West Hartford Woman Completes Record-Breaking Mount Everest Climb

WEST HARTFORD, CT — West Hartford resident Lhakpa Sherpa recently climbed Mount Everest for the 10th time — breaking her own record as the most successful female climber of the peak, the Associated Press reported.

The climber completed the hike early Thursday morning, and her brother told the Associated Press that she was doing well and was in the process of descending from the peak.

Before her record-breaking climb, she last scaled Mount Everest in 2018, the BBC reported. She has held the record since May 2016, according to Fox 61.

But Sherpa, who never received a formal education, has said her greatest accomplishment was her first climb of the world's highest mountain.

"When I became the first Nepali women to summit Everest and survive, it opened the door for all Nepali women to understand that the outdoors are not just for men, and that women do not have to stay home," she said upon being named a member of Malta House of Care's Wonder Women Class of 2019.

Sherpa currently lives in West Hartford and works as a dishwasher at the Bishops Corner Whole Foods, Fox 61 said. But she was born in a cave and grew up "right next to Everest" in the Makalu region of eastern Nepal, the BBC reported.

"I could see it from my home," she told the BBC. "Everest continues to inspire and excite me."