Nepalese Woman Scales Mount Everest Twice In Eight Days

A Nepalese woman is the first woman to scale Mount Everest twice in one season. She made her second summit just days after her first.

The woman, Chhurim, 29, reached the 29,028-feet peak on May 12 last year. She returned to base camp for a short rest before repeating the ascension just one week later.

The female climber hails from Nepal’s eastern hills, reports The Global Post. She stated of her accomplishment:

“I am very happy for this recognition. I was determined that the record should be held by a Nepalese woman and I’m proud to be one.”

The first woman to scale the mountain was another Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu. She successfully summited in 1993, but died on the descent. Since her, 21 Nepalese women have successfully scaled the world’s tallest woman, but no female climber had reached the peak twice in one season.

Chhurim was honored for her achievement in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, where she was handed her official record certificate. The climber, like most Sherpas, uses just one name. The Associated Press notes that the ambitious climber is nowhere near done with her accomplishments.

Chhurim stated that there aren’t many women mountaineers and only a few of them hold records. She added:

“The male mountaineers have set many records but women have fallen behind. It can be difficult for women because they are considered not as strong as men and face many problems like finding toilets.”

Mount Everest has been climbed by more than 4,000 people since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first summited in 1953. Women are just a small number of them. The climbing season on the world’s tallest mountain is just a few weeks every year, because of extremely harsh weather conditions.

Spring is the most popular season and climbers usually journey to the mountain in March or April. They stay for a few weeks to get used to the higher elevation and lower oxygen levels. The weather normally eases in May, allowing the climbers to line up for their trip up the mountain.

The harsh weather conditions on Mount Everest have claimed more than 100 lives over the years. Many of those climbers died from avalanches or ice storms, but others have died from hypothermia, falls, and high-altitude sickness. Twenty-seven simply disappeared.

While Chhurim has received the Guinness World Record for the first woman climber to scale Mount Everest in one season, the Sherpa is not done yet. She plans to continue her mountaineering adventures and hopes to scale more mountains before she is done.