30 May, A Sherpa climber from Sangkhuwasabha district scaled Mt Makalu for the third time in 16 days becoming the only climber to make the most ascent of 8485-metre peaks in a single season.
Lakpa Sherpa, a senior mountain guide from Seven Summit Treks stood atop the mountain on May 28 making a third consecutive attempt of the mountain in 16 days, Chang Dawa Sherpa, expedition director at SST, said.
“Lakpa had made the first ascent of Makalu on 12 May, second on 20 May and third on 28 May 2022” he said.
As the climbing season ends, Pakistani climber Shehroze Kashif, 20, has also become the youngest climber in the world to scale five mountains above 8,000m as he scaled Mt Makalu on May 28, Sherpa said.
According to Thaneswar Guragai, manager at SST, Kashif, who became the youngest climber in the world to summit K2 on 27 July 2021, successfully scaled Mt Lhotse on May 16. On May 5, the broad boy also scaled Mt Kanchenjunga, the third tallest mountain in the world.
“With the success in Lhotse, he became the youngest person ever to climb five higher 8000ers (Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu),” Guragai said.
According to Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, Managing Director at Imagine Nepal Treks, Sirbaz Khan from Pakistan also scaled Makalu without using supplemental oxygen this season. “Khan became the only Pakistani climber to complete 11×8000m peaks as he stood atop Makalu on May 28,” he added. Mingma G also made a successful ascent of Mt Makalu without using O2 for the second time.
Babu Sherpa, Managing Director at Peak Promotion Pvt Ltd, said that an Indian woman climber scaled Mt Makalu making her 5th summit of the 8000m peak this season. “Baljeet Kaur has successfully scaled Mt Makalu on May 28 becoming the first Indian to have summited five eight-thousanders in a single season,” he added.
According to him, Baljeet scaled Annapurna I (8091m) on 28 April followed by Kanchenjunga (8586m) on 12 May, Everest (8848.86m) on 21 May, Lhotse (8516m) on 22 May, and Makalu (8463m) on 28 May.
