A young Nepalese woman has entered
the record books after climbing Mount Everest twice in the same week.
Twenty-nine-year-old Chhurim Sherpa scaled the 8,850m (29,035ft)
peak on May 12 and 19 last year, but her achievement has only now been
officially recognised by Guinness World Records.
Nepal’s tourism minister Posta Bahadur Bogati presented Ms
Chhurim’s certificate, confirming her as the first woman to climb Everest twice
in the same season, to her.
Despite her remarkable feat, achieved with only a couple of days
of rest at base camp in between ascents, Ms Chhurim is not yet ready to give up
climbing.
"Everest is the first of the highest mountains that I have
climbed, but I will continue mountaineering and hope to scale more peaks,"
she said.
Ms Chhurim's double ascent is all the more impressive given that
women represent only a small proportion of the climbers who conquer Everest
each year.
"The male mountaineers have set many records but women have
fallen behind. It can be difficult for women because they are considered not as
strong as men and face many problems like finding toilets," she said.
First conquered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa
in 1953, Mount Everest has been scaled by almost 4,000 climbers. Mountaineers
have just a brief window each May in which it is possible to reach the summit.
The record for most ascents is held by Apa Sherpa, who has
conquered the world's highest peak 21 times.
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