BRITISH REACHES EVEREST SUMMIT FOR RECORD 20TH TIME

KATHMANDU, MAY 22 /SRNA-Reuters/ - British climber Kenton Cool, 52, extended his own record by completing his 20th ascent of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, mountaineering officials said.

Cool reached the 8,849-meter summit in Nepal before dawn today and has since begun descending to lower camps.

With the climb, he set the record for the highest number of Everest ascents by a non-Nepali climber.

Cool, who first climbed Everest in 2004 and has repeated the feat almost every year since, except during periods when authorities closed the mountain for various reasons - said climbing to Everest's height is never easy.

"It never gets easier or less daunting. It’s the highest mountain in the world and with that comes an incredible sense of magnificence", the British climber said.

The overall record for the most Everest ascents belongs to Nepali sherpa Kami Rita, who has climbed the mountain 32 times.

More than 8,000 people have climbed Everest, many of them multiple times, since it was first summited in 1953 by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay.