Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at a height of 8,848 meters, itself is a record holder. People love visiting the Everest Region which is why Everest Circuit is a world renowned trekking route and summiting Mt. Everest the dream of many.
Thousands of mountaineers have been successful in reaching the top of the mountain, but sadly many have lost their lives before making it back to Base Camp. However, there have been multiple record makers on the way to the top of the world. Let us ponder upon a few of them.
1. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa
On May 29, 1953 New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal were the first to set their foot on the top of the world. There were many mountaineers who tried and failed to summit this giant before these two.
2. Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei, a Japanese mountaineer was the first woman to successfully summit Mt. Everest, which she did in 1985. She also summited the seven summits, the highest point of every continent.
3. Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is an adventure lover, explorer and mountaineer from Italy. In 1978 he was the 1st man to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. He also climbed all 14 eight thousanders.
4. Yuichiro Miura and Tamae Watanbe
Yuichiro Miuro, a Japanese mountaineer, broke the record of the oldest man to summit Everest. He was able to do so in 2013 at the age of 80. He is also the first person to have successfully skied down Everest. Tamae Watanbe, also a Japanese mountaineer, broke the record of the oldest woman to reach the highest point on earth in 2012 at the age of 73.
5. Erik Weihenmayer
Erik Weihenmayer, an American athlete, was the first blind man to reach the top of the world on May 25, 2001. He has also set the record of the first blind person who completed the seven summits in September 2002.
6. Sean Swarner
Sean Swarner is a two-time cancer survivor who was given two weeks to live and was the first man who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and Askin’s Sarcoma, both deadly cancer diseases. He survived both these cancers and in 2002 summited the mountain, the first cancer survivor to do so.
7. Pemba Dorje
Pemba Dorje, a Sherpa from Dolakha, Nepal, summited Everest in a record time of 12 hours 45 minutes in 2003. This time was later broken by Lakpa Gelu Sherpa: 10 hours 56 minutes. In 2004, Pemba bettered that time by climbing Everest in 8 hours and 10 minutes, the record that stands today.
8. Mark Inglis
Mark Joseph Inglis is a citizen of New Zealand who in 2006 became the first ever double amputee to climb Mount Everest. While acclimatizing at 6400 meters, a fixed anchor failed which caused him to fall off and break one of his carbon fiber prosthetic legs in half. He completed the summit with the damaged prosthetic leg temporarily repaired with a duct tape.
9. Jean Marc Boivin
Jean Marc Boivin, a French mountaineer, is also an extreme skier, hand glider and a paragliding pilot. He is the first man to paraglide from the summit of Mount Everest; the descent took 12 minutes.
10. Apa Sherpa, Phurba Tashi Sherpa and Kami Rita Sherpa
These three brave Sherpas from Nepal have summited the highest mountain in the world 21 times to date.
11. Babu Chiri Sherpa
Thin air and the changing weather create a very hazardous environment at the top of Everest but Babu Chiri Sherpa, an excellent guide who has summited Mount Everest ten times, set a record in 1999 by spending 21 hours at the top of the world.
12. Jordan Romero
An American mountain climber, Jordan Romero made the record by being the youngest mountaineer to reach the top of the Everest at the age of 13 in the year 2010.
