Sherpa aims for record 22nd Everest summit

A Nepali Sherpa is hoping to summit Mount Everest for a record-breaking 22nd time next month, during the busy climbing season that each year sees hundreds of climbers reach the top of the world.

But to Kami Rita Sherpa, who has worked as a guide on Everest for over two decades, climbing to 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) is a job not a record-shattering feat.

"I did not start climbing to set a world record. But in the course of my work in the guiding industry this is going to be my 22nd ascent. It wasn't for any competition," Kami Rita told AFP in Kathmandu before setting out for the mountain.

When 48-year-old Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994, he was one of just 49 climbers to reach the peak.

Last year, 634 people made it to the top.

Over the last two decades the booming number of climbers on Everest has created a lucrative mountaineering industry in both China and Nepal, which share the peak.

Each year hundreds of climbers begin gathering at the foot of the world's highest peak from early April, turning the base camp into a bustling nylon tent city.

They spend nearly two months on the mountain to acclimatise to the harsh high altitude environment before attempting to reach the summit in May. With the help of hi-tech gears and sherpas, most of them have the joy to set feet on the highest spot in the world.