Renowned Nepali climber Ang Rita Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest ten times without the use of supplementary oxygen, has died aged 72. Sherpa breathed his last at 10 am NPT this morning at his daughter’s residence in Boudha, Kathmandu.

Sherpa, popularly known as ‘Snow Leopard’ among mountaineering community had reached the summit of Mt Everest ten times without the use of supplementary oxygen, including the only oxygenless winter ascent of the mountain. He first scaled Everest in 1983, then eventually the 10th time in 1996, all without bottled oxygen.

Sherpa was born in 1948 in a Thame village, Solukhumbu district in eastern Nepal. He was survived by his two sons and a daughter.