As is now almost always the case on eight-thousanders, a rope-fixing team ensured the first summit success of the season also on Kangchenjunga. According to Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the expedition operator Imagine Nepal, Dawa Gyalje Sherpa, Chheten Tashi Sherpa (both from Imagine Nepal), Buddha Bahadur Gurung (Elite Exped), and Sohail Shezad reached the summit shortly after midnight local time today.
Strong Pakistani climber on rope-fixing team
The experienced Dawa Gyalje Sherpa – who has already stood on all 14 eight-thousanders – led the team. It is interesting to note that Sohail Sakhi was part of the team. He is from Pakistan. Sohail belongs to the new generation of strong and self-confident Pakistani climbers.
He hails from the Hunza Valley and has already climbed four of his homeland’s five eight-thousanders: K2, Nanga Parbat, and Gasherbrum I and II, all without bottled oxygen. He climbed Nanga Parbat in 2025 solo, and on K2 he was part of the rope-fixing team that same season.
A few hours after the four-person rope-fixing team, the first clients, accompanied by their Nepalese guides, also reached the summit of Kangchenjunga at 8,586 meters. The Tourism Department in Kathmandu had issued permits for the world’s third-highest mountain to 36 foreign climbers for this spring season (as of 15 May).
Meanwhile, numerous summit successes on Mount Everest were reported again today.