Nepali mountaineer Lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest for a world record 11th time, extending her lead as the woman with the most ascents of the world’s highest peak. The 52-year-old reached the 8,848.86-metre summit at 9:30 a.m. local time Sunday after leaving camp four overnight. She was guiding a client at the time of the ascent.

Born in Nepal’s Sankhuwasabha district in the Makalu region, Sherpa first summited Everest on May 18, 2000, becoming the first Nepali woman to reach the summit and survive. That climb was part of the Nepali Women Millennium Expedition organized through Asian Trekking. Sherpa has since built one of the most accomplished high-altitude climbing records in history. Her Everest summits came in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 and now 2026.

Her life and climbing career were documented in the 2023 Netflix documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, directed by Lucy Walker – watch the trailer below. The film chronicled her first 10 Everest ascents and helped popularize her nickname, “Mountain Queen.” The documentary later won the grand prize at the 2024 Kendal Mountain Festival International Film Competition.

Lhakpa Sherpa also climbed K2 in July 2023, adding the world’s second-highest mountain to her resume after an earlier failed K2 attempt in 2010. In 2015, she turned back from an Everest expedition following the Nepal earthquakes and deadly avalanches in the Himalayas. Sherpa was named to BBC 100 Women in 2016 and received India’s Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2023.

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Mountain Queen Trailer