Guide Kenton Cool scales Everest for the 20th time and says not ready to quit yet

British mountain guide Kenton Cool, who scaled Mount Everest Sunday for the 20th time breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world's highest mountain by a non-Sherpa guide, arrives at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

KATHMANDU, Nepal — One of the most accomplished mountain guides on Mount Everest is not ready to hang up his boots.

Briton Kenton Cool this week scaled the peak for the 20th time, breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest mountain by a non-Sherpa guide.

“Maybe another two or three more times,” Cool told reporters after flying out of the mountain to Kathmandu on Sunday.

The 52-year-old from southwest England had said last year that he would be only climbing Everest maybe one more time before switching to other smaller peaks.

He was among the hundreds of climbers and their Sherpa guides to have scaled the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) summit in the last few days despite the delay caused by a serac hanging dangerously over the route. It forced climbers to make their attempt during a short widow of good weather, with a big number crowding at the summit.

A total of 274 climbers scaled the peak on Wednesday, a single-day record from the popular route on the southern face of the peak, which is located in Nepal.

“We had no issues. We had no crowds, we had a great summit,” he said, adding he reached the summit on Friday.

The peak can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or northern face in China’s Tibet, but Chinese authorities have closed the route this year. Nepalese authorities had issued permits to 494 climbers who were accompanied by equal number of their Sherpa guides.

Record-setting veteran guide Kami Rita Sherpa suggested limiting the number of climbers, saying it was too crowded this year.

Cool, however, said it was not necessary to control the number of climbers, but rather focus on the experience and knowledge of those with permits to go up the mountain.

“It is the various companies being little more diligent on who they take, so they are making sure there is the experience of the climbers and then just being little more careful with when they want to climb,” he said.

Nepal’s mountaineering authorities are trying to introduce new regulations requiring climbers to show they have experience, but at present they are are only required to come up with the US$15,000 permit fees.

Binaj Gurubacharya, The Associated Press