The history makers

On May 16, at 8:44 a.m. in Nepal, two Sherpas who live in Utah and five more Sherpas who were the support crew, reached the summit of Mount Everest. It's the first all-Sherpa team to climb to the top of the world.

Below are the men from the summit team who were part of the SuperSherpas Expedition.

From Utah:

Apa Sherpa, 47 - 17 summits
Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, 39 - 13 summits

Support crew:

Pemba Rinjin, 36 - 6 summits
A Rita Sherpa, 44 - 9 summits
Ang Passang Sherpa, 39 - 8 summits
Passang Gyaljen Sherpa, 20 - 1st summit
Ang Chhiring Sherpa, 25 - 1st summit

The men endured high winds and bitter cold to place Nepal's flag atop what Sherpas call Chomolungma, also known as Everest. They climbed over 7,000 feet in less than 24 hours, according to SuperSherpas Expedition spokeswoman Katie Eldridge.

Quoted collectively, Apa and Lhakpa said, "We want to continue in Sir Edmund Hillary's footsteps and contribute to education and improving health care in the Khumbu region and for all Nepali people in the remote regions."

A book and a documentary about the SuperSherpas experience are planned for the future.

(Note: the above names were sent by Prabodh Sagar Dhakal - spellings of names may differ from previous blog entries and newspaper articles.)