Records & People

He Summited Everest 21 Times — More Than Anyone Alive When He Stopped. Then He Moved to Utah and Started Giving Away an Education Instead.

Apa Sherpa held the world record for Everest summits for years before retiring in 2011 — today he funds Nepali children's schooling from a suburb of…

By Laxman Rawal · Jul 28, 2026

Read the full story

Apa Sherpa climbed to the summit of Everest 21 times between 1990 and 2011 — more than anyone else on Earth had ever done when he finally stopped. He did not retire to write a memoir about the mountain. He retired to a quiet suburb of Salt Lake City and…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

From the Khumbu to Utah — and back, every year

Apa moved his family to the United States in 2006, settling in Draper, a Salt Lake City suburb, years before he stopped climbing — meaning several of his later record-building seasons involved flying back to Nepal from Utah each spring. He retired from…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

What this means for trekkers

Apa's story is a useful corrective to how outsiders often picture 'Sherpa' — not a fixed rank on the mountain, but a career with its own arc, risk and eventual exit, the same as any other. Every trekker who books an Everest Base Camp trek or a summit push on…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

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