Records & People

He has climbed Everest 32 times, more than anyone alive, and one man is right behind him

Kami Rita Sherpa set the record again on 17 May 2026, extending a world record he has now owned for eight straight years.

By Dawa Sherpa · Aug 16, 2026

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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…

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How the record grew

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…

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The summit record, by the numbers

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From porter to record holder

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…

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What this means for trekkers

The takeaway Kami Rita isn't a freak exception — he's what a career built inside Nepal's guiding system looks like at its absolute peak: porter, then cook's assistant, then years on the mountain before ever leading a client. Every Everest Base Camp trekker…

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