AROUND 150 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest on Thursday morning, with a Nepali woman climber achieving it for the 10th time.
Lhakpa Sherpa, 48, reached the 8,848 m Everest peak at 6.30am on Thursday and her achievement comes just days after another Nepalese, Kami Rita Sherpa, reached the summit for a world record 26th time.
Kami Rita had led a group of Sherpa climbers who fixed ropes along the route so that hundreds of other climbers and guides could make their way to the top of the mountain.
The traditional southeast ridge climbing route used by Kami Rita was first used by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepal's sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and it remains the most popular.
He had scaled Mt Everest for the first time on May 13, 1994.
According to the Kathmandu Post, Lhakpa, who lives in the US, first summited Everest in 2000 at the age of 26.
Expedition organisers said some members of the 'Full Circle', an expedition of a group of black people who have been advocating the need for diversity and inclusion in outdoor sports and beyond for the Black community, also reached the summit of Everest on Thursday morning.
Six out of 10 climbers from the all-Black team reached the summit with support from 10 high altitude climbing guides.
Department of Tourism official Bhishma Raj Bhattarai said as many as 150 climbers reached the summit on Thursday and it included 33-year-old Antonina Samoilova, a Ukrainian woman who wants to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine.
The department has issued permits to 317 individuals to climb Mt Everest this spring, compared to a record 408 permits last year in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A climbing permit for Everest costs US$11,000 for foreigners but climbers are said to end up spending between US$40,000 and US$90,000 to climb the mountain.
About 7,000 mountaineers have climbed Mt Everest from the Nepal side since Tenzing Norgay and Hillary first set foot atop the world's highest peak in May 1953.
The Post report said the number of casualties on Mt Everest this spring has reached three so far.
On Thursday, climbing guide Dipak Mahat fell ill on Mt Everest and died at a hospital in Kathmandu while undergoing treatment.
He was suffering from high altitude sickness, according to the expedition organiser.
Another climber Russian Pavel Kostrikin, 55, died at Camp 1 at 6,065 metres on May 7 while Ngimi Tenji Sherpa died near the Khumbu Icefall on Apr 14.