Kathmandu, May 28: Age is not a barrier for those attempting to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, as this year's summiteers, aged between 15 and 70, have aptly displayed. While 70-year old Yuichiro Miura from Japan reached atop Everest from South Cole, Nepal's Minkipa Sherpa, 15, scaled the summit from the Tibetan side setting new world records as the oldest and youngest climbers respectively.
"I was afraid after I saw some 20 dead bodies, some of them women, on way to the Everest", the teenage Sherpa girl said in broken Nepali language said adding "we reached atop at 11 am (local time) on May 22, she said.
"The bodies look fresh, as if just died". Their eyes twinkle as if they are alive, when shown a torch light", said Minkipa, who hails from a poor family of Khandbari village development committee in Sankhuwasabha.
"I was a bit nervous while stepping towards the Everest summit with my sister", three-time summiteer Lhakpa Sherpa, who is Minkipa's sister, said.
"If the sherpas do not climb Everest then no tourist will come to Nepal", Lhakpa said.
Theirs is the only family where three brothers and sisters have climbed Everest. Minkipa's 24 year old brother Mingma Sherpa had also climbed Everest earlier.
The two sherpa sisters joined other summiteers this morning to plant trees at the International Mountaineers' Memorial Park in Kakani, 35 km north-west of Kathmandu.
Tourism minister Kuber Sharma, Nepal Mountaineers Association's Ang Tshering Sherpa and upper house member Yankila Sherpa were present on the occasion.
The park is dedicated to the climbers who lost their lives in the Himalayas while scaling the mountain.
Bureau Report