Pemba Doma Sherpa was the first
NepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
i female
mountaineerMountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...
to climb
Mount EverestMount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
via its north face, was the second Nepali woman to summit from both the north and south faces, and is one of six women to have summited Everest twice. She was the leader of the 2002 Nepalese Woman Everest Expedition.
Pemba Doma Sherpa climbed
Cho OyuCho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between China and Nepal...
from the Tibetan side on 28 Sep 2005.
A resident of Namche-1 of Solukhumbu district, Pemba Doma had been raised by her grandparents after her parents died when she was two. She attended classes in one of the schools built by
Edmund HillarySir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
. She was the founder of the Save the Himalayan Kingdom charity, which focused on educating Nepali children regardless of
casteCaste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
. She was also the director of the Climb High Himalaya trekking company.
Pemba Doma fell from a height of 8000 metres while descending
LhotseLhotse is the fourth highest mountain on Earth and is connected to Everest via the South Col. In addition to the main summit at 8,516 metres above sea level, Lhotse Middle is and Lhotse Shar is...
. The fall was witnessed by Australian mountaineer
Philip LingPhilip Ling is an Australian high altitude mountaineer. He first came to recognition in March 2006 when he was involved in what became one of the highest ever successful high altitude rescues of two injured Sherpas while climbing Mt. Pumori, 7167m in Nepal....
who was also climbing the mountain. Two other
SherpaThe Sherpa are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300–400 years.The initial mountainous migration from Tibet was a search for beyul...
s also perished while trailing a group of clients during a snowstorm.