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Mike Chan

Mount Everest, known to all, understood by few – including someone who has been up and down the treacherous peak almost 20 times.
More than 7,500 individuals have reached the top of the highest mountain on Earth since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953, and there have been more than 15,780 successful ascents, with climbers and guides returning for repeated attempts.
It has also claimed the lives of at least 346 people, which is the number since records began in the 1920s.
Among those who have scaled the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) giant multiple times is 18-time Everest summiteer Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, who was in Hong Kong this week for the premiere on Sunday of the Road To Everest documentary, which tells the story of Hong Kong climber Raj Gurung.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post at the premiere, Phurba, who has climbed with Gurung and features prominently in the film, admitted that he used to see climbing Mount Everest as only “a job”, but now says it is “a bit of everything”.












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“I was from the extremely remote Rolwaling village of Gaurishankar [mountain] in Dolakha, where we don’t have electricity, we don’t have internet and we don’t have good income sources,” the 37-year-old said. “We have no schools, and I have never been to one, but if I work in the mountains, it’s very easy to get money for me.
“Now I have my own company. I am leading my group. It’s kind of like my passion, hobby and business. It’s a mix of everything.”
The cost to climb Mount Everest ranges from the basic budget of US$30,000, or a little more than three times that to the more premium options. Ultra-luxury tours could start at US$150,000 and go up to 10 times the basic cost.
Those numbers cover mandatory government permits and fees, including a climbing permit and garbage deposit, gear and logistics, flights, insurance, and of course Sherpa summit bonuses and tips.
Born to Chhiring Nurbu Sherpa and Kimjung Sherpa, Phurba is one of 12 children in the family, and he said mountaineering was almost like a “family thing” for him, though only his siblings did it.
“My father was a farmer; he took care of yaks and sheep and never climbed any mountains,” he said. “That’s why my father had many children: eight sons and four daughters.”
The big group of brothers and sisters to date are holders of two Guinness World Records.
Four of them have climbed Kanchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world at 8,586m, at the same time, in May 2019; eight siblings – six brothers and two sisters – have reached the top of the world’s highest mountain during their work as trekkers, guides and porters, as of May 2021.
Three other siblings – Pasang Futi Sherpa, Lhapa Diki Sherpa and Sonam Temba Sherpa – have yet to climb, but Phurba’s elder brother, Nima Gyalzen Sherpa, who is a 14-peak conqueror and has summited Mount Everest 11 times, said any further records are unlikely as his siblings “do not climb; they are monks and Lamas and stay at home”.

Widely considered to be a mountaineering legend of his generation, Phurba also held a record of his own among a list of other impressive achievements.
“When I was 24 years old, I had already climbed Everest nine times; that was my record: the youngest person to climb many times,” he said. “I also had two ascents from the China side in 2007 when I was 17; that was my first time, and I did it two times within 10 days.
“I had another two ascents in three days in 2008, and two ascents without supplementary oxygen in 2017.
“I feel so strong at the Everest summit, and I told my mum after my third time: ‘Now I am strong enough, I can earn my money, I can allow myself to make a living [climbing]’.”
While Phurba is a renowned mountaineer of Nepal today, he admitted to having had days when he wondered why people would even want to climb Mount Everest.
“I was so shocked as to why people are coming here and losing their money, wasting their lives, you know? Why are they coming here?” said Phurba, who is now chief executive of Dreamers Destination Treks and Expedition.
“Because there was nothing on the summit. If you are lucky, maybe you can see a little bit of the view. But why are the people coming? That was the question for myself.
“But everybody comes for a dream; some people come for records, some come for other things. Now, I feel very happy when I am on the summit, because I am not going by myself but with my clients, and I help fulfil their dreams.”
Phurba, who started his mountaineering career as a porter at 15, also said reaching the top of a mountain “makes me happy” and that he felt “bored” when staying in Kathmandu and not climbing a mountain.
“I have to go to the mountains myself; actually I just got back from Europe. I did Mont Blanc and Matterhorn – one of the biggest, most difficult mountains in France and Switzerland,” he said. “I did two mountain summits within three days, and I just got back to Nepal yesterday, and the same night I flew here to Hong Kong.”
Although he sees climbing as his way of living, the mountains have not always been friendly, at least not to his family, or those surrounding him.
In 2006, he lost his brother Phurba Thundu in an avalanche on Mount Pumori.
“I promised myself, my sister and my mum I would never go to the mountains. I never wanted to go to the mountains again,” Phurba said. “But I broke my promise after one year.
“I went to my Rolwaling Valley, which is 4,200 metres high. Then after one year, I came back again to Kathmandu and again I went to Mount Everest.”
In 2015, the Mount Everest avalanches, which were triggered by a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake on April 25, struck Everest Base Camp and killed at least 24 people, among them Phurba’s brother-in-law.
Last year, he lost three more close Sherpa team members in a devastating avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri.
Phurba shared his thoughts on social media in November, saying: “I have been climbing all my life – this is the only thing I know. We mountaineers live constantly with life on one side and death on the other.
“I know it is dangerous. I know we all have to die sooner or later. I know … I know! But how do I accept how fragile life is – that my brothers are not with me any more?”
Still, there is unlikely to be anything that would stop Phurba from climbing mountains at all.

“I like to travel! I earn money in Nepal and spend it travelling in Europe, the United States and Asia,” he said. “My wife [Rojita Buddhacharya] lives in America; she’s studying for her PhD at Howard University in Washington.
“She’s doing astrophysics research and will be going to the moon in the future! She’s also an Everest summiteer and a science journalist too.”
Phurba even has his 19th summit of Mount Everest planned and scheduled for next year, but he said there was never a number in his mind. Kami Rita Sherpa, from Nepal, currently holds the record for reaching the summit the most times – 32 – with his most recent one on May 17.
“I don’t have exactly this kind of goal, how many times, this and that,” he said. “I keep climbing because there are many people interested in climbing with me, so I continue.
“Next year I want to climb again to lead the group. People have different dreams – some want to climb Everest, some specifically want to climb with me.”


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Phurba Tenjing Sherpa (right) with elder brother Nima Gyalzen Sherpa at the Hong Kong premiere of the Road To Everest documentary at Sunbean Whampoa Cinema on Sunday. Photo: Edmond So

The ‘Road To Everest’ documentary tells the story of Hong Kong climber Raj Gurung. Photo: Edmond So

More than 7,500 people have reached the top of Mount Everest since 1953. Photo: AFP

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Part of a record-breaking mountaineering family, Phurba says reaching a peak ‘makes me happy’ and now enjoys sharing that joy with others


Part of a record-breaking mountaineering family, Phurba says reaching a peak ‘makes me happy’ and now enjoys sharing that joy with others.


Mount Everest

For Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, climbing Everest now a way to help others ‘fulfil their dreams’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Part of a record-breaking mountaineering family, Phurba says reaching a peak ‘makes me happy’ and now enjoys sharing that joy with others

Part of a record-breaking mountaineering family, Phurba says reaching a peak ‘makes me happy’ and now enjoys sharing that joy with others