“Pushkar Shah has made it to the highest point on earth. He reached the top at 10:30 am today,” said Tilak Pandey, an official at the division. [break]
Shah, 42, reached the top with five members of his expedition. Apart from Shah´s expedition, three Korean expeditions and an Indian expedition also made it to the top on Monday marking the first ascents by expeditions of the 8,848-meter peaks this season since Nepali Sherpas reached the top and fixed the climbing ropes on May 5.
Shah, who cycled through 150 countries before ending his epic journey last year, headed to Mt Everest to place flags of all the countries he has cycled through atop the tallest peak in the world. It coulnd´t be immediately known whether he managed to take the flags to the top and hoist them there.
A nomad by choice, Shah set out in 1998 on a mission to pedal through 390,000 km on a bicycle gifted by the late Sir Edmund Hillary. But he managed to pedal through just 221,400 km, falling well short of his target.
Dolakha-born Shah learned cycling at the age of 21. Shah had nearly given up his dream to climb the world´s tallest peak after being unable to attract sponsors, until he finally found one.
Spaniard woman climbs 14 tallest peaks
In another highlight of this climbing season, Edurne Pasaban of Spain achieved her dream of conquering the world´s 14 tallest peaks on Monday when she successfully scaled the 8,027-meter Shisha Pangma mountain in Tibet.
The 37-year-old Spaniard, however, narrowly failed to become the first woman to achieve the feat. On April 27, South Korea´s Oh Eun-Sun achieved the feat by climbing the 8,091-meter Mt Annapurna, becoming the first woman to climb all the 14 highest peaks.
Pasaban set her feet on top of Shisha Pangma just before Monday noon.
Italy´s Reinhold became first person to climb all the 14 highest peaks, which he did in 1986. After him, several male climbers achieved the feat. But women climbers had not been able to do so until this year.
bikash@myrepublica.com
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