Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the mountaineering team that first reached the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, has died in Nepal at the age of 92.The Nepal Mountaineering Association described Kanchha Sherpa as a “historic and legendary figure” who died at his home in Kapan in the Kathmandu district of Nepal on Thursday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Mr Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the first successful summit of Mount Everest in 1953,” the association’s president, Fur Gelje Sherpa, said in a statement.“His absence leaves an irreplaceable loss … He will be dearly missed,” the president said.Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa said his grandfather had “some issues with his throat” recently. “Otherwise, he had no major health issue for a person of his age,” his grandson told the DPA news agency.Kanchha Sherpa was among the 35 members of the team that helped Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary reach the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak of Everest on May 29, 1953.He was one of three Sherpas to reach the final camp before the summit with Hillary and Tenzing.Hillary and Norgay, both 39 at the time, became the first to reach the summit on May 29, 1953.Kanchha was born in 1933 in the village of Namche in the Everest foothills, when most members of Nepal’s Sherpa community – a Himalayan people renowned as mountaineering guides – worked in farming.He spent his childh …
