With eighteen ascents to his name, Briton Kenton Cool, 50, has become the non-Nepalese mountaineer who has reached the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, the most times, it was announced on Sunday May 12, Nepalese authorities.
Rakesh Gurung, director of Nepal’s tourism ministry, also reported the other record, recently broken this time by a 54-year-old Nepali guide, Kami Rita, who climbed the 8,848-meter mountain for the 29th time . He climbed onto the “Roof of the World” for the first time in 1994, during a commercial expedition. Since then, the sherpa has climbed the mountain almost every year to lead clients there. In 2023, he climbed it twice, each time achieving a new record after being caught by another guide, Pasang Dawa.
The two climbers, who were on separate expeditions with their respective clients, took the so-called “Southeast Ridge” route to reach the summit. “He just keeps going and going…amazing guy! said Garrett Madison of the American company Madison Mountaineering of the Nepalese guide who has climbed Everest almost every year since 1994 – and even twice in 2023. Lukas Furtenbach of the Austrian company Furtenbach Adventures said praised Kenton Cool’s record.
Six hundred people reached the summit in 2023
Mountaineering is an important tourism activity and a major source of income and employment in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s fourteen highest peaks, including Everest.
Nepal granted 414 permits to climb Mount Everest, at 11,000 dollars each (around 10,200 euros), during the last season which runs from April to June. Most climbers set out with a Nepalese guide. More than eight hundred people are expected to tackle Everest in the coming weeks, after the departure of a first group of Nepalese on Friday.
Eight of the ten highest mountains on the planet are in Nepal, which welcomes hundreds of adventurers every spring, when conditions are more favorable. In 2023, more than six hundred climbers reached the summit of Everest, which saw a record number of eighteen deaths.
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were among the first to reach the summit of Everest in 1953.
