Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994 guiding a commercial expedition and has made the peak almost ever year since. He scaled it twice some years, like in 2023 and 2024. His closest competitor for the Everest record is fellow Nepali sherpa Pasang Dawa, who scaled the peak 29 times - the latest attempt made last week. Kami Rita has previously told media how his climbs are just work. "I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken," he told AFP in May last year. "I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world."

Veteran climbing guide Kami Rita Sherpa has reached the summit of Mount Everest for a record 31st time, further extending his own world record. The 55-year-old was leading a group from the Indian Army and reached the summit in the early hours of Tuesday, according to Mingma Sherpa, chairman of expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks. Kami Rita first summited the 8848.86-metre peak in 1994 and has climbed it nearly every year since, according to Guinness World Records. A former porter-turned-guide, Kami Rita has also climbed several other Himalayan peaks over 8000 metres.

Sherpa, speaking a year ago after he had climbed the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak for the 29th and 30th times, said that he was "just working" and did not plan on setting records. "I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken," he told AFP in May 2024. "I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world." Seven Summit Treks said he completed the climb on Tuesday as the leader of an Indian army team, adding that he "not only reached the summit himself, but also led and guided the last remaining members of the team to the top". Another Nepali climber, Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa, 29, returned to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday after he made a record-breaking four summits of Everest in just 15 days, completing the last on May 23, according to 8K Expeditions.