Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Veteran Sherpa guide Kami Rita, who returned from the mountains on a helicopter, arrives at the airport in Kathmandu. PA

Sherpa guide breaks own record scaling Mount Everest for 26th time

Kami Rita, whose father was among the first Sherpa guides, first scaled Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since.

An experienced Nepalese Sherpa guide has scaled Mount Everest for the 26th time, breaking his own record for the most climbs of the world’s highest peak, expedition organisers said.

Kami Rita reached the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) summit on Saturday evening, leading a group of Sherpa climbers who fixed ropes along the route so that hundreds of other climbers and guides can make their way to the top of the mountain later this month.

Rita and ten other Sherpa guides reached the summit without any problems and had safely returned to lower camps, said Mingma Sherpa, of the Kathmandu-based Seven Summit Treks.

The group reached the summit at around 7pm local time on Saturday, which by Everest climbing standards is late.

At night, there is a risk of weather conditions deteriorating and climbers losing their way on the way down.

Rita said the guides were all highly experienced climbers.

There are hundreds of foreign climbers and an equal number of Sherpa guides who will attempt to climb Everest this month.

May is the best month to climb Everest since it has the best weather conditions.

There are generally only a couple of windows for good weather on the highest section of the mountain in May that enable climbers to reach the summit.

Rita, 52, first scaled Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since then.

He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success of the foreign climbers who head to Nepal each year seeking to stand on top of the mountain.

His father was among the first Sherpa guides, and Rita followed in his footsteps and then some.

In addition to his 26 times to the top of Everest, Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

View 16 comments
Close
16 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SeekingUniverslTruth
    Favourite SeekingUniverslTruth
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:41 AM

    ” People still take English classes in US high schools up to senior year”

    eh. don;t we do that here?

    113
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Owen Slattery
    Favourite Owen Slattery
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:33 AM

    Albeit with an emphasis on shite poetry

    72
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Downey
    Favourite Stephen Downey
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 10:50 AM

    Not really, by Leaving Cert you are not learning to speak and write English, you are studying the English language.
    In the US with huge diversity of cultures, English remains a barrier to some. In fact if I’m not mistaken, there are more people in the US who identify Spanish as their first language than any other language.

    Interesting article, might give some insight to those who think Irish is dead and why so many still support it.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul FitzGerald
    Favourite Paul FitzGerald
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:08 AM

    You never really “get” a language until you live in a country that speaks it. The grammatical nuances, the regional accents, but above all the slang.

    After 10 years learning classroom French, the first conversation I had in France started with “avez-vous du fue?” ….do I have fire? Am I on fire? I was utterly unable to figure out what was going on. (I was being asked for a light for a cigarette!)

    I think we place too much emphasis on the classroom environment, rather than just doing conversational stuff. I was fortunate enough to go to Italy for six months years ago and all I got was a few lessons before hand and was thrown into a working Italian environment. I learnt pretty quickly as I had to. My limited Italian mightn’t be grammatically perfect, but on a practical level it’s pretty good at a spoken level.

    I’m currently trying to learn Portuguese, but the area I go to in the Algarve has the Portuguese equivalent of a Kerry accent. You won’t find it in a book, you have to learn it the hard way with the locals pissing themselves laughing at your pronunciation.

    83
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor Gallagher
    Favourite Conor Gallagher
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:58 AM

    Language as a part of one’s identity, that makes sense…Perhaps it properly explains why a minority of Irish people boast about knowing no Irish after 14 years of it being “rammed down their throats” but then correct a polish person who mispronounces a word when they learn a few phrases as gaeilge (many non Anglophones are multilingualists and enjoy learning a language for the sake of learning, even if it is outside the top 200 languages in the world.).

    81
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john stewart
    Favourite john stewart
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:21 AM

    Tir gan teanga, Tir gan anam

    61
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Kubik
    Favourite Chris Kubik
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:34 AM

    I’m native German but was always very good at English. I’ve been living in Ireland for 8 years now, married to an Irish woman. My second language has now become my first and I tend to struggle with my German these days.

