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MP Mingma David Sherpa Hoists Federal Parliament Logo atop Mt. Everest
KATHMANDU, May 25: Member of the House of Representatives and world-renowned mountaineer, Mingma David Sherpa, has successfully scaled the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest. Embarking on the expedition with the core slogan "From Parliament to the Peak," MP Sherpa successfully stepped onto the summit of Mt. Everest at 5:40 AM today. During the ascent, he made history by hoisting the official logo of Nepal’s Federal Parliament (House of Representatives) at the highest point on Earth. This marks the first historic occasion in Nepal's parliamentary history where a sitting Member of Parliament has successfully scaled Mt. Everest carrying the parliament's logo.
MP Sherpa, who has elevated the dignity of the parliament to the highest peak, is an established and globally acclaimed name in the field of mountaineering. With today’s historic ascent, he has now stood atop Mt. Everest 8 times, and overall, he has completed 33 successful ascents of peaks above 8,000 meters. At just 30 years old, he had set a Guinness World Record as the youngest person in the world to successfully climb all 14 of the world's highest mountains above 8,000 meters. Sherpa, who climbed nine mountains as part of fellow record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal Purja's famous 'Project Possible' campaign, is known not only as a climber but also as a highly skilled rescuer. He has saved numerous lives by performing daring long-line helicopter rescues in Mt. Everest's highly perilous 'Death Zone' and on Mt. Dhaulagiri.
Mingma David’s name is prominently linked with K2, the world's second-highest and technically most challenging mountain, where he has set unique and rare records. He is the only climber in the world to reach the summit of K2—often called the 'Savage Mountain'—the highest number of times, with 6 successful ascents. He was also part of the Nepali team that made history by achieving the first-ever winter ascent of K2 in 2021. While a K2 ascent typically takes 4 to 5 days, he completed the climb from base camp to the summit in just 14 hours and 20 minutes, a feat achieved during a season when he broke records by climbing K2 twice in a single season. However, the record for the fastest K2 climb stands at 12 hours and 20 minutes, held by Nepal's Chhiring Sherpa. Demonstrating immense maturity, Mingma David has also aborted his climbs three times during the spring season on K2 due to adverse weather and conditions—a mountain notorious for the chilling statistic that one in every four climbers perishes.
A Journey of Hardship, Personal Loss, and Resilience
His adventurous journey, which began on Mt. Everest in 2010, is filled with numerous ups and downs, rigorous struggles, and profound personal losses. In 2014, a devastating avalanche at the Khumbu Icefall of Mt. Everest claimed the life of his mentor, Dorje Khatri, who had taught him climbing. Later, during the mega-earthquake and subsequent avalanche of 2015, he lost close friends right at the base camp.
Disturbed by these consecutive tragedies, he had once contemplated leaving the mountaineering field altogether; however, his deep-rooted passion for the mountains drove him to persevere.
In his personal life, he also faced an unimaginable tragedy when he lost his brother, Karsang Tenzing Sherpa, in a devastating fire at his own office in Kathmandu. Having closely understood the unpredictable weather and technical complexities of the mountains, MP Mingma David Sherpa believes that knowing when to abort a climb and return safely is just as important an art as reaching the summit. He now plans to utilize this very Himalayan experience at the policy-making level of the country.
