KATHMANDU: Lakpa Sherpa, the man the mountaineering world knows simply as Makalu Lakpa, has done it again. At 5:00 am on Saturday, he stood on the summit of Mt. Makalu (8,485m) for the ninth time — extending his own world record for the most ascents of the fifth highest mountain on earth. 

But this summit is more than a personal milestone: it is the second leg of an extraordinary three-peak spring campaign that began on Annapurna I and is now pointing toward Everest.

The Makalu summit was reached by a Seven Summit Treks expedition comprising three members and seven Sherpas. German climber Johannss Lau and Pakistani mountaineer Sajid Ali Sadpara stood on the summit alongside the Sherpa team, which included Mohan Singh Tamang. 

In the same expedition, two Ukrainian climbers Igor Kushnir and Oksana Kushnir along with six Nepali Sherpa climbers Makalu Lakpa Sherpa, Dawa Sange Sherpa, Lakpa Temba Sherpa, Pema Chhombi Sherpa, Ang Demba Sherpa, and Pem Dorchi Sherpa summited Mt Makalu (8463 m), around 05:00 this morning NPT, according to the expedition organiser 14 peaks expedition.

The team is now descending to Base Camp, SST said.

Three peaks, one spring

Less than two weeks earlier, on April 18, Lakpa had stood on top of Annapurna I (8,091m) as part of a 14 Peaks Expeditions team — the eighth eight-thousander on his personal list and a summit that set this extraordinary spring campaign in motion. 

With Annapurna and now Makalu behind him, he has turned his focus to Mt. Everest, which he aims to complete within the same season. If successful, Lakpa will have summited three eight-thousanders in a matter of weeks — a feat that places him among the most active high-altitude climbers in the world right now.

His eight-thousander record currently stands at Makalu nine times, Manaslu four times, Lhotse three times, Cho Oyu twice, and Everest, Dhaulagiri, Kangchenjunga, and Annapurna once each — eight of the world's fourteen eight-thousanders in total. Having summited all of Nepal's 8,000-metre peaks, only summits in China and Pakistan stand between him and the complete set of fourteen.

Beyond the eight-thousanders, Lakpa has summited Ama Dablam seven times and a range of other technical peaks including Putha Hiunchuli and Himlung Himal. He has completed more than 22 expeditions above 8,000 metres and over ten on peaks between 6,000 and 7,000 metres.

The man and his mountain

For Lakpa, the ninth summit of Makalu is the latest chapter in a life story that began not on a mountain but in its shadow. He was born on November 27, 1986, in Walung, a small village in Sankhuwasabha district — the same district where Makalu rises. As a child, he herded yaks and cattle in the high alpine meadows above the village, with the mountain always on the horizon. He did not know then that it would one day carry his name.

His entry into mountaineering came at fifteen, as a porter for a French trekking party heading to Makalu Base Camp. The experience was gruelling — inadequate food, physical strain, and the indignities of the lowest rung of the expedition hierarchy. "I remember crying alone for days," he has recalled. "But even in that immaturity, I knew I couldn't quit."

His first 8,000-metre summit came in 2010, on Manaslu, as a climbing Sherpa for a South Korean team. He joined Seven Summit Treks — founded by his maternal uncle Mingma Sherpa — in 2011, and worked his way steadily up from climbing Sherpa to climbing guide to expedition leader and rope-fixing team chief. Makalu came in 2016, when SST assigned him to guide an American climber on the peak where he had grown up — and he has returned every season since.

The Guinness Record

The defining moment of his Makalu career came in spring 2022, when he climbed the mountain three times in just sixteen days — including one ascent without supplemental oxygen — earning him a Guinness World Record. The feat was not without drama: on his first attempt that season, he was swept 300 metres down an ice slope before arresting his fall and rescuing fellow climber Ang Tenji, who had fallen alongside him. A second attempt ended just 50 metres below the summit, turned back by high jet winds and insufficient fixed rope. Only on the third push did the record fall. "If all had gone well, I might have summited five times," he reflected. "But Ang Tenji was saved, and his life matters more than any number of times of the climb."

Beyond Makalu

This spring campaign follows an equally active autumn 2025 season, in which Lakpa led the rope-fixing operation on Mt. Dhaulagiri I (8,167m) for a joint Seven Summit Treks and 14 Peaks Expedition team, opening the route for the season's climbers on September 27. That operation underscored his dual identity — not just as a record-breaking summit climber but as one of the Himalaya's most trusted high-altitude route openers, a man whose fixed ropes other climbers stake their lives on.

"This is my mountain," he has said of Makalu. "I belong to her."

To the younger generation of Nepali climbers, he offers both inspiration and caution: "Climb only if you truly respect and love the mountains. If you think it's an easy way to make money, rethink — the mountains never forgive incompetence. Safety must always come first."

Nine summits on Makalu. Eight eight-thousanders complete. Everest still ahead. And the spring season is not yet done.