Kancha Sherpa built bridges to the summit The last witness to the first Everest ascent dies at 92
Kancha Sherpa had paved the way to the summit with pine trees 72 years ago. Now the last living member of the first successful expedition to Mount Everest has died at the age of 92.
16.10.2025, 18:53
16.10.2025, 19:01
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The last living member of the first successful expedition to the summit of Mount Everest has died at the age of 92.
- His family announced the death of Kanchha Sherpa in Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Thursday.
- In 1953, he had accompanied the mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who were the first people to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain.
The last surviving participant of the historic Mount Everest expedition of 1953, Kancha Sherpa, is dead. 72 years after the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, Sherpa died at home in Kathmandu, according to his family. The Nepalese was 92 years old.
His grandson Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa told the German Press Agency in the Nepalese capital that he had recently had problems with his throat, but otherwise he had not had any major health problems for a person of his age until his death.
The New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Tenzing Norgay, who reached the summit on May 29, 1953, are considered to be the first climbers of Everest. Kancha Sherpa was one of 103 Sherpas who supported the British expedition on its way to the summit of the 8,849-metre-high mountain.
"Great loss for the mountaineering community"
His death is a great loss for the mountaineering community in Nepal, wrote the chairman of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Fur Gelje Sherpa, on social media. "His contribution to mountaineering and tourism is invaluable, and he helped popularize Nepal worldwide."
Kancha Sherpa was born in 1932 in Namche Bazaar in the Khumbu region of Nepal. He began his life as a mountaineer in his late teens after leaving home and coming to the Indian town of Darjeeling on the border with Nepal in search of work. There he met Tenzing Norgay, who helped him to take part in the Everest expedition.
Wooden bridge made of pine trees
In an interview with the Nepalese state news agency RSS, Kancha Sherpa once said that the team had used pine trees from Namche to build a wooden bridge in the notorious Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest before Hillary and Tenzing made their final attempt to the summit. The Khumbu Icefall is considered one of the most dangerous passages on the Nepalese side of the mountain due to its ice storms and crevasses above the base camp (5,364 meters).
Since the first ascent, mountaineering tourism has increased significantly. Every year, hundreds of climbers from all over the world are drawn to the summit of Mount Everest - some of them pay for the dangerous adventure with their lives.
