May 24, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21,1424

KATHMANDU, May 23: A Nepalese Sherpa climbed Everest on Friday in a record 12 hours 45 minutes, as Sir Edmund Hillary, who took weeks of painstaking toil with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa to be first to the summit 50 years ago, returned to Nepal in a wheelchair.

Pemba Dorje Sherpa summited in a time of 12 hours 45 minutes, smashing the previous record of 16 hours 56 minutes set in 2000 by legendary Sherpa Babu Chhiri who died after falling into a crevasse on Everest the following year.

The 39-year-old Dorje, making his 10th ascent of Everest, set out from Base Camp at 5pm on Thursday and climbed through the night, reaching the top at 5.45am on Friday.

Unlike Chhiri, Dorje used bottled oxygen from Everest’s South Col, the ministry said in a statement.

He wore his native Sherpa dress when he stood on the earth’s highest pinnacle.

Before returning “in high spirits” to South Col, Dorje placed a photograph of Nepalese King Gyanendra, Queen Komal and Crown Prince Paras on the summit, the statement said.

Dorje was followed half-an-hour later on to the summit by another member of his Belgium “Dream Everest 2003 Expedition” team, Da Tshri, 26, who had set out from South Col.

Also scaling the unforgiving mountain Friday were three other climbers, one each from France, Spain and the United States, the ministry said.

It named the three, who summited separately, as Patrick Berhault, 46, from La Trinite, France, Kevin Ira Vann, 44, from the United States, and Sergio Mingote, 32, a sports coach from Parets Valles in Spain.

At least 53 mountaineers summited on Thursday, the tourism ministry announced, revising an earlier figure of 41.

A total of 25 teams are hoping to conquer the world’s highest mountain to celebrate the historic first ascent by Tenzing and Hillary on May 29, 1953.

The famous pair, part of a large British expedition led by Colonel John Hunt, took almost two months to forge the route used by most climbers summiting via the Southeast Ridge, including newly-crowned speed record holder Dorje.

Massive celebrations are planned in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on May 29, during which all the successful summiteers will be awarded special medals by King Gyanendra.

Hillary, chief guest of honour — Tenzing died of natural causes in 1986 — arrived here Friday in a wheelchair.

Visibly tired, the 83-year-old New Zealander said he was “not feeling well”. “But I’m happy to be back in Kathmandu,” he added.

An assistant to Hillary said the climber was already fatigued after two days of ceremonies in his honour in neighbouring India and in Thailand, adding he was ill from drinking bad water in New Delhi.

The famed climber was driven immediately after arrival in Kathmandu to the office of the Hillary Himalayan Trust, a charity he founded to help the Sherpas, a Nepalese mountain people who are the often forgotten keys to success in climbing expeditions.

Hillary has raised money through the lecture circuit to fund projects aimed at aiding the Sherpas, including a school for Sherpa children and a hospital in the Mount Everest region.

Some 15,000 Sherpas work in the mountaineering industry, holding jobs ranging from cooks and kitchen staff to porters and high-altitude guides.

Nepal, which is heavily promoting the Everest golden jubilee, is due to give Hillary honorary citizenship. All successful climbers of the 8,848-metre (29,028 feet) peak will be awarded special medals by King Gyanendra. —AFP