Sherpa guide Kami Rita who climbed Everest 30 times vows to return to the mountain next year

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Renowned Sherpa mountain guide Kami Rita was back from Mount Everest on Friday after his record 30th ascent of the world's highest peak, vowing to return to the mountain again next year,

The 54-year-old guide had scaled the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak earlier this week, his second time this month, breaking his own record for the most successful climb of the peak.

“I will continue climbing and will be back again next year and for at least one or two more years,” Kami Rita told reporters on arrival at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

He said after retiring from guiding he would continue working on the mountain, but as a team leader or manager at the base camp.

He first climbed the peak on May 12 and again on Wednesday. He also climbed Mount Everest twice last year, setting the record for most climbs of the world’s highest mountain on the first and extending it less than a week later.

His closest competitor for the most climbs of Mount Everest is fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa, who has 27 successful ascents of the mountain.

Kami Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success each year of foreign climbers aspiring to stand on top of the mountain.

His father was among the first Sherpa mountain guides. In addition to his Everest climbs, Kami Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.

Officials said more than 500 climbers have already scaled Mount Everest from the Nepali side of the peak in the south this climbing season, which ends in a few days. Most climbing of Everest and nearby Himalayan peaks is done in April and May, when weather conditions are most favorable.

Everest was first climbed in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.