'Everest Man', who has climbed world's highest mountain 30 times, worries about climate change

Sherpa mountain guide Kami Rita (left), returning from Mount Everest after his record 30th successful ascent, is seen at the Kathmandu airport on May 24. – Photos: AP

Scaling the world’s highest peak is all in a day’s work for 54-year-old Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa, a man breezily modest about having set foot on the summit of Everest more times than any other person.

On May 22, Kami Rita scaled Everest for the 30th time in three decades of climbing the mountain, extending his own record just 10 days after his last successful ascent (May 12).