Kami Rita Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest for the incredible 28th times

Kami Rita Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest for the incredible 28th times breaking his own world record within a week.

Huge Congratulations to him.

Email: info@mounteverest-expedition.com

Luxury Service with Everest Expeditions Nepal

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Indian woman climber dies, Everest death toll reaches 7

 An Indian woman climber who fell ill at the Mt Everest base camp died in Lukla this morning.

According to Da Dendi Sherpa, Managing Director at Glacier Himalaya Treks, Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus breathed her last while undergoing treatment at Lukla-based hospital at around 5:13am.

The 59-year-old climber from Maharashtra, Mumbai was taken ill for over six days at the base camp. "She was forcibly airlifted to Lukla from the base camp yesterday evening," Sherpa said, adding that she often refused to leave the base camp saying she had to climb Mt Everest at any cost.

A meeting with the government liaison officers, police personnel and handling agency decided to take her to Lukla for further treatment, Sherpa said.

Suzanne reported that she was climbing with pacemaker but she couldn't move above the base camp. "She took more than six hours to reach the Crompton point," Sherpa recalled.

She had completed trekking in Everest Base Camp in May 2022. By attempting Everest, she aimed to be the Asia's first person on pacemaker and oldest Indian attempting Everest. She is a teacher in Government Primary School and promoted as Head in one of the largest School at Silvassa.

Indian embassy in Kathmandu as well the Department of Tourism have already been informed about the incident, he said, adding that efforts are underway to airlift her body to Kathmandu.

This season, Mt Everest witnessed seven deaths. Four Sherpa climbers, an American doctor and Moldova climber died in the last few weeks as hundreds of climbers headed for the summit push.

CNN Travel lists Upper Mustang Valley as must-visit destination in 2023

KATHMANDU, May 18: US-based Cable News Network (CNN) has picked Nepal’s Mustang Valley enriched with ancient Tibetan culture as a must-visit travel destination in 2023. Mustang, which lies in Gandaki Province of central Nepal (formerly western Nepal), is one of  the 23 places worldwide recommended by CNN Travel.

The number of both foreign and domestic tourists visiting Mustang by road and by air has picked up pace again after Covid-19 pandemic subsided along with favorable weather. Tourists travel across Beni, Tatopani, Lete, Kagbeni, Jomsom, Muktinath Temple, Lo-Manthang and Korala, a border crossing with China, to experience the unique landscape and cultural heritage of the region, especially Upper Mustang.

The best time to visit Mustang is during the months of spring (March, April, May) and Autumn (September, October, November). During this time, visitors get to witness the great landscape in relatively warm weather. This also allows visitors to take up tours and hikes in this area which would be difficult during the colder months.

Not only domestic but also foreign guests are eager to go to Mustang for pilgrimage, sightseeing and trekking in Upper Mustang, and to explore Tilicho lake as well as Saribung Pass. Mustang is equally famous for religious tourism because of the famous Muktinath Temple and Damodar Kunda. Nearby is a temple called Jwala Mai considered sacred and worshiped by both the Hindus and the Buddhists. An eternal blue flame keeps burning in the temple. Nearby, there are 108 sacred waterspouts (springs) where pilgrims take a ritual bath. Muktinath lies on the famous Annapurna Circuit trek visited by thousands of foreign trekkers every year. The trek starts from Besisahar and passes through Manang and Thorung La Pass via Muktinath to Jomsom.

In lower Mustang, one can visit Marpha village, which is famous for apple production, along with Marpha brandy and jams produced from local fruits like apples, peach and apricot. Due to its religious destination, Mustang has been able to attract a large number of Indian guests as well. In 2022, about 60,000 foreign guests including 50,000 Indians visited Mustang.

Mani Raj Lamicchane, director of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said, “As the CNN news portal is credible and reliable, getting Mustang featured in the list of CNN Travel under 17th rank and getting publicity is a huge credit for our country as a whole.”

He added, “To further strengthen tourism in Mustang, promotion of such a place is a must. We should inform the locals about the benefits of tourists. We should preserve the authenticity of culture and co-operate with relevant agencies and stakeholders.”

