# Apa Sherpa's Everest Summits

**Type:** work
**Status:** Draft
**Confidence:** Medium
**Tier:** C*
**Focus:** mountaineering, Everest, Sherpa guides, altitude records, retirement
**Domain:** culture-place
**Era:** first summit 1990; record-setting career through 2011; retired after 21st ascent May 2011
**Primary Location:** Thame, Nepal
**Utah Location:** Draper, UT
**Region:** Draper
**Updated:** 2026-08-11
**Pull:** *Twenty-one summits of Everest — a record Apa Sherpa held until Kami Rita Sherpa passed it in 2018 — then a deliberate stop at 21 because his family asked.*

## Summary

Apa Sherpa (Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa) is a Nepalese mountaineer who **summited Mount Everest 21 times**, reaching his **21st summit in May 2011** on the Eco Everest Expedition and **retiring** afterward on a promise to his wife to stop at that number ([Wikipedia reference capture](wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md)). He **first summited in 1990**; his **last summit was in 2011**.

That count was a world record for most Everest ascents until **Kami Rita Sherpa broke it in 2018** with a 22nd climb ([Wikipedia reference capture](wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md)). As of **May 22, 2024**, Kami Rita held the record at **30 summits**, with Pasang Dawa at **27** ([NBC/AP](nbc-kami-rita-everest-record-2024.md)). Apa's foundation site still calls him **"the greatest climber in the history of Mount Everest"** — a superlative the organization's own homepage does not quantify ([official site](apa-sherpa-foundation-official-website.md)).

Per wiki placement rules, this is a **work** page about the achievement, not a biography of a Utah operator. Apa's live Utah node is the [Apa Sherpa Foundation](apa-sherpa-foundation.md).

## Impact

Twenty-one successful ascents of the world's highest peak over two decades is an extreme concentration of high-altitude work. The record mattered because Everest commercial climbing depends on Sherpa labor — fixing rope, carrying loads, guiding clients — and Apa became the public face of that repetition.

The record is **past tense**. Readers looking for who holds it now should use [NBC/AP, May 2024](nbc-kami-rita-everest-record-2024.md) (Kami Rita, 30) rather than repeat a stale superlative.

## What It Took

Apa was born in **Thame** in Nepal's Everest region, left school after his father's death, and worked as a **porter** before his first summit opportunity in **1990** ([Wikipedia reference capture](wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md)). He reached the summit in all but two years from 1990 through 2011, summiting twice in 1992.

Stopping at 21 was explicit: *"Everyone says 21 is a good number. I have to make my family happy."* ([Wikipedia reference capture](wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md)).

## Utah Context

Apa's family **moved to the United States in December 2006** and **lives in Draper, Utah** ([Wikipedia reference capture](wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md)). That residence connects Utah to the story after retirement; the climbs themselves happened in Nepal.

He founded the [Apa Sherpa Foundation](apa-sherpa-foundation.md) (April 2009 per Wikipedia; IRS exemption 2012) to fund education in Nepal so young Sherpas have alternatives to climbing and portering — a motivation quoted on Wikipedia and aligned with, but not verbatim on, the foundation's captured site pages.

## Open Questions

- **Primary news capture for the 21st summit** — Wikipedia cites contemporaneous 2011 reporting (Forbes, Himalayan Times, Tribune) that were not captured here because live fetches failed or returned errors. The 21-count rests on a reference-tier capture, not a contemporaneous news artifact in this corpus.
- **Whether Draper remains Apa's residence** in 2026 — only the Wikipedia capture is cited.
- **Exact date in May 2011** for the 21st summit is not in the captured excerpts.

## Evidence

- [Source: Wikipedia — Apa Sherpa](wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/wikipedia-apa-sherpa-reference.md · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apa_Sherpa
- [Source: NBC News — Kami Rita Sherpa Everest Record (2024)](nbc-kami-rita-everest-record-2024.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/nbc-kami-rita-everest-record-2024.md · https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sherpa-guide-kami-rita-climbs-mount-everest-record-30th-time-rcna153456
- [Source: Apa Sherpa Foundation Official Website](apa-sherpa-foundation-official-website.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/apa-sherpa-foundation-official-website.md · https://www.apasherpafoundation.org/ — self-reported superlative only

## See Also

- [Apa Sherpa Foundation](apa-sherpa-foundation.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/apa-sherpa-foundation.md