Kathmandu, Sept. 22 -- Thaneshwor Guragain, a manager at Seven Summit Treks, recalls Ang Rita Sherpa thinking that the end was near in April 2017 when he was being treated at a hospital in Kathmandu after he suffered a stroke.

He then remembers an interview of the famed mountaineer years ago where he said he wanted a Guinness World Record certificate.

"We immediately wrote to the Guinness World Records office, presenting the facts and figures. And in June 2017, the certificate arrived, 21 years after his last ascent on Everest," said Guragain.

Ang Rita Sherpa survived that stroke and lived to hold the certificate proudly in his hands.

Ang Rita, who had climbed Mt Everest 10 times without bottled oxygen, died after a lengthy illness in...