It was a season of triumph, tragedy and tumbling records. Sixteen-year-old Temba Tsheri Sherpa stepped on Mt Everest on 23 May to become the youngest climber ever to scale the summit. The schoolboy from Tashigaon, Rolwaling who lost five fingers to frostbite while attempting Everest from the south last spring made it up from the northern side this time. Temba, climbing with the International Everest Expedition, replaced the record set by 17-year-old French climber
Bertrand Roche in 1990. Roche, also a member of this International Everest Expedition, set another record this spring, when with his wife Claire, he paraglided from the summit of Everest (north side) to reach Base Camp in eight minutes. On the summit two hours after Temba was 28 year-old Lhakpa Sherpa, who become the first Nepali woman to climb the mountain from both sides. Lhakpa summitted Everest from the Nepali side last spring.

If Temba was the youngest, 64 year-old American Sherman Bull became the oldest man to reach the top of the world. He was accompanied by his son Brad, and now there has been a father-son duo atop Everest. The Bulls reached the summit on 25 May. There's more: 32-year-old Erik Weihenmeyer became the first blind climber to reach the summit, also on 25 May. The climber from Colorado followed the sound of bells to the top. The spring mountaineering season also saw the first successful expedition on Mt Lhotse Middle, 8,413m, from the west side, by a group of Russian climbers on 23 May.

But there was also tragedy on Everest. Four climbers, including Babu Chiri Sherpa, who holds the sprinting record up Everest (16 hours, 56 minutes) died on the mountain. An Austrian, an Australian and a Russian climber were other casualties.