Babu Sherpa, a friend and business partner, said Monday that Chhiri left camp alone to take photographs and his absence was not noticed until dinnertime three hours later. Teammates searched the snowy slopes, following his foot prints. His body was found only around midnight. He shattered the previous record set by fellow Sherpa, Kaji, in 1998, who climbed the mountain in 20 hours and 24 minutes.
Most climbers take two to four days to cover the distance from the base camp to the summit.
Most foreign summiters typically remain at the peak just long enough to have their photo taken. Chhiri is survived by his wife and six daughters. Before making mountaineering his career, he was a yak herder and potato farmer like most Sherpas. In an interview with The Associated Press last July, Chhiri said that with the money he was collecting through his record climbs, he hoped to build a school in his village of Taksindo. I want all my girls, all the children, to get the education that I never had.