KATHMANDU: A division bench of justices Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Dambar Bahadur Shahi yesterday issued a verdict to quash the government decision, saying that Pemba Dorje Sherpa of Rolwaling, Dolakha failed to produce the substantial proof to authenticate his claim of climbing the world’s highest peak in eight hours and 10 minutes on 21 May 2004. The apex court issued an order for the annulment of the fastest Mt Everest ascent maintained in the name of Pemba Dorje in the government record after another climber Lakpa Gelu Sherpa who also claimed the summit record with a time of 10 hours and 56 minutes in 2003, challenged Pemba Dorje’s 2004 ascent to be the fastest Mt Everest climber. The Guinness World Records had also awarded Sherpa with the certificate of the fastest climber after ‘thoroughly verifying’ his claims in 2004. “I am not aware of the SC order,” Sherpa, who had climbed Mt Everest along with another record holder climber Apa Sherpa in 2004, reacted. Petitioner Lakpa Gelu, who is now in US, was not available for comment. It is almost certain that the Sherpa mountaineer will be formally stripped of his title of the world’s fastest Mt Everest summitteer anytime soon. “The Department of Tourism will act as per the court ruling,” DOT’s director general Dinesh Bhattarai said, “The DoT has not formally received the court order.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRBxMvm49-M
The SC also found that the mountaineering division under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation issued a summit certificate to Sherpa without verifying the necessary evidences as per the Tourism Act and the Mountaineering Regulation. A Sherpa climber who holds the Guinness World Record in the Mt Everest climbing for 13 years is all set to lose his title after the Supreme Court invalidated the claims which he submitted to the government authorities while obtaining a summit certificate.
“Now, Lakpa Gelu holds the world record of the fastest Everest summiteer,” According to Khojindra Prasad Ghimire, who was present on behalf of Sherpa before the court, said. Sherpa had filed a case at SC against MoCTCA, Pemba Dorje and two others in December, 2013. The summit time is generally counted once a climber leaves from the base camp for the summit and back. Many veteran climbers considered that climbing Mt Everest in 8 or 10 hours was a mere joke. There were no liaison officer’s report as well as the photographic evidence which showed that Sherpa was at the top of Mt Everest within the stated timeframe, SC order stated.
