KATHMANDU (AP) – A Sherpa guide who climbed the world’s 14 tallest mountains in record time is eyeing another record, looking to become the youngest person to scale all those peaks twice.
Tenjen Sherpa, 35, and Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, 37, shattered the record for the fastest climb of the 14 mountains over 8,000 metres high when they topped Mount K2 in Pakistan late last month. The previous record was 189 days, and the pair did it in 92 days.
Instead of taking a long break, Tenjen intends to start working toward his new goal by joining an expedition to scale Mount Shishapangma in China within the next couple of months.
“I have already done (it) once and I want to double it,” he told The Associated Press in Kathmandu on Wednesday. “It is now my new target to be the youngest to scale these peaks twice.”
The only other climber to have completed a second round of the 14 peaks is Sanu Sherpa, who is now 48 years old.
Tenjen has already climbed seven of the mountains twice and needs to scale the remaining seven again to reach his new goal.
Tenjen only started climbing the world’s “eight-thousanders” in 2016, when he scaled Nepal’s Mount Dhaulagiri. He has since made several such climbs a year, including four ascents of Mount Everest.
He and his three brothers hold a record as the most siblings to have climbed Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-tallest mountain. Mount Everest and K2 are the world’s tallest and second-tallest.
