A 42-year-old woman born in Nepal has climbed Mount Everest for the seventh time, breaking her own record for the most summits of the world's highest mountain by any woman.
Lhakpa Sherpa, who works in a 7-Eleven store in Connecticut, US, reached the 8850-metre peak from the Tibetan side, said Rajiv Shrestha of the 7 Summits Adventure company that organised her expedition.
"She has broken her own record," Shrestha said on Friday. She was accompanied to the top by a Nepali guide.
Three hours later, eight members of a Russian team and eight of guides also climbed from the same northern route, he said.
Lhakpa Sherpa, one of the 11 children of a Nepali family, was born in eastern Sankhuwasabha district where the world's fifth highest mountain, Makalu, is located.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
She climbed Everest six times between 2000 and 2006 before moving to the US where she is a permanent resident, The Associated Press reported.
Two other Sherpa climbers share between them a record for 21 ascents of Everest, the maximum climbs by men.
More than 330 climbers have climbed Everest from the Nepali side this month after expeditions were forced off the world's tallest peak by last year's devastating earthquake that killed at least 18 people at Base Camp.
In total, 9000 people were killed across Nepal in the 7.8 magnitude quake, the worst disaster in the country's recorded history.
