Lakpa Sherpa Archive - Adventure Mountain

10. June 202510. June 2025

Maurizio Folini – dangerous helicopter rescue flights on Mount Everest

View from the helicopter cockpit of the Western Cwm (Lhotse in the background)

“I can’t tell you how many missions I’ve flown per day. It’s not the numbers that are important to me, but the quality of the missions.” This statement says a lot about Maurizio Folini‘s character.

The 59-year-old Italian is not only a helicopter pilot with heart and soul, but also a passionate mountain rescuer. Folini has been flying regular missions on the world’s highest mountains since 2011. In 2013, he achieved the highest helicopter rescue of all time on Mount Everest when he transported a Nepalese mountaineer down from 7,800 meters on a longline.

This Everest spring season, he has once again used his aircraft from the Nepalese company Kailash Helicopter Services to rescue many climbers suffering from high altitude sick from the mountain. “I flew a lot of missions in total. There were days when I landed six to eight times at Camp 2 (at 6,400 meters). On other days, I flew less,” says Maurizio.

8. May 20258. May 2025

Rope-fixing team on Lhotse summit – rescue from Everest South Summit

Sunrise over Mount Everest and Lhotse (r.) in fall 2019 — Sunrise over Mount Everest and Lhotse (r.) – in fall 2019

The first summit success of the spring season on Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world, is perfect. “Lhotse summit route is officially open,” announced Nepalese operator 8K Expeditions in its Instagram story. The five-member rope-fixing team – consisting of Pasang Tenje Sherpa, Migma Dorjee Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa, Ming Dawa Sherpa and Pas Rinzi Sherpa – reached the highest point at 8,516 meters today at 5.40 pm, the company announced.

For this season, 8K Expeditions had been commissioned to secure the normal routes on Mount Everest and the neighboring Lhotse from Camp 2 (6,400 m) in the Western Cwm, the “Valley of Silence”, to the summits with ropes for all commercial teams. The Icefall Doctors are responsible for the route from base camp through the Khumbu Icefall up to Camp 2.

10. April 202510. April 2025

Summit success on Makalu, Icefall Doctors complete route, eleventh 8000er for Anja Blacha

Makalu in first daylight, from Gokyo Ri (in 2016) — Makalu (seen from Gokyo Ri)

On Makalu, the fifth highest mountain on earth, the ropes are now fixed up to the highest point at 8,485 meters. According to Nepal’s largest expedition operator Seven Summit Treks, the eight-man rope-fixing team reached the summit today together with a Nepalese client.

The team was led by the experienced Lakpa Sherpa, who is not called Makalu Lakpa for nothing. It was his eighth time on this summit. In 2022, he made headlines when he scaled Makalu three times in 16 days. The Nepalese Ministry of Tourism has issued 40 climbing permits for Makalu this spring so far (as of 9 April).

12. April 202417. April 2024

First summit successes of the season on Makalu and Annapurna I

The commercial climbing season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders has begun. The first summit successes of the spring were reported from two mountains higher than 8,000 meters – in both cases it was initially the teams of local climbers who fixed the ropes to the highest points.

According to Mingma Sherpa, head of Nepal’s largest expedition provider Seven Summit Treks (SST), an eight-man team led by Lakpa Sherpa reached the summit of Makalu at 8,485 meters yesterday, Thursday. The eight-thousander not far from Mount Everest is the fifth highest mountain on earth.