Nepal: 'Everest Man' Kami Rita claims record 29th summit

Nepali Sherpa mountaineer Kami Rita has reached the top of Mount Everest for the 29th time, breaking his own record for the most successful ascents of the world's highest mountain.

"Kami Rita reached the summit this morning. Now he has made a new record with 29 summits of Everest," Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, his expedition organizer, told AFP.

Mingma told news agencies that the 54-year-old climbing guide achieved the feat while leading a group of climbers to the peak's summit.

Kami Rita, who's earned the nickname "Everest Man", belongs to the ethnic Sherpa community.

'One man's job, another man/woman's dream'

He has scaled the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak almost every year since his first successful ascent in 1994, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

"Guess who's back, back again for the 29th summit to the top of the world... One man's job, another man/woman's dream," Sherpa wrote on Instagram from the Everest base camp last week.

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Kami Rita has said in past media interviews that he never set out to break records and that he's been "just working" all these years.

Last year, he climbed Everest twice, reclaiming his record after another Sherpa guide, Pasang Dawa, matched his number of ascents.

The Sherpas' mountaineering expertise and local knowledge is vital for the safe passage of the hundreds of climbers who ascend Everest every year.

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