CNN reports that in addition to trekking, Mustang visitors can explore ancient villages and Buddhist monasteries. Also not to be missed, the man-made Mustang caves sit above the Gandaki River and are filled with 2,000-year-old Buddhist sculptures and paintings. Getting to the Mustang Valley is part of the adventure. Travelers will need to take a 25-minute flight from the capital Kathmandu to Pokhara then hop on another plane for a 20-minute journey to Jomsom. The views alone might make this option more pleasing to some than the alternative 12-hour drive from Kathmandu.

Dharma Raj Panthi, president of Gandaki chapter of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), the umbrella organization of trekking entrepreneurs, said, “Tourism entrepreneurs also often complain that foreign guests from third countries do not visit the place due to the lack of promotion. But it is good news that an international news agency has enlisted Mustang as a must-visit travel destination. It can be expected that this promotion will help to increase the number of visitors from third countries to Nepal in the near future.”

According to tourism entrepreneurs, Mustang being included among the 23 places that must be visited in 2023, will create a positive impact on tourism. They expect that the coverage by the world-famous news agency will help to increase the number of tourists visiting Nepal in the coming days as Mustang is included as a must-visit travel destination.

According to Ashok Subedi, conservation officer of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), Jomsom, a total of 60,000 foreign visitors visited Jomsom in 2022. Among them, about 50,000 were Indians and the rest were guests from third countries, Subedi said, adding that the number of Indian guests is large as they come to visit Muktinath.

Other travel destinations picked by CNN Travel include Poland; Western Australia, Liverpool, England; Charleston, South Carolina; Vilnius, Lithuania; Fiji; Manaus, Brazil; Thessaloniki, Greece; Rwanda; Gothenburg, Sweden; Rasal-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates; Laos; Gruyeres, Switzerland; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Bogota, Colombia; Tanzania, Cairo, Egypt; Naoshima, Japan; Belize; Oaxaca, Mexico; Ottawa, Canada and Uganda.

2 Nepali climbers barred from the 14-peak record, point the finger at white competitor and agent

Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa are upset. The two mountaineers had planned everything to go to China to climb Cho Oyu and Shishapangma to finish climbing all the 14 8,000-metre mountains. They were so close to their dream.

On April 4, the two received their visas to go to China and were ecstatic as they were finally going to complete their long-awaited dream. But their joy was short-lived as on April 6 as their agent told them their visas were cancelled by the embassy.

“They told us we could not go to China as we had recently been to Pakistan. During the interview, we clearly told the embassy we had been to Pakistan and they had no problem, but two days after getting our visas, our agent told us we could not go. It makes no sense,” says Dawa Ongju Sherpa.

Their agent, Climbalaya Treks & Expeditions, recently ran an expedition in Shishapangma during which a host of climbers reached the summit. Everyone that applied for visas through Climbalaya got their applications approved apart from two – Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa. Record-chasing Norwegian climber Kristin Harila also received her visa as she reached the summit of Shishapangma and is now one mountain away from climbing all 14 8000-ers.

But why? An investigation reveals Harila and Climbalaya might have played a role to make sure the two did not get visas to go to China.

The unhealthy competition

Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa claim this was a ploy not to let them climb as they too were going for the same record Harila was.

“This is what money can do. People are bringing politics into mountaineering and it is disgusting,” says Dawa Ongju, suspecting Climbalaya was bribed to bar them from getting their visa.

The Chinese Embassy in Nepal says their visas were cancelled as the two had withdrawn their applications before a decision. But Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa say they have not done so and say everything was dealt with by Climbalaya.

“China and Nepal are friendly neighbouring countries, we welcome all Nepali friends to visit China,” said an official from the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu.

“This is a disgusting act by the agent. We do not know if they took the money but this is politics of the highest level as they have stopped two of their own from getting this record,” Dawa Ongju says.

Harila denies playing a role in anything of this on a social media post while Climbalaya says the visa was cancelled by the embassy and not them.

