A Nepali sherpa set a record for the number of climbs of Mount Everest when he reached the top of the world's highest mountain for the 14th time on Monday, the Himalayan kingdom's tourism ministry said.
Aapa Sherpa, 44, broke his own record of 13 Everest climbs set last year, when he picked his way to the peak of the 8,850-metre summit from the south-east ridge route, pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepali sherpa Tenzing Norgay 51 years ago.
"This is his 14th time on the Everest summit and a world record," a ministry official, Purna Bhakta Tandukar, told Reuters.
He said Aapa reached the summit at 5:45 am (local time) and was followed by a team of two Belgian, one Greek, one Swiss, one US and 10 other Nepali sherpa climbers.
A total of 1,372 people have climbed Everest so far from the Nepali and Tibetan sides since 1953 - 241 of them more than once - and 178 have died on its slopes.
There are 64 expeditions on the mountain from both sides in the current climbing season that started in March and continues through May.
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