Everest, the Dynamic Mountain: Stories of Lhakpa Sherpa
Feb 22
Virtual Event
Feb 22
Virtual Event| Monday, Feb. 22 | 7:00 PM | Register |
A short Q&A session will follow her talk.
Mount Everest stands as the tallest mountain in the world at 8,848.86 meters. Climbers rely on the native Sherpa people to 
carry equipment and guide climbs. This labor is increasingly hazardous as the global climate warms, unsettling the icepack and compressing the busy climbing season.
The Everest record-holder Lhakpa Sherpa started her own climbing career as one of these porters and, later, as a mountain guide. In 2000, she was the first Nepali woman to survive ascending and descending Mount Everest. She has now summited Everest a record nine times, the most of any woman in the world.
Famous male alpine mountain climbers often benefit from corporate endorsements that pay for everything from nutritionists to trainers to travel to equipment. Lhakpa has no such support. She must finance and train herself. Now living in the United States, she is the mother of two daughters and she has worked for nearly 20 years as a caregiver for the elderly, house cleaner, and dishwasher.
Lhakpa Sherpa, the world’s most accomplished female alpine mountain climber, has endurance, experience, and dreams. She supports her family; runs her own guiding business, Cloudscape Climbing; and she’s set her sights on returning to Everest and, then, to K2.
