Sungdare Sherpa
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Sungdare Sherpa (Nepali: सुन्दरे शेर्पा) (1956[1] Thame village, Solukhumbu – 1989 Pangboche[2]) was a Nepalese Sherpa guide for climbers of Mount Everest, who summited Mount Everest five times. He was the first person to summit Mount Everest three times.[3]
Sungdare was with Hannelore Schmatz when she died on a 1979 expedition.[4] He remained with her after she died, and as a result, lost most of his fingers and toes to frostbite.[5]
Despite losing his digits, Sungdare summited Mount Everest four more times after the 1979 expedition.[6]
Death
Sungdare drowned in a river below his village, Pangboche, Nepal in 1989.[2]
Elizabeth Hawley stated that he struggled with alcoholism and that his death was a suicide.[7] He was survived by his widow, Bhingfuti.[2]
As quoted in an article in Backpacker magazine talking about Mount Everest:[8]
The Summit is always different. Sometimes it is one side and sometimes the other. It changes every time.
— Sungdare Sherpa, 1986[8]
