KATHMANDU, JUNE 14
A record-holding woman climber today left for Pakistan to attempt to scale the world's second highest peak this season.
Lhakpa Sherpa, popularly known as 'Everest Queen' along with a group of Nepali climbers will attempt to climb K2 next month, according to Pemba Sherpa, Managing Director at 8K Expeditions.
"We have more than 20 clients including record holding Lhakpa Sherpa and gave climbing opportunities to over 30 Sherpa climbers in Pakistan this season," Pemba said, adding that the expeditions in Karakoram region would be led by 8K's Founding Director Lakpa Sherpa.
Mingma Gelu Sherpa, Managing Director at Seven Summit Adventure, said that his sister returned to K2 this season after she abandoned her K2 bid from above Camp III in 2010. "She has a dream to summit K2," he said.
The 49-year-old mother of three broke her own world record by standing atop the roof of the world for the tenth time in 2022. Born in Makalu VDC of Sankhuwasabha, Lhakpa is the first and only woman to successfully scale Mt Everest 10 times in the world. No other woman in the world has scaled the peak so many times till date.
"This season, I couldn't manage time to scale Everest as I had to prepare myself for the K2 expedition," Lhakpa told THT before leaving for Pakistan this morning. Lhakpa said that she was climbing her mountains to inspire today's youth and women.
Lhakpa, who lives in suburban Connecticut in the US and works as a dishwasher at the Whole Foods Market in Hartford, said that she got a few sponsors for her K2 expedition this season. "I will return to Everest in 2024," she added.
Without having any formal training in mountain climbing, Lhakpa, who grew up with 11 siblings, first climbed Mt Everest from the Nepal side in 2000. "I worked as a porter when I was 15 and started climbing peaks then after," Lhakpa told THT.
Lhakpa, also a former Seven-Eleven store worker, had reportedly scaled Mt Everest eight months after the birth of her first daughter and while she was two months pregnant with her second child.
