Kami Rita Sherpa

Kami Rita Sherpa was born in Thame, a Sherpa village in the Khumbu region of Nepal that has produced generations of the guides and porters without whom commercial Everest climbing would not function. His father was among the first Sherpas to work as a high-altitude climbing guide, and Kami Rita followed him into the trade, first working as a porter and kitchen assistant on expeditions before training as a mountain guide himself.

He summited Everest for the first time in 1994 while working for a commercial expedition company, and kept returning nearly every climbing season afterward, fixing ropes, carrying oxygen and supplies, and shepherding paying clients to the top. By the mid 2020s he had reached the summit more than thirty times, breaking his own record most years he climbed, work that receives far less pay and far less recognition than it earns for the foreign clients whose names appear in the headlines instead.

The job has cost Sherpa guides disproportionately in lives, since they cross the most dangerous sections of the mountain repeatedly each season while clients pass through once. Kami Rita has spoken publicly about wanting better pay and safety conditions for Sherpa workers, even as he continues climbing well past the age most guides retire, because the income still outweighs the alternatives available to him at home.