Apa Sherpa – world record Mount Everest climber

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Apa Sherpa was the first one to reach the summit of Mount Everest 21 times (by 2011).

Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa was born in the early 1960s in a village in the Everest region of Nepal near the Chinese border. His exact age is unknown, but during a 2003 interview, he estimated it to be 40.

Apa (also Appa Sherpa) first reached the summit of Mount Everest on his fourth attempt, on May 10, 1990, with a New Zealand team led by climber Rob Hall along with Peter Hillary, son of Edmund Hillary. He then began his career as Sirdar, or chief Sherpa, for many high altitude expeditions. He has reached the summit every year between 1990 and 2011, bar 1996 and 2001; all but three times have been in May, and in 1992 he reached the summit twice.

Apa married Yangjin, then also a resident of Thame, in 1988 and has two sons—Tenjing and Pemba—and a daughter Dawa. The family moved to the United States to provide better education for their children.

This painting is part of the set Into thin Air with ten more portraits of climbers. Click for an extensive description.

Source: Blog, Wikipedia