Sherpa From Connecticut Climbs Everest Record 7th Time

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A 42-year-old convenience store worker from Connecticut has scaled Mount Everest for a seventh time, breaking her own record as the most successful female climber of the world's highest peak, expedition organizers said.

Lhakpa Sherpa, from West Hartford, was among 18 climbers who reached the peak on Friday morning from the northern side in Tibet, said Rajeeb Shrestha of the 7 Summits Adventure agency in Kathmandu.

She climbed Everest six times between 2000 and 2006 before moving to the United States, where she is a permanent resident. She was born in Nepal and took up mountaineering as a profession like most Sherpas in the region.

Her brother has climbed Everest eight times and her sister was once the youngest female Everest climber, the Hartford Courant reported.

Two Sherpa men have scaled Everest 21 times to hold the record for most climbs of Everest.

Climbers had been reaching the 29,035-foot summit almost daily since May 11, but high winds had forced a two-day break before climbing resumed Thursday. The mountain had not been climbed in almost two years after an avalanche triggered by an earthquake killed 19 people at base camp last year and 16 Sherpa guides were killed in 2014.

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)