail from the east end to the west end of Nepal that includes a total of roughly of path. There is ...
, a 1,700-kilometre (1,050-mile) trek spanning the entire length of the Nepalese Himalayas.
The Great Himalaya Trail is considered to be one of the world's most difficult treks.
Sherpa and three companions set off in January on the Climate Smart Celebrity Trek, an expedition promoting tourism and highlighting the
effects of climate change
The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...
.
The adventurers set out from the shadow of the world's third-highest peak,
Mount Kanchenjunga, in the east and finished at Nepal's border with
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
in the west, 20 days ahead of schedule.
Along the way they traversed some of the world's most rugged landscapes, ascending beyond 6,000 metres (19,600 feet).
Dawa Steven Sherpa, a member of the expedition who has climbed Everest twice, said the group found mountain communities that rely on subsistence farming were suffering the effects of climate change.
See also
*
*
List of 20th-century summiters of Mount Everest
Mount Everest, at is currently the world's highest mountain and is a particularly desirable peak for mountaineers. This is a list of people who reached the summit of Mount Everest in the 20th century. Overall about 1,383 people summited Everes ...
*
Lhakpa Sherpa
Lhakpa Sherpa (also Lakpa) ( ne, Lakhpa Sherpa; born 1973) is a Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber. She has climbed Mount Everest ten times, the most of any woman in the world. Her record-breaking tenth climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financ ...
*
Phurba Tashi
Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa ( ne, फूर्वा तासी शेर्पा, 1971) is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer known for his numerous ascents of major Himalayan peaks. These include twenty-one ascents of Mount Everest, five on Ch ...
References
External links
ApaSherpa.com (Official Website)Apa Sherpa Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherpa, Apa
1960 births
Living people
People from Solukhumbu District
Nepalese mountain climbers
Nepalese summiters of Mount Everest
Sherpa summiters of Mount Everest
Nepalese Buddhists
Nepalese expatriates in the United States