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Lhakpa Sherpa

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Lhakpa Sherpa
Personal information
Birth nameLhakpa Sherpa
Main disciplineSherpa & Mountaineer
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Makalu, Nepal
NationalityNepali
Career
Starting disciplinePorter
Notable ascentsEverest summit: 10
Family
SpouseGheorghe Dijmărescu (Divorced)
Children3

Lhakpa Sherpa (Nepali: Lakhpa Sherpa; born 1973)[1] is a Nepali Sherpa mountain climber. She has climbed Mount Everest ten times, the most of any woman in the world.[2][3] Her record-breaking tenth climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financed via a crowd-funding campaign.[4] In 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to climb and descend Everest successfully. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[5]

Early life

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Lhakpa Sherpa was born in a cave in the region, and had no formal education.[2] She grew up in Balakharka, a village in the Makalu, Nepal region of the Himalayas.[6][7] She is one of 11 children, and is a single mother of two daughters and a son herself.[8][2] Since in Nepal, only boys were allowed to go to school, she carried her brother two hours to school and back.

Career

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In 2000 she was the leader of an expedition sponsored by Asian Trekking.[6] On May 18, 2000 she became the first Nepali woman to summit Mount Everest and survive (see also Pasang Lhamu Sherpa).[6][7] This climb was with the Nepali Women Millennium Expedition.[9]

In 2003, the U.S. PBS noted that she had summited Mount Everest three times, the most for a woman.[10] In May 2003 she reached the summit with her sister and brother; Ming Kipa and Mingma Gelu.[11]

By 2007 Lhakpa Sherpa had summited Everest six times since 1999 and her husband summited nine.[12] That year they hosted a presentation about their 2007 Everest trip, with donations taken for Quaker Lane Cooperative Nursery School.[12] Gheorghe and Lhakpa summited Mount Everest five times together.[13]

In 2016 she summited Mount Everest from Tibet (China), making her seventh summit.[14] The president of Mount Everest Summiteers' Association, a Nepali woman and high-altitude worker Maya Sherpa also summited, but from Nepal.[14] Maya Sherpa is another record-setting Nepali woman, and she has also summited K2.[14]

Climbing career achievements

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Everest summitings:

  1. 2000[15]
  2. 2001[13]
  3. 2003[13][10]
  4. 2004[13][16]
  5. 2005[13][17]
  6. 2006[13][18]
  7. 2016[19][14]
  8. 2017[20][1]
  9. 2018[3]
  10. 2022[4]

K2 Summits:

  1. 2023 July 27th [21]

Additional expeditions:

In 2016, she was listed among the BBC's 100 most inspirational and influential women. On 24 April 2023 Lhakpa won India's prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure award. She has also received sponsorship to climb K2.

Personal life

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Lhakpa is named for the day of the week she was born on (Wednesday).[13] Although born in Nepal, she is now a U.S. resident and works at various jobs and takes care of her three children.[13] She has worked at the U.S. store 7 Eleven.[22][13] She worked at Whole Foods Market.[23][24]

However, in interviews she noted her desire for the mountain, a condition previously seen in such climbers as George Mallory and Yuichiro Miura according to U.K. media outlet The Daily Telegraph.[25]

She has two daughters and one son,[22] and was married to Gheorghe Dijmărescu, a Romanian-American, for 12 years.[22] They met in 2000 in Kathmandu, Nepal and got married in 2002.[15][13] After marriage, she left her permanent residence in Nepal and moved to US where Gheorghe worked in construction. Gheorghe was abusive throughout their marriage, pulling and screaming at his 5 year old daughter. In 2008 Gheorghe got cancer.[25] In 2012 when Dijmărescu became violent, and beat Lhakpa Sherpa to the point she was taken to the emergency room; a hospital social worker placed her and her two girls in a local shelter where they stayed for eight months.[24]

In 2016, she began again receiving recognition in various news arenas as the woman with the most Everest summitings, and completed her seventh summit that year.[13][19]

Family and relationships

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Her little sister Ming reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 22, 2003 when she was 15 years old (she climbed with Lhakpa and Gelu),[11] thus becoming the youngest person known to have summited Mount Everest (see also Temba Tsheri and Jordan Romero).[26][27] Her brother is Mingma Gelu Sherpa and is noted to have reached the summit of Mount Everest eight times by 2016.[22][13] The BBC noted that when three of them reached the summit together in 2003, that was the first group of three siblings on the summit at the same time, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.[9]

