Kathmandu [Nepal], October 17, 2025: Kancha Sherpa, the final surviving member of the legendary 1953 Mount Everest expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, passed away at his residence in Kathmandu early Thursday morning. He was 92.
According to his family, Ang Phurba “Kancha” Sherpa breathed his last around 2 a.m. He had spent his final years in his ancestral home in Namche Bazaar, the famed gateway to Mount Everest.
“We are heartbroken by the passing of Kancha Sherpa, the last link to the first successful Everest summit. His contribution to mountaineering history is immense, and his death marks the end of an era,” said Phur Gyalje Sherpa, President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA).
Born in 1932 in Namche, Kancha began his mountaineering journey as a teenager. At 19, he left home for Darjeeling in search of work, where fate brought him to Tenzing Norgay—who recognized him as the son of a fellow climber from an earlier Everest attempt. With Tenzing’s support, Kancha joined Hillary’s 1953 expedition, earning five rupees a day as one of the 103 Sherpas supporting the historic climb.
Though he did not reach the summit, Kancha played a vital role, climbing up to the South Summit, the final camp before the peak. He continued working on various Himalayan expeditions until 1973, when he retired at his wife’s request. He later guided trekking groups across the lower Himalayan trails, avoiding the perilous heights he once braved.
In a 2020 interview with Nepal’s state news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti, Kancha fondly recalled the arduous 1953 journey. The team began from Bhaktapur with 35 climbers and around 400 porters, trekking through rugged terrain without roads, hotels, or proper food—surviving on roasted corn.
The expedition took 16 days to reach Namche Bazaar and another six to establish the Everest Base Camp. Among their supplies, Kancha remembered, were 25 bags filled entirely with cash for expenses.
One of the toughest challenges, he said, was crossing the Khumbu Icefall. “We found a huge crevasse with no way across. There were no ladders then, so we went back to Namche, cut pine trees, carried them up, and built a wooden bridge,” he had recalled.
At the time, Mount Everest was still known locally as Chomolungma, not Sagarmatha. After the team set up Camp 4, Hillary and Tenzing made their historic final ascent. When news of their success reached the base camp on May 29, 1953, Kancha remembered the jubilation vividly: “We danced, hugged, and kissed—it was pure happiness.”
For his role in the expedition, Kancha earned eight rupees a day, but his true reward was his place in mountaineering history—a humble Sherpa whose courage and spirit helped make the impossible possible.
