SHERPA CLIMBS EVEREST FOR RECORD 23rd TIME

Sherpa climber Kami Rita scaled Mount Everest on Wednesday for a 23rd time, breaking his own record for the most successful ascents of the world’s highest peak. Rita, 49, first scaled Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year. The Sherpas are the ones who take care of setting up the camps, carrying the loads on their backs, cooking food and carrying oxygen tanks. It is Sherpas who each year fix ropes and ladders over crevasses and icefalls that make things safer for the hundreds of climbers who will follow them. They also take the picture of the rich SOB’s who make the summit. Rita said in an interview last month, “I know Mount Everest very well, having climbed it 22 times, but at the same time I know I may or may not come back. I am like a soldier who leaves behind their wives, children and family to battle for the pride of the country.”
* “Do you enjoy being a Sherpa?” “It has its ups and downs.”
* “What do you do each time you reach the top?” “Just chill.”
* He says he’d do it a 24th time, too, if he doesn’t find his water bottle he left up there last time.
* Guess what his favorite Disney animated movie is. C’mon – guess!
* I won’t even climb the stairs to the second floor if there’s an elevator.