Record year for conquering Everest

 KATHMANDU (AFP) - More climbers have conquered Everest this year than in any year since the world's highest mountain was first scaled in 1953, Nepal's chief mountaineering official said Thursday.

As the narrow spring window for climbing to the top of the world draws to a close, Ang Tsering Sherpa said 514 climbers had scaled Everest from the Nepal and Tibetan sides as of May 28.

"This is the highest number in the history of climbing Everest since the first ascent in 1953," the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association told AFP.

"We have had various world records broken this season, so it has been an outstanding year for mountaineering," he added.

Climbers use a narrow window in May ahead of annual monsoon rains to scale Himalayan peaks, and attempts are also made in October after the monsoon ends and before the onset of winter.

Although one or two expeditions remain on the northern approach to Everest from Tibet, the fast approaching monsoon which sweeps the sub-continent from June to September means they only have a few more days to reach the top.

Famously conquered for the first time by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the 8,848-metre (29,198-foot) peak has since been reached a total of 3,514 times, Sherpa said.

The most impressive of this year's records is the 17th successful summit of Everest by Appa Sherpa, a Nepali high altitude guide, beating his own previous record.

An American 18-year-old became the youngest foreign woman to climb to the top, and a retired Japanese teacher became the oldest person, at 71.

But a combination of bad weather, avalanches, exhaustion and high altitude sickness claim a number of lives every year, and the final approaches to the summit are littered with corpses.

This season alone seven people -- one Nepali, two South Koreans, two Japanese and one each from Czech Republic and Italy -- have died.

Last year, 11 people perished on the peak in what was the deadliest year since 1996, when a fast-moving storm killed 12, and this year's total so far has brought the overall number of deaths since 1921 to 217, Sherpa said.

Environmental problems have also plagued the mountain with used equipment and garbage littering slopes, but this is changing, Sherpa said.

"There have been many cleanup campaigns over the past few years and professional mountaineers and even the locals have become a lot more aware of the environmental impacts of climbing," said Sherpa.

As well as forking out 25,000 dollars for a Nepali permit to climb the peak, all expeditions must also leave 4,000 dollars with tourism authorities as a bond.

"We take a deposit of 4,000 dollars from every expedition to make sure that they bring back their own garbage. If they leave rubbish or equipment on the mountain they forfeit the money," said
Khadananda Dhakal, a joint secretary at Nepal's tourism ministry.

A Japanese expedition collected about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of rubbish during an annual clean up at the world's highest peak this year, with the leader Ken Noguchi noting that the slopes were "more cleaner" this year.