Lhakpa Sherpa
Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Lhekpa Sherpa |
Main discipline | Sherpa & Mountaineer |
Born | 1973 Makalu, Nepal |
Nationality | Nepalese |
Career | |
Starting discipline | Porter |
Notable ascents | Everest summit: 10 |
Family | |
Spouse | George Dijmarescu (Divorced) |
Children | 3 |
Lhakpa Sherpa (also Lakpa) (Template:Lang-ne; born 1973)[1] is a Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber. She has climbed Mount Everest ten times, the most of any woman in the world.[2][3] Her record-breaking tenth climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financed via a crowd-funding campaign.[4] In 2000, she became the first Nepalese woman to climb and descend Everest successfully. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[5]
Early life
Sherpa was born in a cave in the region, and had no formal education.[2] She grew up in Balakharka, a village in the Makalu, Nepal region of the Himalayas.[6][7] She is one of 11 children, and is a single mother of two daughters and a son herself.[8][2]
Career
In 2000 she was the leader of an expedition sponsored by Asian Trekking.[6] On September 18, 2000 she became the first Nepali woman to summit Mount Everest and survive (see also Pasang Lhamu Sherpa).[6][7] This climb was with the Nepali Women Millennium Expedition.[9]
In 2003, the U.S. PBS noted that she had summited Mount Everest three times, the most for a woman.[10] In May 2003 she reached the summit with her sister and brother; Ming Kipa and Mingma Gelu.[11]
By 2007 Sherpa had summited Everest six times since 1999 and her husband summited nine.[12] That year they hosted a presentation about their 2007 Everest trip, with donations taken for Quaker Lane Cooperative Nursery School.[12] George and Lhapka summited Mount Everest 5 times together.[13]
In 2016 she summited Mount Everest from Tibet (China), making her seventh summit.[14] The president of Mount Everest Summiteers' Association, a Nepali women and high-altitude worker Maya Sherpa also summited, but from Nepal.[14] Maya Sherpa is another record-setting Nepali woman, and she has also summited K2.[14]
Climbing career achievements
Everest summitings:
- 2000[15]
- 2001[13]
- 2003[13][10]
- 2004[13][16]
- 2005[13][17]
- 2006[13][18]
- 2016[19][14]
- 2017[20][1]
- 2018[3]
- 2022[4]
Additional expeditions:
- Expedition to climb K2 in 2010, did not summit but made it to camp 3 before being turned back by bad weather[9][21]
- Expedition to Everest in 2015; made it to base camp in Tibet, but turned back by the Spring earthquakes in the Himalayas[21] (see also 2015 Mount Everest avalanches and/or April 2015 Nepal earthquake)
Personal life
Lhapka is named for the day of the week she was born on (Wednesday).[13] Although born in Nepal, she is now a U.S. resident and works at taking care of her three children and various jobs.[13] She has worked at the U.S. store 7 Eleven.[21][13] However, in interviews she noted her desire for the mountain, a condition previously seen in such climbers as George Mallory and Yuichiro Miura according to U.K media outlet The Daily Telegraph.[22]
She has two daughters and one son,[21] and was married to George Dijmarescu, a Romanian-American, for 12 years.[21] They met in 2000 in Kathmandu, Nepal and got married in 2002.[15][13] In 2008 George got cancer, which combined with medical bills was noted as one of the factors that created tension in their marriage.[22]
In 2016, she began again receiving recognition in various news arenas as the woman with the most Everest summitings, and completed her seventh summit that year.[13][19]
Family and relationships
Her little sister Mingma reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 22, 2003 when she was 15 years old (she climbed with Lhakpa and Gelu),[11] thus becoming the youngest woman and person known to have summited Mount Everest (see also Temba Tsheri and Jordan Romero).[23][24] Her brother is Mingma Gelu Sherpa and is noted to have reached the summit of Mount Everest eight times by 2016.[21][13] The BBC noted that when three of them reached the summit together in 2003, that was the first group of three siblings on the summit at the same time, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.[9]
On the 2004 Connecticut Everest Expedition her then-husband Dijmarescu struck Lhapka.[25] According to Michael Kodas, a journalist present during the expedition, Dijmarescu, "hook[ed] a blow with his right hand to the side of his wife's head."[25][26] This altercation "sparked a sort of media sensation in the mountaineering world".[9]
See also
- Apa Sherpa
- Chhurim
- Lakpa Gelu
- List of Mount Everest records
- List of Mount Everest summiters by number of times to the summit
- Shriya Shah-Klorfine (Canadian woman who died on descent of Everest)
- List of 20th-century summiters of Mount Everest
References
- ^ a b "Nepali woman scales Mt Everest eight times breaking own record". The Himalayan Times. 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ a b c "Lhakpa Sherpa: Woman climbs Everest for record tenth time". BBC News. 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ a b "Lhakpa Sherpa scales Mt Everest nine times breaking own record". The Himalayan Times. 16 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- ^ a b "Nepali Female climber summits Mt Everest for 10th time". Mt Everest Today. 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
- ^ a b c "Mt. Everest 2005: Lakpa Sherpa". Everest News. 18 May 2000. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ a b Mayhew Bergman, Megan (31 October 2019). "She climbed Everest nine times and set a world record – so why doesn't she have sponsors?". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "Mt. Everest 2005: Lakpa Sherpa". Everest News. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d "I want to climb Everest 10 times". BBC News. 15 June 2016.
- ^ a b "Dreams of Chomolongma . Reaching for a Record". Frontline.
- ^ a b "Everest 2003: Romanian Mt. Everest Expedition North Side". Everest News. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ a b "Everest Summiters Lakpa Sherpa and George Dijmarescu slide show/video presentation open to the public". Everest News. 18 May 2000. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Mt Everest's greatest female climber back for 7th ascent". Stuff.
- ^ a b c d Pokhrel, Rajan (20 May 2016). "Two Nepali women atop Mt Everest as summit push continues". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ a b "About to scale peak a seventh time, Connecticut 7-Eleven clerk is Everest's greatest ever female climber". 16 May 2016.
- ^ "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". Himalayan Database. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ "Himalayan Database – Spring 2005 Everest". Himalayan Database.
- ^ "as Ms. Lakpa/Lhakpa Sherpa (Tashigaon, Nepal)?". Himalayan Database.
- ^ a b "7-Eleven worker becomes first woman to climb Mount Everest seven times". Rawstory.com. 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ "Nepal woman breaks her own record for most Everest summits". The Hans India. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Schaffer, Grayson (10 May 2016). "The Most Successful Female Everest Climber of All Time Is a Housekeeper in Hartford, Connecticut". Outside Online. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ a b Henderson, Barney (15 May 2016). "Everest's greatest ever female climber: Lhakpa Sherpa - the unknown mountaineering hero who works in a 7-Eleven in Connecticut". The Telegraph.
- ^ Glenday, Craig (2010), Guinness World Records 2010: Thousands of New Records in The Book of the Decade!, p. 210, ISBN 978-0-553-59337-2, retrieved 22 July 2011
- ^ THT 10 years ago: Ming Kipa's record was happenstance' says sister, 2013, retrieved 28 May 2013
- ^ a b Kodas, Michael (5 February 2008). High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-1401302733.
- ^ "Breaking Mount Everest's Glass Ceiling". The Daily Beast. 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.