The eleventh time Lhakpa Sherpa climbed Everest, she went as a guide

At about 9.30 on the morning of Sunday 17 May, Lhakpa Sherpa stood on the summit of Everest. She had left Camp 4 in the night. A client was climbing with her, because this time she was there to work.

It was her eleventh ascent. No other woman has climbed the mountain as often, and the previous record, ten, was also hers. The Kathmandu Post reported that the summit was confirmed from Base Camp.

Sherpa, 52, lives in West Hartford, Connecticut. The age is her own estimate: she told We-Ha.com, the town’s news site, in 2024 that she has no birth certificate. She was born in Sankhuwasabha district in eastern Nepal, Gripped magazine reported, and was a porter for climbers in her teens.

Six summits, a ten-year gap, five more

In May 2000 she became the first Nepali woman to reach the top of Everest and come back alive. She went up again in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2003 her brother and her 15-year-old sister reached the top with her.

Then came a decade without one. An attempt in 2015 ended with the Nepal earthquakes. She returned in 2016, 2017 and 2018, made it ten in 2022, and climbed K2 in 2023.

None of this was done as a full-time athlete. We-Ha.com reported that she supported herself and her daughters for years with a job at a Whole Foods supermarket, and later by cleaning houses and leading hikes. Her training, the site said, was the walk to work and the hills near home.

She has a view on what a mountaineer should look like.

“Everest, need a little chubby, look like a bear.” — Lhakpa Sherpa, to WTNH News 8, 2022

A Netflix documentary, Mountain Queen, told her story in 2024. She was plain about where her talents lie.

“I’m not so good at talking, I’m good at mountain climbing.” — Lhakpa Sherpa, quoted by We-Ha.com

Guiding is now her trade. We-Ha.com reported that she had climbed Mount Washington in New Hampshire five times, some of them leading groups. The International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, which named her for its 2026 Visionary Leadership Award, describes her as running a Connecticut guiding business, Hiking With Lhakpa.

Why this matters

Sherpa’s record was built in the gaps of a working life. Long walks with weight on your back, done often, are available to almost anybody with a job and a summit in mind.

Height is the part that fitness does not fix. The NHS (the UK health service) says altitude sickness can happen above about 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), with headache, nausea and dizziness starting 6 to 10 hours after arrival. Its advice is about pace, not strength: spend a few days below 2,500 metres first; above 3,000 metres sleep no more than 500 metres higher each night; rest every three or four days. If symptoms come, stop climbing, and go down if they are no better after a day.

Nothing in the UK is high enough to cause it. Plenty in the US is.

If there is a summit you have in mind

• Train on the way to somewhere. A daily walk with a loaded bag counts. So do stairs.
• Count ascent, not miles. REI’s guide to Mount Washington (6,288 ft) gives the Tuckerman Ravine Trail as 8.2 miles (13 km) there and back with about 4,250 ft (1,300 m) of climbing.
• Respect small mountains. The same guide says the summit can be about 25°F colder than the trailhead. Start early, carry warm layers, set a time to turn round.
• Give yourself a list. Hers is for her daughters.

“I want to teach my daughters here in the United States, to reach the highest points [in each state].” — Lhakpa Sherpa, to We-Ha.com

• Check first if you need to. Speak to a GP (family doctor) or travel clinic before going high if you have had altitude sickness before or have a medical condition.

For a way into the hills with someone qualified, read how Barbara O’Donnell became a mountain leader. Or, for a much longer walk, Karl Bushby.