KATHMANDU, Nepal — Ang Rita Sherpa, who earned global fame by climbing the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, 10 times without the use of supplemental oxygen, died on Monday at his daughter’s house in Kathmandu. His death was confirmed by his family and by Nepal’s mountaineering associations. Most climbers use supplemental oxygen when ascending peaks higher than 8,000 meters, an altitude mountaineers call the “death zone” because the air is so thin that the human body begins to shut down. Early in his career as a porter, and later as a mountain guide, Ang Rita noticed that he never felt the need for supplemental oxygen, even as he carried bottles of it for other mountaineers. He didn’t use it during his first ascent of Everest in 1983 or on his subsequent nine ascents, the last of which was in 1996.

Source: New York Times September 25, 2020 21:22 UTC