Nepal's Ang Rita Sherpa, first to climb Mount Everest ten times, dies

FILE PHOTO: Ang Rita Sherpa (R), who climbed Mount Everest 10 times without the use of supplemental oxygen, talks to Min Bahadur Sherchan, the oldest person to scale Mount Everest, at a news conference in Kathmandu November 29, 2009.. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar/File Photo

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Ang Rita Sherpa, the first man to climb Mount Everest 10 times, died of a lengthy illness on Monday, his family said, an event that fellow sherpas called a major loss to Nepal and the climbing community.

All the ascents to the 8,850-m. (29,035-foot) summit of the world's tallest mountain between 1983 and 1996 by Ang Rita, who went by his first name, like many Sherpas, were made without bottled oxygen.