Kanchha Sherpa: Last Surviving Member of First Everest Summit Expedition Dies at 92

Oct 16, 2025 08:24 pm CST

Kanchha Sherpa, the final link to the historic 1953 Mount Everest expedition that saw the first successful summit of the world's highest peak, has passed away at 92. As a 19-year-old porter with no prior mountaineering experience, Sherpa climbed above 8,000 meters during the legendary expedition that launched modern Himalayan mountaineering and transformed Nepal's Everest region.