He's Climbed Everest 32 Times — More Than Anyone Alive, and No One Else Is Within Two

Kami Rita Sherpa has now stood on the roof of the world more times than any human being in history. On the morning of 17 May 2026, at 10:12am, the 56-year-old guide from the Everest-region village of Thame reached the summit of Mount Everest for the 32nd time — breaking, once again, a world record he already owned outright and that no other climber alive is within two ascents of matching.

The record has been his alone since 2018, but he keeps adding to it almost every spring. He tied the previous all-time mark of 21 ascents — held jointly by fellow Sherpa legends Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa — in 2017, broke it outright the following year, and has climbed past it more than ten times since, including a 31st summit on 27 May 2025 that he then beat with his 32nd almost exactly a year later. On the very same day in May 2026, Nepali-American climber Lhakpa Sherpa reached the summit for her 11th time, extending her own record as the woman with the most Everest ascents — the two records fell together.

What the record doesn't show is how he got there. His father, Mingma Tshering Sherpa, was one of the first professional Everest guides after Nepal opened the mountain to commercial climbing in the 1950s — a career that ended in 1992 when severe frostbite took him off the mountain for good. Kami Rita, who had briefly considered becoming a monk at Thame's Dechen Chokhorling monastery, took over as the family's climber instead, starting that same year as a base-camp cook's assistant and porter. Two years later, in 1994, at 24, he stood on the summit for the first time. He has been back almost every year since, most seasons twice.

What this means for trekkers

Thame itself sits an easy half-day detour off the main Everest Base Camp trail, above Namche Bazaar, and is worth the extra walk for trekkers who want to see the village that has produced more record-holding Everest climbers — Tenzing Norgay and Kami Rita Sherpa among them — than anywhere else on earth. See it on our Everest Base Camp Trek, or get a closer look at the summit he's now stood on 32 times with our EBC helicopter tour. For why Lukla's short mountain runway is the gateway every one of his 32 expeditions has flown through, read our report on the world's most dangerous airport.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

Cover photo: Vlvescovo via Openverse/wikimedia (BY-SA 4.0).