Apa Sherpa

Apa Sherpa (born c. 1960, Thami, Nepal) is a Nepali mountaineer and guide who set a record for most ascents of Mount Everest (21) that was later equaled by other Sherpas before being surpassed in 2018.

Apa was raised in the small village of Thami (or Thame) in the Khumbu valley of far northern Nepal, just west of Mount Everest. The area is well known for its Sherpas (ethnic Nepalis, Tibetans, and Sikkimese who serve as porters and guides on expeditions in the Himalayas), including famed climber Tenzing Norgay who once lived in Thami. Apa’s family, like most in the region, was extremely poor. His father was a herdsman who died when Apa was about 12 years old. Apa, being the oldest child, left school and began carrying supplies for trekking parties in the area to help support his family. He quickly impressed his employers with his ability to haul large loads (despite his small size) and his cheerful disposition. One of his European patrons sponsored his enrollment at the Himalayan Trust School (established by Everest climbing pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary) in Khumjung, near Thami. However, the family’s circumstances forced Apa to leave school after a couple of years and return to his porter job.

In 1985 he joined his first major mountaineering expedition, to Annapurna, where he worked as a cook, and he returned to that mountain as a porter in 1987. Apa began working on Everest trips in 1988, participating in several unsuccessful summit attempts over the next two years. He finally reached the top in May 1990, when he joined a New Zealand expedition with other first-time summiters Peter Hillary (son of Sir Edmund Hillary) and Rob Hall (who became a leader of expeditions on Everest, including an ill-fated trip in 1996).

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Mount Everest

For the next two-plus decades, Apa embarked on an almost unbroken string of annual ascents up Everest that included two successful climbs in 1992. In only two years did he not reach the summit: in 1996, when he made no climbs, and in 2001, when the attempt was abandoned because of bad weather. In 2000, with his 11th trip to the top, he broke the record for the most Everest summits, and he then established a new record with each successive climb.

Apa joined the first Eco Everest Expedition in 2008 and participated in subsequent years. Each of these trips, in addition to a summit climb, focused on publicizing ecological and climate-change issues affecting Everest—notably, the accelerated melting of the giant Khumbu Icefall near the mountain’s base. The expeditions employed ecologically friendly practices (e.g., the use of solar cookers) and collected and took down tons of trash and camping and climbing gear left behind by earlier expeditions. Apa’s climb in May 2010 was especially notable because it was his 20th successful Everest ascent. A year later, in May 2011, he completed his 21st summit; his record was later tied by Phurba Tashi Sherpa (2013) and Kami Rita Sherpa (2017), and the latter broke it in 2018. Apa announced his retirement from high-altitude climbing in 2012, but he stayed active in the Himalayas. In January–April of that year he participated in a 99-day trek through that range to publicize concerns about climate change in the region.

In 2006 Apa and his family moved to the United States to give his children educational opportunities that he had missed. However, he still wished to help his native Thami, and in 2009 he established the Apa Sherpa Foundation to further educational and economic opportunities there and elsewhere in the region.