Kathmandu, Oct 19: Kanccha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the first successful Everest expedition team, passed away on Thursday morning at the age of 92, the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) confirmed.
According to NMA President Fur Gyalje Sherpa, Kanccha Sherpa died at his residence in Kapan, Kathmandu. He had been unwell for some time, and his passing marks the end of a historic chapter in mountaineering, Fur Gyalje Sherpa said. His cremation is scheduled for Monday.
Sherpa was part of the 35-member team that on May 29, 1953, helped New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay reach Everest’s 8,849-meter summit. Spending most of his life as a mountain guide, he was one of the three Sherpas who accompanied Hillary and Tenzing to the final camp just below the summit.
In a March 2024 interview, Kanccha revealed that he never stepped on the summit himself because his wife considered it too risky, and he also discouraged his children from becoming mountaineers.
Despite retirement, Kanccha Sherpa remained active in the mountaineering community and continued trekking to monasteries in the Everest region for religious ceremonies, according to NMA member Ang Chiring Sherpa.
Born in 1933 in Namche, near Everest, Kanccha grew up in a Sherpa community that relied mainly on potato farming and yak herding. In his youth, he traded potatoes in neighboring Tibet before moving to Darjeeling, India, where he received mountaineering training and worked with foreign climbers.
Starting his mountaineering career at 19, Kanccha remained active in expeditions until age 50. His opportunity to serve as a high-altitude porter for Hillary and Tenzing in 1953 came through his father’s friendship with Tenzing. He reached the final camp at 7,900 meters on the South Col and later supported other Everest climbs for years.
The routes Kanccha Sherpa helped establish from base camp to summit are still used by climbers today, with only the section from base camp through the unstable Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1 changing annually.
-People's News Monitoring Service