World renowned mountaineer Nawang Gombu, the first person to have climbed the Mt Everest twice, passed away at his residence in Darjeeling. Gombu was 75 and is survived by his wife; four daughters and one son. People close to Gombu says he was not keeping well for past some time. Perhaps illness was one of the factors that effected his health and eventually he passed away. Gombu was the youngest member of the Sir Edmund Hillary’s climbing team the first scaled the highest peak on the planet in 1953. Then he was 17 year old. Ten years later, he guided the American team to climb the summit. Thus became the first person to climb the mighty Mt Everest twice. He also guided members of the Indian Everest expedition in climbing the Mt Everest in 1965.Apart from Mt Everest the Sherpa also scaled several other peaks and received many awards.
Gombu was born in 1936. His father was a Tibetan monk. There are two theory related to his place of birth. Some say he was born in Tibet, while the second theory is that he was born in Nepal.
The Sherpa was closely associated with Darjeeling’s Himalayan Mountaineering Institute for more than four decades and trained larger number of people in mountaineering.
Source : thehimalayannews