Lhakpa Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa grew up in the Makalu region of Nepal in a large family, one of the few of her siblings, and fewer still among Sherpa women of her generation, who were actively discouraged from mountaineering, an activity treated at the time as men's work even within a community whose economy depended heavily on Sherpa climbing labour. She worked as a cook and porter on expeditions before pushing to climb herself.

In May 2000 she reached the summit of Everest as part of the first all-Nepali-women's expedition to do so, becoming the first Nepali woman to successfully climb and descend the mountain. She continued climbing over the following two decades, often self-funding expeditions on a tight budget while raising two daughters largely alone in the United States after leaving an abusive marriage, working low-paid jobs including as a dishwasher and in convenience stores to support her family between climbs.

Her climbing career received little of the sponsorship or media attention that male Everest record-holders typically attracted, despite her steadily extending her own record with each additional summit; she financed her tenth ascent, in 2022, substantially through a public crowdfunding campaign rather than corporate sponsorship, a telling contrast with how well-funded many male mountaineers' expeditions were by comparison.

She has continued climbing into her fifties, holding the record for the most Everest summits by a woman, a record built quietly over more than two decades of ordinary working life interspersed with extraordinary mountaineering.