Kanchha Sherpa, last survivor of the first Everest expedition, has died

Kanchha Sherpa, 92, who was one of the 35 team members who first reached the summit of Mount Everest, passed away early this Thursday morning, according to the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

“He passed away peacefully at his residence. A chapter in the history of mountaineering has vanished with him,” declared Phur Gelje Sherpa, president of the association.

Kanchha passed away at his home in Kapan, in the Kathmandu district of Nepal, after a period of illness.

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Kanchha Sherpa was among the 35 team members who took New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay to the summit of the 8,849-meter (29,032 ft) peak on May 29, 1953. A mountain guide for most of his life, he was one of the three Sherpas who reached the final camp before the summit with Hillary and Tenzing.