A Nepalese girl has broken the world history for the youngest rock man to summit Earth’s 14 largest mountains.
Nima Rinji Sherpa, 18, stood atop Tibet’s Mount Shishapangma at about 6:05 am native day on Wednesday.
In doing so, he became the latest of just a few dozen people to have scaled all of the world’s “eight-thousanders ”- the 14 mountains that the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation ( UIAA ) recognises as more than 8,000 metres above sea level.
Sherpa, who started climbing high-altitude hills at the age of 16, summited all eight-thousanders in 740 time.
He reached the peak of Nepal’s Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest hills, on 30th September, 2022- shortly after finishing his tenth-grade higher school test.
On each walk the young sportsman was accompanied by his climbing lover, Pasang Nurbu Sherpa.
The record-shattering rise on Wednesday marked the latest in a long list of plaudits for Nima Rinji, who is also the world’s youngest man to include scaled Himalayan peaks G1 and G2; the youngest man to include scaled Kashmir’s Nanga Parbat; and the youngest man to have scaled both Mount Everest and near Lhotse within 10 days.
Standing atop Mount Shishapangma on Wednesday night, though, another life passion was top of mind for the 18-year-old: to undermine the notion of Sherpas as mere assistants who help international climbers on their ascents.
” This mountain is not just the pinnacle of my personal quest, but a gift to every Sherpa who has ever dared to dream beyond the traditional boundaries set for us,” Nima Rinji said on Wednesday, shortly after scaling Mount Shishapangma.
” Mountaineering is more than workers, it is a bible to our strength, endurance and love. “
Although the term ‘ Sherpa’ is commonly used to describe someone who is a rock manual or porter working in the Mountain area, it is in fact the name of an ethnic group of people who live in the mountains of Nepal.
Nima Rinji said he wants to show to younger generation of Sherpas that they can “rise above the notion of being merely assist climbing and accept their potential as top-tier sports, adventurers, and creators. “
” We are not just guidelines; we are pioneers,” he said on Wednesday. ” Let this be a visit to every Sherpa to see the integrity in our job, the energy in our history, and the limitless choices in our potential. “
Nima Rinji comes from a community of record-holding climbers, who now run Seven Summit Treks: Nepal’s largest mountaineering expedition business, and the party with whom he completed the Mount Shishapangma walk.
Speaking to the BBC immediately after the document had been set, his parents, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, recounted the time he delivered the news via satellite telephone.
” He told me ,’Dad, I reached the summit at 6:05 Chinese time. ‘ My partner Pasang Norbu and I have arrived’,” Tashi Lakpa recalled.
” Being highly trained and professional, he was n’t even thrilled; it was typical. “
” I said’ I had faith in you. Returning securely’. “
Harry Gurung, Director of Adventure Tourism and Mountaineering Branch under Nepal’s Department of Tourism, confirmed to the BBC that Nima Rinji had set the record.
“The peak has been confirmed this day. Then I understand that there is a matter of giving a license after returning to the bottom tent,” he said.
The previous record holder for the youngest mountaineer to scale all eight-thousanders was also a Nepali climber, Mingma Gyabu ‘David ’ Sherpa, who achieved it at the age of 30 in 2019.
” This report is difficult to break today,” Gurung noted.
All 14 eight-thousanders are located in Asia, in the Himalayan and Karakoram amounts.