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In this photograph taken on May 2, 2021, Nepal’s mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa poses for a picture during an interview with AFP at the Everest base camp in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, as Sherpa on May 7 reached the summit of Mount Everest for the 25th time, breaking his own record for most summits of the highest mountain in the world. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP) (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images)
Summiting Everest

Summiting Everest

In this photograph taken on May 2, 2021, Nepal’s mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa poses for a picture during an interview with AFP at the Everest base camp in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, as Sherpa on May 7 reached the summit of Mount Everest for the 25th time, breaking his own record for most summits of the highest mountain in the world. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP) (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images)

Two Sherpas compete for the most climbs

Two Nepali Sherpas are battling it out for the most extreme title on earth – who can climb Mount Everest most often. Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, has reached the 29,029-foot summit (not far below the cruising height of a jumbo jet) 27 times. Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, is on 28. Together, they’ve made four trips in the past two weeks, the NYT reports – an astounding feat of endurance. Many of the world’s most ambitious mountaineers would pay £50,000 to go up just once. Kami’s agency said he wanted to climb Everest 30 times before retiring. Pasang’s said he is determined to break Kami’s record. The two are said to be friends, although the same was true of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (who reached the summit within seconds of each other in 1953), and the Times has still managed to find an argument over who actually got there first.

Photograph Prakash Mathema/AFP via Getty Images