Two Sherpas race for Everest record

The spring climbing season has begun on Mount Everest, and two friends are racing for a place in history as the man who scaled the world's highest mountain most often.

Appa Sherpa completed his eighth conquest of the 8,848-meter (29,028-foot) peak on April 26, accompanying two Indonesian climbers and three Russian mountaineers of the Indonesian Army Everest Expedition.

On the northern face of Everest in Tibet, the legendary Ang Rita was making an attempt to reach the summit for the eleventh time.

No non-Nepalese mountaineer has come close to that number of Everest climbs.

Both men are professional mountain guides, members of the Sherpa tribe from Nepal who live at the foot of the Himalayas. The Sherpas gained world attention when Tenzing Norgay conquered Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary for the first time in 1953.

Despite objections from his wife, Appa says he's determined to catch up with Ang Rita. Twelve years younger than the 49-year-old Ang Rita, Appa has a good chance to overtake his longtime idol. "I want to climb Everest at least six more times and set a record for me and the Nepalese people,'' he said in an interview.

Before leaving Kathmandu in March, Ang Rita indicated he was close to retirement. I want to be there once again,'' said the man whom many Sherpas reverently call the Snow Leopard.

The two Sherpas live in neighboring villages near Thame, an area so high that visitors find it difficult to breathe.

Appa first climbed the mountain in 1989 with a New Zealand team led by veteran climber Rob Hall, who died on Everest last year.

Appa also has climbed the 8,201-meter (27,060 foot) Mount Cho Oyu.

Ang Rita first climbed Everest in 1983 with a German-American Everest expedition. He has scaled peaks above 8,000 meters (26,400 feet) over 20 times.

Appa began climbing to supplement the meagre income his family gets from potato farming, the main source of livelihood for most Sherpas before Nepal opened its borders to tourism in 1950.

"My wife always discourages me every time I leave home to make my climbs. But she knows the mountain gods will take care of me and safely bring me back to my family,'' Appa said. Each expedition begins with prayers to the mountain gods, he said.

"The most important factor for any climber is to have self-confidence and determination, along with proper planning,'' he said.

"The first couple of times, I was scared and feared for my life. But as I made more climbs of Everest, I got more experience and now I have the route in the back of my head.''

Appa gets $1,400 for guiding an expedition to the top of the world. He covers his own expenses and equipment. It's unlikely anyone could make the ascent more than twice in one year, since the climbing seasons are brief and even professionals need rest between climbs.

The recent Everest ascent was his most difficult, he said. As the first team up to the summit this year, the Indonesian expedition had to affix the climbing ropes that will be left for others to use, and wade through waist-deep snow. The weather was still severe and the surface was slippery, he said.

During his climb, he said, he saw the bodies of climbers killed in previous attempts, some of them from the disastrous 1996 season when a dozen mountaineers died.

UNI