Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa has achieved the goal he set himself. According to the Nepalese operator 8K Expedition, the 29-year-old mountaineer reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters today, for the fourth time this spring season – with bottled oxygen.
On 9 May, Tashi had been part of 8K Expeditions’ seven-man rope-fixing team, which had made the first Everest ascent of the season. This was followed by his summit success number two on 14 May, number three on 19 May and number four today, 23 May. Never before has a person stood on the summit of Mount Everest so many times in one season.
Last year, Dawa Finjhok Sherpa, Climbing Sherpa of the operator Seven Summit Treks, summited Everest three times in eight days. Nepalese journalist Purnima Shrestha also reached the summit three times during the season as a client of a commercial team – with breathing mask and Sherpa support.
“Best way to earn a living”
As reported, Tashi comes from the 3,840-meter-high “climbers’ village” of Phortse, which lies on the trekking route through the Khumbu region to Everest Base Camp. “In a population of 400, 70 of us in Phortse are climbers. Nearly every house in the village has a climber who has summited Everest,” Tashi told me when I asked him how he became a mountaineer.
“By the time I finished college, my father had grown old and I had to earn money. Becoming a Climbing Sherpa and guide was the best way for me to earn a living and support my family.” His father Ang Tshering Sherpa had also worked as a Climbing Sherpa, his mother Mingma Doma Sherpa was a farmer.
Eleven summit successes on eight-thousanders
For Tashi, who is married and has a son, this year’s four ascents on Mount Everest were numbers five to eight. In 2019, the Sherpa climbed the highest mountain on earth for the first time – at the age of 23, via the Tibetan north side of the mountain. Three further ascents from the Nepalese south side followed between 2022 and 2024.
His eight-thousander record also includes summit successes on Cho Oyu (in 2019), Manaslu (in 2022) and Shishapangma (in 2024).
Among others, Tashi received financial support for his this year’s Everest project from the Little Sherpa Foundation, a Scottish aid organization active in Phortse. “As a guide I climbed many mountains, and became inspired to set my own record,” Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa wrote to me before his attempt. “I love climbing, and I would like to make my family and my village proud.” He has probably succeeded.
