A few weeks back I posted about Lakpa Rita Sherpa and his quest to become the first Sherpa to climb all of the Seven Summits. At the time, Lakpa was preparing to fly off to Africa to take on Kilimanjaro, the final mountain still on his list. Last Friday, he reached the summit, and achieved that goal.
According to his Climb Africa Blog Lakpa, and is friend Joe Puryear, reached the rooftop of Africa at 6:20 AM local time, amidst perfect weather, affording them a great view of the savannah below as the sun rose over Tanzania. On Saturday morning, Feb. 14th, they completed their descent of the mountain and were relaxing back in Arusha. The climbers went up the Machame Route, one of the more challenging, but picturesque trails to the top. They completed the climb in just five days. The blog promises more photos soon, but has a higher resolution version of the one included with this post of Lakpa at Uhuru Peak.
Congratulations to Lakpa and Joe on a job well done, and double congrats to Lakpa for wrapping up all of the Seven Summits. It took awhile to reach the goal (Lakpa topped out on Everest, the first of his seven summits, back in 1990), but it is now complete. An already very impressive, and extensive, climbing resume just got even more impressive.
And be sure to check out Sherpa Adventure Gear, for some very cool outdoor products. Lakpa is one of their sponsored athletes/ambassadors and provides insight on gear design.
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Seen a new product called a jompy boiler I think it would be a great thing on the mountain! Instant hot clean water over a cooking fire at the same time as cooking! It's being trialed in Nepal at the moment. Weight only 600grams