    59
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall O Dochartaigh
    Favourite Niall O Dochartaigh
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:44 AM

    I can speak,Irish, English and Swedish,does this make me a Cunning Lingquist or is that just a slip of the tongue ?

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lily Signoret
    Favourite Lily Signoret
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:05 AM

    I’m French but speak English fluently, and have spent the last 10 years in different English-speaking countries (I’m 30). I always found English easy to learn and improve, easier to play around with than French. Speaking English has definitely helped built the person I am today. It just suits me as a language and I love writing in English. I’m ashamed to say I sometimes struggle finding my words in French… But French is such a beautiful language, the imagery can be breathtaking, and I still get moved listening to songs or readings books in my native language.

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
    Favourite Ciaran De Bhal
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:10 AM

    Many people would be better off learning their first language correctly before attempting a second.

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O Sullivan
    Favourite John O Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 12:30 PM

    Maybe learn a 2nd language first, and then revisit your opinion.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
    Favourite Ciaran De Bhal
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 1:15 PM

    Have done. Four languages in total. French, Spanish, Irish as well as English.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark Sweetman
    Favourite Mark Sweetman
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:53 AM

    Ja naturlich!

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Catherine Sims
    Favourite Catherine Sims
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 10:18 AM

    I have always thought I would be terrible at languages. Learning French at school was a nightmare. The teacher was either drunk or severely hung over. It wasn’t uncommon to get hit by the books she threw at the students when she wanted their attention. It’s soured me for sure. Then in her late thirties my sister decided to do a degree in German . She had no previous experience of the language and had the same teachers as I had in secondary school. I thought she was crazy but not only did she complete it she did fantastically well. I am actually thinking of trying to learn a language again now as a result. Maybe not French but Spanish or German.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SeekingUniverslTruth
    Favourite SeekingUniverslTruth
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:44 AM

    Sounds like the makings of a tribunal

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Fagan
    Favourite Michael Fagan
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:54 AM

    Learning a second language is easy, when your living in a country where the second language is all around you TV, radio, newspapers,public signposts, etc,
    just travel around Europe, almost everyone speaks English to visitors, and their own language among themselves,
    Businessmen say they get a great advantage in international negotiating, with side remarks in their own language
    Such a pity that the people of Ireland (in general) don’t know how to speak their own language

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nibbler Dibbler
    Favourite Nibbler Dibbler
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 4:11 PM

    Met an elderly gentleman in Denmark suffering from dementia. In his native tongue he could not remember anything not even if I had said yes when he offered me tea or coffee. However, remembering that he could speak excellent English when I had first met him ten years earlier, I switched the conversation into English. Amazing to discover that the dementia was gone and he was completely normal when using his second language!

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Stafford
    Favourite John Stafford
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2014, 3:42 PM

    Learning a language is all about repetition and trying not be lethargic. Simple

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amy Wallis
    Favourite Amy Wallis
    Report
    Aug 6th 2014, 10:40 AM

    I don’t agree with learning a language changes you as a person, your identity. If you’re learning in the country of the language (ie a foreign country) then you most likely – hopefully! – will grow and change, but not because of the language itself, but because of the experiences you have, something which has been happening to is all our lives to make us who we are today. Those experiences of living in a different country (or even simply the experiences had in a language class in your own country) send you down a different path than not doing so would, because it’s something new and strange, and you do new and differen things, meet new and different people. I would be a completely different person today, and would think of myself in a different way had I never moved to Italy, and stayed in Ireland.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fatima Anwar
    Favourite Fatima Anwar
    Report
    Oct 5th 2014, 2:48 PM

    English language learning classes or learn English as a second language is now easier for ESL students with the help of online integrated English course

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Konrad Bobrzecki
    Favourite Konrad Bobrzecki
    Report
    Dec 14th 2014, 10:42 AM

    Not that long time ago I’ve tried http://www.bellsenglishonline.com/ ,since I’m not a beginner I started with Intermidiate package of their process,just to see if it will give me anything.Whole course is very intuitive and enjoyable.I think Bellsenglishonline is a worthwhile addition to anything else you might be using for your English learning.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds