Lhakpa Sherpa has expressed her intention to keep climbing Mount Everest until she reaches the age of 80. The Nepalese mountaineer, known as the Mountain Queen, holds the record for the most summits of the peak by a woman. After completing her eleventh ascent, she reaffirmed her commitment to continue the pursuit as long as her health permits.
Sherpa taught herself mountaineering despite societal expectations that confined women to household duties. She once noted that she had climbed Everest while pregnant and later paused her ascents for nearly fifteen years to raise her children. In 2022 she returned for her tenth summit. Between expeditions she worked washing dishes and cleaning homes in the United States, taking any available jobs.
When asked by her daughters when she would stop, Sherpa replied that she wants to climb until eighty if she remains healthy. Born in a cave in a remote village more than thirteen thousand feet above sea level in eastern Nepal, she belongs to the Sherpa ethnic group. She recalled carrying her brothers to school on foot yet being denied entry because she was a girl. In 2003 she became the first woman to reach the summit three times, demonstrating persistence through difficult circumstances.
