The Daily Telegraph

British Everest climb offers boost for Nepal

- By Philip Sherwell ASIA EDITOR

TWO British mountainee­rs have become the first foreigners to scale Mount Everest in two years after fatal disasters cleared the slopes of the world’s highest peak in 2014 and 2015.

Kenton Cool and Robert Richard Lucas reached the summit on Thursday, along with Mexican David Liano, and three Nepalese guides.

“The summit has never looked more beautiful,” Mr Cool told his wife Jazz in a phone call home to Gloucester­shire after his 12th successful climb of Everest. He said it was “great to be back”, the BBC reported.

The return to the top of the world is seen as an important stage in Nepal’s slow recovery after last year’s earthquake, which claimed an estimated 9,000 lives.

Nine local Sherpas in their party had made it to the top at 29,029ft the previous day to set ropes for the final leg.

For Mr Cool, 42, it was an- other notable mountainee­ring achievemen­t, two decades after a serious fall left him in a wheelchair. He had been hoping to embark on a lifetime of climbing when he was told he would never walk properly again following a fall from a cliff face in north Wales.

He is now one of Everest’s top guides after conquering it 11 previous times, including twice in a week in 2007.

Climbs on the Nepalese side of the mountain have been struck by tragedies that have ended the season for the last two years.

In April 2015, at least 18 climbers were killed at base camp by an avalanche triggered by the earthquake. The previous year, 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche.

The Britons reached the summit at 8.15am local time on Thursday, said Iswari Paudel, owner of Himalayan Guides Nepal, the expedition organiser.

“This is a positive message that we can give the world again,” he said.

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