KATHMANDU (Reuters) – With 18 ascents, British mountaineer Kenton Cool is the foreigner who has reached the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, the most times, Nepalese authorities announced on Sunday.
Rakesh Gurung, director of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism, also reported the recent feat of a 54-year-old Nepali guide, Kami Rita, who climbed the 8,849-meter mountain for the 29th time.
The two climbers, who were participating in 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!” Garrett Madison of US-based Madison Mountaineering said of the Nepali guide who has climbed Everest almost every year since 1994 – and twice last year. .
Lukas Furtenbach, from the Austrian company Furtenbach Adventures, praised Kenton Cool’s record, which is 50 years old.
“Kenton Cool is an institution,” he told Reuters.
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were among the first to reach the summit of Everest in 1953.
Mountaineering is an important tourism activity and a major source of income and employment in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, including Everest.
Nepal granted 414 climbing permits, at $11,000 each, during the latest season which ends this month.
(Reporting Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu; French version Elizabeth Pineau)
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