Nepali Women Everest Summiteers

Mount Everest (8,848m) in Nepal was conquered for the first time by a member of the fairer sex when Junko Tabei (born September 22, 1939) from Japan reached the summit via the South-East Ridge route on May 16, 1975. The diminutive Tabei, standing not taller than 5 ft, and a mother of two children, on top of the world’s highest mountain standing tall at 29,028ft—a dramatic feat indeed!  Tabei went on to be the first woman to have climbed the summits of the highest peaks on all seven continents in 1992. Her feats have inspired many women, includes a number of Nepali women, to follow suit. Till date, the number of women to have set foot on Mount Everest is about 90y and these include some brave Nepali women as well, some of whom are mentioned below.

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa (born Dec 10, 1961) became only the 17th woman and the first Nepali woman to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak on April 22, 1993. Five Sherpas, Sonam Tshering, Lhakpa Noru, Pemba Dorje and Dawa Tashi accompanied her; Sonam fell fatally ill at the south summit and died. The weather turned so bad on their way down that Pasang too lost her life on the south summit and her body was recovered 21 days later just 72 meters below the mountaintop.

Pemba Doma Sherpa, as leader of the “Millennium Everest Expedition”, became the first Nepali woman to climb Mount Everest via its north face in 2000. She also became only the second woman to summit from both the north and south faces. Having achieved her sixth ascent in 2007, she holds the record for most successful attempts by any woman. However, while descending Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest peak. her life met a tragic end when she fell from a height of 8,000 metres.

Ming Kipa Sherpa climbed Everest on May 24, 2003 from the Tibetan side and in doing so, she became the world’s youngest person to have ever achieved this feat. Her climbing from the Tibetan side was due to the fact that the Nepal government did not allow climbers less than 16 years of age to climb Everest. Her sister Lhakpa Chiri and her 24-year-old brother Mingma Gyalu, were also part of the expedition.

Lhakpa Chiri climbed Everest thrice, twice from the Tibetan side, and once from the southern side and thus went down in the record books as the only woman to climb Everest thrice. Her first was on May 18, 2000 as a member of the first all Sherpa women expedition. She conquered Everest again the following year, at the age of 29. She ascended the summit for the third time on May 22, 2003, 50 years after the first conquest of Everest by the Tenzing and Hillary.

Moni Mulepati is the first non-Sherpa NepalI woman to summit Everest on May 30, 2005. She married her climbing partner Pemba Dorjee Sherpa and so also became the first woman to be married on the summit! She was 24 years old then while her husband was 23.

Maya Sherpa has not only climbed Everest twice, but has also climbed numerous other challenging peaks such as Ama Dablam 6,812 m, Pumori 7,112 m, Cho Oyu 8,211 m and Khan Tengri 7,010 m. She summited Everest from the north and south sides.

The ‘First Inclusive Women Sagarmatha Expedition 2008 Spring’ (FIWSE) was assembled in 2008, by Pemba Dorje Sherpa (who holds the record for climbing Everest in eight hours) to. Ten women, aged between 17 and 30, from various ethnicities and backgrounds were included in the expedition. They included: Sushmita Maskey (28), Shailee Basnet (25) Asha Kumari Singh Chaudhary (25), Chunu Shrestha (27), Nima Doma Sherpa (17), Pema Diki Sherpa (22), Pujan Acharya (25), Maya Gurung (28), Ngabhang Phuti Sherpa (33), and Usha Bist (24). They reached the summit of Mount Everest in May, 2008. Since then, other Nepali women climbers too have succeeded in reaching the peak of the highest mountain on earth, and in the process they too have become brave conquerors of Mount Everest.