The last surviving member of the team to first summit Mount Everest has died at the age of 92. Kanchha Sherpa died at his home in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Thursday morning. He had been unwell for some time, according to The Associated Press. His death was confirmed by Nepal Mountaineering Association president, Phur Gelje Sherpa, who said, “He passed away peacefully at his residence. A chapter of the mountaineering history has vanished with him.” In 1953, Sherpa was part of the team that helped Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay climb Everest. Sherpa and three others traveled to the last camp at 26,247 feet with the famous pair before the duo climbed to the 29,032-foot-high peak. They were part of an initial team of 35, setting Hillary and Norgay up to go on and reach the summit. He was 19 at the time and had no prior mountaineering experience. Born in the shadow of the world’s highest point in 1933, he linked up with Hillary in 1953. He worked as a porter in the mountains for two more decades before his wife asked him to stop, the BBC reports. During an interview with AP last year, he expressed fear about the number of people climbing, saying he feared the amount of trash they would leave behind. “It would be better for the mountain to reduce the number of climbers,” he said. He is survived by his wife and six children.
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