Last member of the first successful Everest expedition dies
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Mr Kancha Sherpa was a member of the 1953 Mount Everest expedition which placed Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary on the summit of the world's highest mountain.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
KATHMANDU - The last surviving member of the first mountaineering expedition to successfully reach the summit of Mount Everest died in Kathmandu on Oct 16, aged 92, his family said.
Mr Kanchha Sherpa was a teenager when he accompanied the historic 1953 team led by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who became the first mountaineers to reach the peak of the world’s highest mountain.
The cause of Mr Kanchha Sherpa’s death early on the morning of Oct 16 was not clear.
“He had been unwell for a few days,” his grandson, Mr Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, told AFP.
Born in 1933, Mr Kanchha Sherpa was 19 when he joined the expedition as a porter despite no prior mountaineering experience.
He undertook the arduous trek, lasting more than two weeks, to Mount Everest’s Base Camp, carrying food, tents and equipment, before climbing to an altitude of more than 8,000m close to the peak.
“He was a living legend and an inspiration for all in mountaineering and those working in the industry,” said Mr Fur Gelje Sherpa, the president of Nepal’s mountaineering association. “We’ve lost our guardian.”
Mr Kanchha Sherpa worked in the Himalayan mountains for two more decades after the expedition until his wife asked him to stop the dangerous journeys after many of his friends died assisting other climbing treks, his family said. AFP
