Everest summiteers
Posted on October 17, 2003
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The history of Everest summits is an interesting one. In recent years though the frequency of summits has increased dramatically with the advent of guided tour parties lead by professional climbers and the use of supplemental oxygen. Standing out among the crowd are the few who manage to do it under their own power, without the use of bottled oxygen (aka: oxygen-less), climbing into a realm where the atmospheric pressure is less than one third that at sea level. This is not a large list: Everest summiteers without supplementary oxygen.
There’s one other notable feature about that list: it includes Nepalese sherpas among it, unlike most other records of Everest’s history. Sherpas are the forgotten climbers of Everest - before 1980 it was rare that their ascent was ever even noted when reading a record of a climb and rarely were they considered actually a part of the climbing team. Reading that list I’d have to conclude that Nepal has the best pure mountain climbers the world has ever seen, claiming the most ascents by nationality. Additionally, Appa Sherpa has also climbed Everest more times than any other person in the world: 11, all of which were oxygen-less and Babu Chhiri set a number of Everest world records: fastest ascent , longest time on the summit (21 hours) and he holds the distinction of being the only person to ever remain up there over-night. Most people stay mere minutes.
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