Two simple sentences signaled an historic feat at about 9 p.m. Tuesday when Apa Sherpa and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, along with four other Sherpas, reached the top of the world.

Their successful summit on Mount Everest realized a goal the SuperSherpas Expedition set to increase awareness of the Sherpa people native to Nepal who have played a role in every summit of Everest since the first in 1953.

Apa Sherpa, 47, also broke his own world record with an astounding 17th trip to 29,035 feet above sea level and stretched his streak of successful summits to an unheard of 15 in a row.

"If there is anything good that comes from our summit . . . our goal would be to create a more peaceful world," Apa and Lhakpa said from top. "Our second goal would be to continue in Sir Edmund Hillary's footsteps and contribute to education and improving health care in the Khumbu region and for all Nepal people in the remote regions."

A documentary film is being made about the expedition, which The Salt Lake Tribune also has chronicled for the past month at http://sherpas.sltrib.com with stories, a blog, photo galleries and video clips. The team hopes awareness raised by their expedition will lead to greater respect, fair wages and eventually, a better means of education for all Nepali children.

Free of constraints and obligations to get clients to the top, the Sherpas basically raced from Camp 2 to the summit, passing other climbers in tents who must acclimate to the high altitude, something the Sherpas did not have to do.

Lhakpa, who set a speed record in 2003 with a trip from base camp to the summit in 10 hours, 56 minutes, made it to top for the 13th time.

Getting to the top early in the climbing season is important on Everest, where climbers can get stalled waiting their turn to climb past the Hillary Step, the most technical part of the climb. Standing still at such high altitude is a dangerous invitation for frostbite and hypothermia.

Because they were one of the first teams to reach the Step, the SuperSherpas were delayed because they had to set safety ropes. The task went faster as the Sherpas joined forces with Mountain Madness, another team.

Apa and Lhakpa hail from high-altitude villages in Nepal, but both now live in Draper and will return to Utah in early June after their accomplishment is celebrated in Kathmandu.

Other SuperSherpas members to make it to the top Tuesday include: Arita Sherpa, Ang Pasang Sherpa, Pemba Ringee Sherpa and Mingma Sherpa. Dawa Sherpa had to return to Camp 4 before the team reached the summit.

The term Sherpa describes the people of the Himalayan highlands, but is often incorrectly used to describe high-elevation porters on expeditions. The misnomer is understandable considering that the vast majority of people doing the real expedition work on Everest, and on other Himalayan peaks, are Sherpas.

As early indications from medical and nutritional testing program through Utah's The Orthopedic Speciality Hospital have shown, the bodies of the Sherpas have evolved to excel at elevation.

The team started its final push for the summit leaving base camp at 8 a.m. on Monday Nepal time. They spent the night at Camp 2 (21,300 feet) and then climbed to Camp 4 - a gain of more than 4,200 feet - in nine hours on Tuesday. After a four-hour rest at Camp 4, they took off at 10 p.m. and made it to the summit at approximately 8:45 a.m., or about 9 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. That means the team climbed more than 7,700 vertical feet in less than 24 hours - and at altitude.

In Salt Lake City, the families of Apa and Lhakpa focused on prayers and the support of friends to deal with the stress of having their loved ones on a dangerous mountain so far away.

"It is different to be here, so far away," said Tenzing Sherpa, Apa's son, a business student at the University of Utah. "We have been praying often and feel quite nervous. We are very proud of them."

Apa's wife and three children and Lhakpa's wife have never been this far away while the men climbed.

The SuperSherpas team has drawn attention from around the world. Team members spent time in Kathmandu with Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with Tenzing Norgay, was the first to reach the top of Everest. At the same event, they chatted with Elizabeth Hawley, the unofficial "official" chronicler of expeditions in the Himalayas for the past 40 years.

Their arrival at base camp tragically coincided with the arrival of the body of Dawa Sherpa, who was killed when a block of ice slid down a slope and knocked him into a crevasse above base camp.

Dawa, not the member of the SuperSherpas expedition by the same name, was a good friend of Lhakpa's. The death served as a reminder of the sacrifices the Sherpa people have made in getting others to the top of Everest.

Having done it more than anybody else in the world, Apa knows - and frequently states - that the hard part is getting back down after reaching the top.

The team spent a short time on the summit taking pictures and then hustled to get off the top of the world.