Lhakpa Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa (; born 1973) Her record-breaking 10th climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financed via a crowd-funding campaign. In 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to climb and descend Everest successfully. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.

Early life Lhakpa Sherpa was born in a cave one of 11 children, growing up in Balakharka, a village in the Makalu, Nepal region of the Himalayas. In Nepal, only boys were allowed to go to school. She carried her brother two hours to school and back. On May 18, 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to summit Mount Everest and survive (see also Pasang Lhamu Sherpa). In 2003, PBS noted that she had summited Mount Everest three times, the most for a woman. In May 2003 she reached the summit with her sister and brother; Ming Kipa and Mingma Gelu.

By 2007, Lhakpa Sherpa had summited Everest six times since 1999 and her husband summited nine. In 2007, they hosted a presentation about their 2007 Everest trip, with donations taken for Quaker Lane Cooperative Nursery School. In 2016 she summited Mount Everest from Tibet (China), making her seventh summit. Netflix made a documentary about her 10th summit, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, beginning with her moving to the U.S .to her tenth summit. The documentary later won the Grand Prize at the 2024 Kendal Mountain Festival's International Film Competition.

Climbing career achievements Everest summiting: 2000 2001 2005 2006 2016 2018 2022

Additional expeditions: Expedition to climb K2 in 2010, did not summit but made it to camp 3 before being turned back by bad weather. Expedition to Everest in 2015; made it to base camp in Tibet, but turned back by the Spring earthquakes in the Himalayas. On 24 April 2023 Lhakpa won India's prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure award. She has also received sponsorship to climb K2.

Personal life Lhakpa is named for the day of the week she was born on (Wednesday). She has two daughters, Sunny and Shiny, and one son, Nima, from a previous relationship.

One of the most notorious incidents occurred during the 2004 Connecticut Everest Expedition, when Dijmărescu assaulted Lhakpa in front of other climbers until she lost consciousness. Dijmărescu also threatened to harm the expedition members who published photographs and vlogs of the incident. According to Michael Kodas, a journalist who witnessed the altercation, Dijmărescu, "hook[ed] a blow with his right hand to the side of his wife's head." The outrage amongst the climbing community did not deter Dijmărescu, who had already gained a bad reputation among other expedition leaders for price gouging and scamming people for supplies.

In 2012, after Lhakpa had informed him that their food assistance card could not be used to purchase alcohol, Dijmărescu beat her so brutally that she had to be taken to the emergency room. A hospital social worker finally convinced her to stay in a local shelter with her daughters. Despite Dijmărescu's threats of killing her and the children if she tried to leave, she refused to return to their residence, and the marriage was dissolved in 2015, with Lhakpa being awarded sole custody of her daughters.

Relatives Her brother, Mingma Gelu Sherpa, had summited Mount Everest eight times by 2016.

Their summit in 2003 was the first group of three siblings on the summit at the same time, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.