On 16 May 2018, at age 48, Kami Rita became the first person in the world to climb Everest 22 times, achieving the record of the most summits on the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak. In April of the year, he told the news media that he planned to scale Everest 25 times before retirement, not just for myself but for my family, the Sherpa people and for my country, Nepal.