Kolkata: Sherpa mountaineer Nawang Gombu, the youngest on Sir Edmund Hillary's climbing team that first scaled Mount Everest in 1953, died on Sunday at his Indian home at the foot of the Himalayas. He was 79.
Friends and family were at Gombu's bedside when he died after a brief illness in Darjeeling, about 650 km north of Kolkata, his son Kursung Phinjo Gombu said.
The first person to summit Everest twice, Gombu was considered one of the last of the so-called "Tigers of the Snow" — a small group of Sherpa mountaineers who scaled the Himalayas to bring fame and prestige to their ethnic community that originates from the mountains of eastern Tibet and Nepal.
Gombu was about 21 when he joined his uncle Tenzing Norgay and Hillary on the famous 1953 expedition, but he did not reach the top of the world's highest mountain until 10 years later when he guided the first American expedition led by mountaineer Jim Whittaker to the summit.
Gombu achieved fame two years later as the first to summit Everest twice, when he guided an Indian team to the top. He is survived by his sister, his wife Sita, his son, four daughters and nine grandchildren. A funeral is planned on Thursday in Darjeeling.
Friends and family were at Gombu's bedside when he died after a brief illness in Darjeeling, about 650 km north of Kolkata, his son Kursung Phinjo Gombu said.
The first person to summit Everest twice, Gombu was considered one of the last of the so-called "Tigers of the Snow" — a small group of Sherpa mountaineers who scaled the Himalayas to bring fame and prestige to their ethnic community that originates from the mountains of eastern Tibet and Nepal.
Gombu was about 21 when he joined his uncle Tenzing Norgay and Hillary on the famous 1953 expedition, but he did not reach the top of the world's highest mountain until 10 years later when he guided the first American expedition led by mountaineer Jim Whittaker to the summit.
Gombu achieved fame two years later as the first to summit Everest twice, when he guided an Indian team to the top. He is survived by his sister, his wife Sita, his son, four daughters and nine grandchildren. A funeral is planned on Thursday in Darjeeling.
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