Nepal’s 18-year-old Nima Rinji Sherpa has become the youngest climber ever to scale each of the 14 tallest mountains (over 8,000 metres) in the world with his successful summit of Mt Shishapangma in China.
Nima and his partner Pasang Nurbu Sherpa reached the summit of the Shishapangma, which stands at 8,027 metres above sea level, shortly after 6:00am (China Standard Time), which is 3.30am in IST, on Wednesday, the youngster announced on his Instagram page.
“Today, as I stand atop my 14th 8000-metre peak, I dedicate this world record to my project, #SherpaPower,” he posted.
“This summit is not just the culmination of my personal journey, but a tribute to every Sherpa who has ever dared to dream beyond the traditional boundaries set for us. Mountaineering is more than labor; it is a testament to our strength, resilience, and passion.”
Nima said he wants to show the younger generation of Sherpas that they can rise above the “stereotype of being only support climbers”.
“We are not just guides; we are trailblazers. Let this be a call to every Sherpa to see the dignity in our work, the power in our heritage, and the limitless possibilities in our future,” he said.
Hailing from a family of mountaineers, Nima began his quest to scale each of the 14 tallest peaks in the world at the age of 16 and 162 days when he reached the top of Mt Manaslu (8163m) in September 2022.
It was his passion for photography of the mountains that brought Nima into climbing but it soon turned out to be a passion for him to tell the story of the Sherpa community. “Slowly, I realised, the Sherpas, my community, we have always been in the shadows and all the international athletes that you see, no one is from Sherpa community (in the front), but we are always the ones backing them up,” he told PTI in an interview.
“We’re always carrying their equipment, carrying their food, the load, fixing the ropes, looking after the weather condition, looking after their safety, looking for the rescue things.”
“All those things are being looked after by us, but our names are always somewhere down the line. That’s when I decided (that) I want to climb more for this, for my community more, rather than for myself,” said Nima, who prefers to go without oxygen support for the first 7,000 metres.
The biggest achievement for the young mountaineer came when he scaled Mt Everest (8848.86m) and Mt Lhotse (8516m) in a span of a mere 10 hours when he was a little over 17 years in May 2023.
