Record holder Nepali climbing guide Kami Rita Sherpa reached the summit of Mount Everest for the 30th time on Wednesday morning, breaking his own record for the most successful ascents of the world’s highest peak.

Kami Rita stood atop the summit at 7:49 am, Khim Lal Gautam, the Everest base camp coordinator, told the Post from the base camp.

This marks his second ascent of the season, after his first on May 12.

Kami Rita’s mountaineering journey began in 1992 when he joined an expedition to Everest as a porter.

He, however, made his first Everest ascent on May 13, 1994, aged 24.

Since then, he has been climbing Everest almost every year.

Kami Rita climbed Everest twice each in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2023 and 2024.

His closest competitor for the most number of Everest ascents is Pasang Dawa Sherpa, who has made 27 summits until last year.

This year, Nepal’s Department of Tourism has issued Everest climbing permits to 419 fee-paying individuals. Last year, permits were issued to a record 479 individuals.

With at least one Sherpa guide hired by each climber, there will be nearly 1,000 climbers attempting to scale Everest.

Gautam said that since May 10, the beginning of this year’s spring climbing season, more than 500 climbers, including guides, have succeeded in reaching the summit as of Wednesday.

A climbing permit for Everest costs $11,000 for a foreigner and Rs75,000 for a Nepali.

Nepali high-altitude Sherpa guides helping climbers are not required to pay fees.

More than 8,800 mountaineers have climbed Everest from the Nepal side since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and New Zealander Edmund Hillary first set foot atop the world’s highest peak in 1953.