India, Oct. 20 -- Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the historic 1953 expedition that saw Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first to summit Mount Everest, passed away on Thursday at the age of 92 in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

Born in 1933, Sherpa was only 19 when he joined the expedition as a porter.

Despite having no prior mountaineering experience, he reached over 8,000 meters (26,200 feet), near the summit.

In recent years, hundreds of climbers now followed the well-established paths to Everest's peak, contributing to a thriving multimillion-dollar mountaineering industry.

However, the 1953 team navigated the mountain with no established routes, trekking over two weeks to reach the base camp while carrying te...