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Apa Sherpa
– World’s Greatest Climber summits Everest the 19th time

Compiled by SALT

The super-cool, super-athlete, and super human Apa Sherpa has done it again – he broke his own record of the most Everest summits by climbing it yet again – for the 19th time – in May this year. The 49-year old, who is now a resident of Draper, Utah, USA (he moved there in 2006), seems to share a spiritual connection with the tallest mountain on earth. It is almost an annual pilgrimage for Apa to climb and reach the summit of Mount Everest. What were his thoughts as he stood five and a half miles above the earth for the 19th time, SALT asked Apa. "I thanked the mountain" he said.

Apa Sherpa, 49, reached the summit of Everest for the 19th time on May 21, 2009 - more than anyone else in history. He broke his own world record as he stood on top of the tallest mountain for the 19th time in as many years. Over a crackling radio, in a breathless voice he told Dawa Steven Sherpa at the Base Camp: "I am at the top and am looking at all the prayer flags...I have just satisfied the deities and placed the Bhumpa on the summit...I am the last of our group to get to the top today as I was delayed at the Hillary Step because there are so many people here. I arrived here at 8a.m and have been here for 30 minutes... It is very cold so I am now heading down." But before he headed down, Apa placed the Bhumpa on the summit and held aloft the WWF banner – two precious items in his backpack that he carried all the way up. The Bhumpa (a holy urn) was given to him by the Rinpoche (Head Lama) at Tengboche monastery as an offering to Mount Everest – the Mother Goddess. The WWF banner was a message to the world and the spirit behind the expedition. It read "Stop Climate Change. Let the Himalaya Live!"

 

Read the entire article in the print issue of SALT
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