Written by Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A British climber and a Nepalese guide have broken their own records for most ascents of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, hiking officials said on Sunday.
Rakesh Gurung, director of the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism, said that Briton Kenton Cole (50 years old) and Nepalese guide Kami Rita Sherpa (54 years old) climbed the 8,849-meter peak for the eighteenth and twenty-ninth time, respectively.
They were on separate expeditions to guide their clients.
“He just keeps going and going… great guy!” Garrett Madison of US-based expedition operator Madison Mountaineering said of the Nepalese climber. Madison teamed up with Kami Rita to climb Everest, Lhotse and K2 in 2014.
Mount K2, located in Pakistan, is the second highest mountain in the world, and Mount Lhotse in Nepal is the fourth highest mountain.
Lukas Furtenbach of Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures described Cool's work as remarkable.
“It's an essential part of the Everest guiding industry. The Kenton Cole Foundation,” Furtenbach, who leads an expedition from the Chinese side of Mount Everest, told Reuters.
Both climbers used the Southeast Ridge route to reach the summit.
Created by the summit's first climbers, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, this route remains the most popular route to summit Everest.
Kami Rita first climbed Mount Everest in 1994, and has done so almost every year since, except for three years when authorities closed the mountain for various reasons.
He climbed the mountain twice last year.
Mountaineering is a major tourist activity and a source of income as well as employment opportunities in Nepal, which is home to eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world, including Mount Everest.
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Nepal has issued 414 permits, each costing $11,000, to climbers for the climbing season that ends this month.