British climber scales Everest for 19th time as non-Sherpa guide

British mountain guide Kenton Cool breaks record with 19th Mount Everest ascent, second only to Nepali Sherpa guides.

A British mountain guide has scaled Mount Everest Sunday (May 18, 2025) 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 peak on Sunday along with several other climbers, and he was doing well and on his way down from the summit, said Iswari Paudel of Himalayan Guides Nepal, which equipped his expedition.

Mr. 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 cancelled 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 COVID-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of climbers and their guides are on 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 Mr. Cool.