A team of four Sherpas is setting off on Monday to attempt a record winter ascent of Mount Everest in just five days, which would also be the first winter climb of the peak in more than quarter of a century.
The last successful winter ascent was in 1993 by a Japanese team.
"A winter speed climbing expedition has not happened yet and so we are attempting a new record," team leader Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, who has summited Everest eight times, told reporters.
Sherpa, 34, will not be using supplemental oxygen. Only one climber has previously ascended the peak in winter without supplemental oxygen: a Nepali mountaineer in December 1987.
Sherpa will be joined by three other climbers, who all have at least two Everest summits under their belt.
The Nepali climbers will be joining two other teams at Everest Base Camp who have been waiting for the right weather conditions. Spanish alpinist Alex Txikon and his team and German climber Jost Kobusch are also hoping to break the spell of unsuccessful winter expeditions on Everest, AFP reported.
Temperatures near the summit of Everest in winter regularly plunge below minus 40 degrees Celsius, while strong winds make it even riskier.
