British climber scales Everest for 19th time, breaking own record for most climbs by a non-Sherpa

A bird flies in the backdrop of Mount Everest, as seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal on May 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A British mountain guide has scaled Mount Everest Sunday for the 19th time breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest mountain by a non-Sherpa guide.

Kenton Cool, 51, from southwest England, scaled the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak on Sunday along with several other climbers and he was doing well and on way down from the summit, said Iswari Paudel of Himalayan Guides Nepal, which equipped his expedition.

Cool first climbed Mount Everest in 2004 and has been doing it almost every year since then.

He was unable to climb Everest in 2014 because the season was canceled after 16 Sherpa guides were killed in an avalanche, and again in 2015 when an earthquake triggered an avalanche that killed 19 people. The 2020 climbing season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of climbers and their guides are at the mountain during the popular spring climbing season, hoping to scale the world’s highest peak.

Many of them have already succeeded while more are expected to make their attempt before the climbing season closes at the end of this month when weather condition deteriorates with the coming of the rainy monsoon season making climbing difficult.

Only Nepali Sherpa guides have scaled the peak more times than Cool.

The highest number of climbs of Mount Everest is 30 times by Nepali Sherpa guide Kami Rita, who is also on the mountain currently and expected to make the climb in the next few days.

The Associated Press