She Climbed Everest 10 Times, Washed Dishes, And Is Going Back For More

Lhakpa Sherpa has summited Mount Everest more times than any other woman in history. Ten times, to be exact. Let that satisfying number sink in. Yet, despite being a bona fide legend of high-altitude climbing, her name probably isn't one you'd recognize at a dinner party.

Because apparently, that's where we are now: the most accomplished female Everest climber ever also spent time working in a Connecticut grocery store, washing dishes, and raising two daughters. The mountain, it turns out, pays exactly nothing.

Born in a small Nepalese village, Lhakpa’s childhood was basically one long, immersive climbing course. The Himalayas weren't a backdrop; they were the neighborhood. She learned by doing, not by attending some fancy mountaineering school. Which, if you think about it, is both incredibly practical and slightly terrifying.

The Unsung Queen of the Sky

Her first Everest summit was in 2000, kicking off a two-decade-long relationship with the world's highest peak. Each trip demanded the kind of physical and mental fortitude most of us reserve for trying to assemble IKEA furniture. Freezing temperatures, air so thin it makes your brain feel like it's running on dial-up, and a mountain that changes its mind faster than a toddler — she's seen it all.

But Lhakpa's story isn't just about record-breaking ascents. It's about the stark contrast between her monumental achievements and her daily grind back home. While others who've touched the summit become global celebrities, Lhakpa was quietly working to keep food on the table.

Her journey also includes surviving an abusive marriage while training for some of the planet's most dangerous expeditions. These are the kinds of struggles that rarely make it into the glossy adventure magazines, but for Lhakpa, they were as much a part of the fight as the mountain itself.

Her quiet determination finally got some much-deserved spotlight in the documentary 'Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa', which followed her tenth expedition. The film peeled back the romanticized layers of Everest climbing to reveal the working mother, the survivor, and the absolute force of nature who just keeps going back.

Lhakpa's story also shines a light on the often-uncredited Sherpa climbers, who are the literal backbone of Himalayan expeditions. They guide, they carry, they make it all possible, while others get the glory. Her record-smashing presence is a powerful correction to that imbalance.

Now, at 50, Lhakpa Sherpa is training for her eleventh attempt. Most people consider one Everest summit a lifetime achievement. For her, it's just home. Not because it’s easy, but because some connections run deeper than fame or fortune. And that, really, is a summit worth celebrating.