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| Kathmandu, Saturday May 24, 2003 Jestha 10, 2060. |
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Another record tumbles on Everest
25 year-old sets speed record
By Satyendra Timilsina
KATHMANDU, May 23:Pemba Dorjee Sherpa of Beding, Dolakha, set
a new speed-climbing record on Mt Everest Friday, climbing the world’s highest peak
in a record 12 hours and 45 minutes. This was the 25 year-old’s third successful
ascent of Everest.
With this success, he has improved the record
of late Babu Chhiri Sherpa by 4 hours 11 minutes. Babu Chhiri had scaled Mount Everest in
2001 in 16 hours and 56 minutes.
Confirming the fastest ascent to Everest, the
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said that Dorjee left from the Base Camp
at 5 p.m. on May 22 and attained the feat at 5:45 a.m. the next morning. Speed records are
traditionally measured in the time taken between Base Camp and the summit.
Pemba Dorjee was one of the members of
"Dream Everest 2003 Expedition" which also included three French and four
Nepalese, who were all successful in reaching the summit of Everest. .
"It’s amazing," says Ken
Noguchi, 29, a Japanese summiteer, who became the youngest Japanese to scale Everest in
1999. "Most of the climbers take three to four days to reach Everest from the Base
Camp, and therefore this is an extraordinary achievement."
Noguchi should know about achievements since
he too hold the record of being the youngest climber to scale the highest peaks in all
seven continents. He added, Pemba had earlier claimed that he would climb Everest in 14
hours 30 minutes, but managed the feat in less time.
Explaining how it was possible, Ang Tshering
Sherpa, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), said that the
arrangements were made in such a way that there was no time loss during the expedition.
"We had readied escorting associates in
each of the camps above the Base Camp," he said adding that Pemba spent some time in
Camp 2 and Camp 4. According to him, a Sherpa escort was ready in Camp 2 and two more in
Camp 4 to assist Pemba Dorjee.
The NMA president said that though
remarkable, the record could be broken again. "I cannot claim that this record in
unbreakable," he said, recalling what he had said when Babu Chhiri Sherpa set the
record two years ago. "I had said then the record can’t be broken again, but I
was totally wrong."
Others who climbed Everest today include Gary
Guller, 36, a disabled from Texas, USA. He was accompanied by Kevin Ira Vann, 44, and four
other Nepalese Sherpas in the ‘Team Everest 2003’ expedition. According to the
Ministry reports, a total of 52 climbers with 10 expeditions had climbed the world’s
tallest peak on Thursday. Among them eight were Japanese, four Irish and four Indians, two
Americans, one climber each from Italy, Spain, and Great Britain and the rest from Nepal.
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