On the 2004 Connecticut Everest Expedition her then-husband Dijmărescu struck Lhakpa.[28] According to Michael Kodas, a journalist present during the expedition, Dijmărescu, "hook[ed] a blow with his right hand to the side of his wife's head."[28][29] This altercation "sparked a sort of media sensation in the mountaineering world".[9]

Media appearances

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Sherpa is the focus of Lucy Walker's 2024 documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa.[30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Nepali woman scales Mt Everest eight times breaking own record". The Himalayan Times. 2017. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Lhakpa Sherpa: Woman climbs Everest for record tenth time". BBC News. 12 May 2022. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Lhakpa Sherpa scales Mt Everest nine times breaking own record". The Himalayan Times. 16 May 2018. Archived from the original on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Nepali Female climber summits Mt Everest for 10th time". Mt Everest Today. 12 May 2022. Archived from the original on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  5. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 21 November 2016. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "Mt. Everest 2005: Lakpa Sherpa". Everest News. 18 May 2000. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  7. ^ a b Mayhew Bergman, Megan (31 October 2019). "She climbed Everest nine times and set a world record – so why doesn't she have sponsors?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Mt. Everest 2005: Lakpa Sherpa". Everest News. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d "I want to climb Everest 10 times". BBC News. 15 June 2016. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  10. ^ a b "Dreams of Chomolongma . Reaching for a Record". Frontline. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  11. ^ a b "Everest 2003: Romanian Mt. Everest Expedition North Side". Everest News. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  12. ^ a b "Everest Summiters Lakpa Sherpa and George Dijmarescu slide show/video presentation open to the public". Everest News. 18 May 2000. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Mt Everest's greatest female climber back for 7th ascent". Stuff. Archived from the original on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  14. ^ a b c d Pokhrel, Rajan (20 May 2016). "Two Nepali women atop Mt Everest as summit push continues". The Himalayan Times. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  15. ^ a b "About to scale peak a seventh time, Connecticut 7-Eleven clerk is Everest's greatest ever female climber". 16 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016.
  16. ^ "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". Himalayan Database. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  17. ^ "Himalayan Database – Spring 2005 Everest". Himalayan Database. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  18. ^ "as Ms. Lakpa/Lhakpa Sherpa (Tashigaon, Nepal)?". Himalayan Database. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  19. ^ a b "7-Eleven worker becomes first woman to climb Mount Everest seven times". Rawstory.com. 2016. Archived from the original on 20 May 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  20. ^ "Nepal woman breaks her own record for most Everest summits". The Hans India. 15 May 2017. Archived from the original on 16 May 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  21. ^ https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2023/08/01/k2-2023-coverage-sherpas-dominate-k2/ [bare URL]
  22. ^ a b c d e f Schaffer, Grayson (10 May 2016). "The Most Successful Female Everest Climber of All Time Is a Housekeeper in Hartford, Connecticut". Outside Online. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  23. ^ Potter, Steven (10 May 2022). "Lhakpa Sherpa: What I've Learned (UPDATED: Tenth Everest Summit)". Climbing. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  24. ^ a b Bhadra Sharma and Adam Skolnick, The Queen of Everest Trains While Working at Whole Foods, The New York Times, January 31, 2023; accessed February 8, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Henderson, Barney (15 May 2016). "Everest's greatest ever female climber: Lhakpa Sherpa - the unknown mountaineering hero who works in a 7-Eleven in Connecticut". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 August 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  26. ^ Glenday, Craig (2010), Guinness World Records 2010: Thousands of New Records in The Book of the Decade!, Bantam Books, p. 210, ISBN 978-0-553-59337-2, archived from the original on 21 January 2023, retrieved 22 July 2011
  27. ^ THT 10 years ago: Ming Kipa's record was happenstance' says sister, 2013, archived from the original on 22 February 2014, retrieved 28 May 2013
  28. ^ a b Kodas, Michael (5 February 2008). High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-1401302733.
  29. ^ "Breaking Mount Everest's Glass Ceiling". The Daily Beast. 2014. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  30. ^ James, Caryn (29 July 2024). "'Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa' Review: Netflix Doc Tells 10-Time Everest Climber's Inspiring Personal Story". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
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