Ang Rita, the 'Snow Leopard' dies at 72
Ang Rita Sherpa, ten-time Everester and conservator, died on Monday. He was 72. Popularly known as 'Snow Leopard, Ang Rita had won several awards as a an extremely successful Sherpa, a clan of Himalayan people, known for their skill in mountaineering. Ang Rita Sherpa holds the record of climbing Mount Everest ten times without using oxygen supplement.
"The legendary climber died at around 10.40 am at his residence in Jorpati," his neighbour Mingma Sherpa was quoted by the himalayantimes.com as saying.
Kanak Mani Dixit, publisher, editor and writer based in Nepal tweeted: "We learnt a lot from you about mountains and daring."
Ang Rita was born in 1948 in a small village called Yillajung in eastern Nepal. He started working as a Sherpa at a young age. He had an undergraduate degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism from Lincoln University, New Zealand, and he worked for nine months as a volunteer in the U.S. Parks Service (Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park) before joining The Mountain Institute.
The 'Snow Leopard' was a staff member of The Mountain Institute, a non-profit group working on the "challenges faced by remote mountain communities and the fragile environments that surround them". Ang Rita Sherpa led a team in 1992, for the establishment of Makalu Barun National Park, a project that focused on biodiversity management along with the local with community. Ang Rita was a conservator and natural resource officer at the Park.
The renowned climber also worked on a number of projects with The Mountain Institute on conservation of the alpine Himalayan zone.
He received the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal in 2011 for his efforts towards conservation of the fragile Himalayan ecology. Ang Rita Sherpa had won a Guinness World Record certificate for climbing Mount Everest the maximum number of times without using supplementary oxygen.