Ang Rita, Everest record-breaker, dies at 72

Ang Rita Sherpa, a Nepalese mountaineer, who became the first in the world to break the record for climbing Mount Everest 10 times without bottled oxygen, has died at 72.

According to BBC, the mountain climber’s family, who broke the news of his death on Monday, said he breathed his last in the capital of Kathmandu after suffering brain and liver-related ailments.

In 2017, Guinness World Records (GWR) recognised Ang Rita as the only person to have climbed Mount Everest 10 times without bottled oxygen, between 1983 and 1996 and the record still stands.

The deceased had also achieved the first winter climb of the 8,848m (29,028ft) mountain without supplementary oxygen in 1987, with his skill at climbing earning him the nickname ‘Snow Leopard’.

While Nepal’s tourism department acknowledged his contribution to mountaineering, it was said that the body of the deceased has been moved to a monastery in Kathmandu ahead of cremation.

“He was as active as snow leopards on the mountains and it was unique,” Ang Teshring Sherpa, his colleague and an ex-president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, was quoted as saying.

“That was why the mountaineering fraternity decided to accord him with this title [of Snow Leopard] as an honour.”

The demise of Ang Rita. We learnt a lot from you about mountains and daring. https://t.co/3iIT1wwOhh

— Kanak Mani Dixit (@KanakManiDixit) September 21, 2020

Kanak Mani Dixit, a Nepal-based publisher and editor, wrote: “We learnt a lot from you about mountains and daring.”