KATHMANDU - Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa reached the top of Mount Everest for the 27th time on Wednesday, reclaiming the record for the most summits of the world's highest mountain.
"He successfully reached the summit this morning guiding a Vietnamese climber," Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, his expedition organiser, told AFP.
Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including the 8,849-metre Everest, and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are typically calm.
Earlier Wednesday, British mountain guide Kenton Cool reached the world's highest point for the 17th time, extending his own record for the most summits by a non-Nepali.
Authorities have issued 478 permits to foreign climbers this year, the $11,000 fee part of total costs for a summit ranging from $45,000 to $200,000.
Since most will need a guide, more than 900 people -- a record -- will try to summit this season, which runs until early June.
The 53-year-old Kami Rita Sherpa had held the overall title since 2018, when he ascended Everest for the 22nd time, passing the previous mark he shared with two other Sherpa climbers, both of whom have since retired.
But on Sunday another climber, Pasang Dawa Sherpa tied the record by reaching the top for the 26th time.
A guide for more than two decades, Kami Rita Sherpa first summited in 1994 when working for a commercial expedition.
Since then, he has climbed Everest almost every year, several times leading the first rope-fixing team to open the route to the top.
"These records were made not with an intention to make them but during my work as a guide," Sherpa told AFP last month as he headed to base camp.