British climber breaks own record with 19th Everest summit

British climber Kenton Cool successfully climbed Mount Everest for the nineteenth time on Sunday, extending his own record for the most summits of the world's highest mountain by a non-Nepali.

More than 50 climbers have reached the summit since the spring climbing season began this month, taking advantage of a brief spell of good weather and typically calmer winds.

Mountain guide Cool, 51, first climbed Everest in 2004 and has since had an expedition almost every year taking clients up the world's highest peak.

"Kenton summited Everest for the 19th time at 11am Nepalese time (0515 GMT) on Sunday," a post on his Instagram account said.

His 15th summit in 2021 tied him with American Dave Hahn for the most summits by a non-Nepali climber, and his summit the following year gave him a solo title.

Cool was once told he would not walk unaided again after a rock-climbing accident in 1996 that broke both his heel bones.

He told AFP in a 2022 interview after his 16th ascent that his Everest record was "not that amazing" in the context of Nepali climbers' achievements.

Kenton Cool, 51, first climbed Everest in 2004 and has since had an expedition almost every year taking clients up the world's highest peak. Instagram photo

"I'm really surprised by the interest... considering that so many of the Sherpas have so many more ascents," he said then.

Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa, 55, is also attempting to break his own world record for the most Everest summits with his 31st climb.

Cool's latest summit comes after at least two people — a Filipino and an Indian climber — died on Mount Everest this week.

INDIAN, ROMANIAN CLIMBERS DIED ON NEPAL'S MOUNT LHOTSE

Meanwhile, two climbers from Romania and India have died on Nepal's Mount Lhotse, the world's fourth highest peak, officials said Monday, taking the number of fatalities this season to at least nine.

Romania's Barna Zsolt Vago, 48, died on Sunday as he was ascending the 8,516-metre (27,940-foot) mountain, Liladhar Awasthi of Nepal's tourism department told AFP. He was not using supplemental oxygen.

On the same day an Indian climber, Rakesh Kumar, 39, died between Camp 3 and Camp 4 as he was descending after a successful summit.

"Our guides are trying to bring his body back," Prakash Acharya of Makalu Adventure, his expedition organiser, told AFP.

Nepal has issued 458 permits to mountaineers this season and a city of tents hosting foreign climbers and support staff has built up at the foot of Everest.

Most Everest hopefuls are escorted by a Nepali guide, meaning more than 900 climbers will tread the path to the summit this season.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring.

A climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent in 1953.

Last year more than 800 climbers made it to the peak of Everest, including 74 from the northern Tibet side.

Agence France-Presse