18-year-old Nepalese set to become youngest climber to scale world's 14 highest peaks

Le Shishapangma (8 027 mètres d’altitude) est le dernier des sommets qu’il manque à Nima Rinji Sherpa pour réaliser son exploit. picture alliance – Christoph Mohr

At just 18 years old, Nepalese Nima Rinji Sherpa is about to achieve a remarkable feat: he has only one more summit to reach, and he will be the youngest climber to have conquered all 14 mountains over 8,000 meters high.

After having climbed the 13 highest peaks in the world, Nima Rinji Sherpa will tackle the 14th, Shishapangma (8,027 m), located in Tibet, in September, if the Chinese authorities grant him a permit. Sherpa, who already has dozens of climbs under his belt, says he has made it his mission to “inspire a new generation and reinvent mountaineering”.

“I could die at any moment”

Conquering all fourteen “eight-thousanders” is considered the pinnacle of glory for a mountaineer. Italian Reinhold Messner was the first to accomplish this feat in 1986, and only about forty other climbers have successfully followed in his footsteps since. Many others have died trying.

All these mountains are located in Nepal, China, India and Pakistan, in the Himalayas and the neighboring Karakoram range. Reaching their summit requires venturing into the “death zone”, where low oxygen levels are fatal after a certain amount of time.“When I'm in the mountains, I can die at any moment”, says Nima Rinji Sherpa. “It makes me realize how important life is”, adds the young man, who explains that the mountain has taught him to remain calm in all circumstances.

A family d’alpinistes

"When I see an avalanche, when the weather is bad, when I witness an accident, I mentally convince myself not to hurry, not to feel nervous. I tell myself that these things are normal in the mountains. I think that helped me a lot", he says.

A member of the Sherpa people, the young climber was born into a family of great mountaineers. His uncle, Mingma Gyabu “David” Sherpa, is the current record holder for the youngest person to have climbed the 14 “eight-thousanders”. A feat he completed in 2019, at the age of 30.

His father, Tashi Sherpa, grew up in the remote Sankhuwasabha region and initially raised yaks before taking up mountaineering. The two brothers now run Nepal's largest mountain expedition company, Seven Summit Treks, and its subsidiary, 14 Peaks Expedition, which specializes in “eight-thousanders.”

The Messiah of Mountaineering

“I come from a privileged family“, admits Nima Rinji Sherpa. “But going to the mountains taught me what the test and true value of life is”. Raised in the capital Kathmandu, the young man was initially more attracted to football, and liked to walk in the mountains with his camera rather than tackle the peaks.

“My whole family is mountaineering. I have always lived close to mountaineering, expeditions. But I didn't want to become a mountaineer myself,” he said. But two years ago, he changed his mind and decided to follow in his father's footsteps. Since then, he has been racking up records.