“We don’t know why the embassy is saying that, but the embassy cancelled their (Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa) visa we did not withdraw it,” says Dawa Sherpa from Climbalaya.

8K Expeditions, the company the two work with, says they were sending the two of their best guides to China despite needing them to guide people on Everest.

“I understood why they wanted to go and I was looking forward to them climbing the two remaining mountains there. But, now, with details coming out, it is clear they were robbed of this opportunity,” says Lhakpa Sherpa, the founder of 8K Expeditions.

Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa’s passports were held by the agent until the day everyone left for China. The two had even asked for their passports but were told the papers were held by the embassy.

“When I told them I would go to the embassy, they asked me to come to their office and collect it. That is when I found out that they were trying to con us,” says Dawa Ongju who argues why would the two who were chasing 8,000-metre summits withdraw their applications.

The betrayal?

Over the past year, Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa have been through a lot. The two guided Harila to the summit of 12 of the 14 8,000-metre mountains. They did so in record time too as they only took 148 days and were only two mountains away from breaking the speed record held by Nirmal Purja Magar (Nimsdai).

But with China closing its mountains, they were left disappointed as the two, along with Harila, had to give up on their mission.

Following that, Harila jumped ships. While she said she was climbing to prove to the world how capable women were on the mountain, she also stated how she wanted to share the record with her two guides. However, after climbing Manaslu on September 23, 2022, things changed as she started to distance herself from Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa.

“I do not know what changed, but she suddenly cut contact. We had a verbal agreement to do it together but it seems words don’t mean anything anymore,” says Dawa Ongju.

Harila joined another company and tried to climb Cho Oyu from Nepal. But due to poor weather, she was not able to reach the summit both in autumn and winter.

That is why Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa say they feel betrayed as they say she did not communicate with them before going to Cho Oyu.

But Harila says she asked them to come, but the two say that is a lie.

“We treated her like a sister, then she betrayed us,” says Pasdawa.

They say they helped a novice climber become known throughout the world. They agree Harila is a strong woman and say that they believed in her and her mission and worked day and night to achieve it. 

“We did not care about us. We did not care about the dangers because we were chasing something historic together. But where did that get us? Nowhere,” says Pasdawa, who first climbed with Harila in 2021 when he guided her to the summit of Everest and Lhotse in 12 hours.

Both Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa Sherpa say their toughest test was K2 in 2022. There were many Nepali teams on the mountain, but with no one able to fix ropes to the summit, the two volunteered as they worked from 6 am to 11 pm to ensure they were able to summit the killer mountain.

“Both of us worked day and night to open routes on most of the mountains. We did it without thinking about our family back home and the dangers of life as we carried on the unthinkable task of carrying 35-40 kg of weight through ravines, crevasses, rock faces and death zones. It sucks that our dreams were left unfulfilled,” says Pasdawa Sherpa.

Dawa Ongju is just heartbroken. As a climber, he too wanted to climb all 14 8,000-ers. But now with politics being played on the highest level, he feels he will never trust anyone involved again.

“Everyone lied to us. Everyone cheated us. This is very unfair,” he says.

American doctor dies at Camp II on Everest

 KATHMANDU, MAY 2

An American climber died at Camp II on Mt Everest yesterday, expedition organizer said. According to Mohan Kafle, Manager at Beyul Adventure, Jonathan Sugarman, 69, died during his acclimatization rotation at Camp II. The Seattle-based medical doctor suddenly feeling unwell at camp II and breathed his last, according to Kafle. He was a part of the expedition handled by International Mountain Guides. Beyul Adventure has locally managed IMG expedition.Last year, Sugarman abandoned his climb from Camp III on Everest as he scaled Lobuche and Island peaks with IMG."Efforts are underway to airlift his body from camp II," Kafle said, adding that bad weather was hampering recovery efforts.The Harvard graduate earlier served as a Clinical Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington.The US Embassy in Kathmandu is also coordinating with Beyul and IMG to recover his body from the base camp, Sources said. This is the fourth death on Everest this season. Earlier, three Sherpa climbers died in an avalanche in the Khumbu icefall on May 12.