Record numbers summit Everest in 2018

A record 807 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest in May this year, officials confirmed today, capping a successful climbing season that also saw multiple other firsts.

Unusually good weather on the roof of the world allowed the staggering number of mountaineers to reach the 8,848-metre (20,029-foot) peak, including a double amputee from China.

Everest -- which straddles the border between Nepal and China -- saw 563 people summit from the south and 244 reach the top from the northern flank in Tibet, authorities on both sides confirmed.

The numbers smashed the previous record of 665 summits set in 2013, according to the Himalayan Database.

Two Nepali Sherpas broke their own world records for the most Everest summits by a man and a woman, reaching the top for a 22nd and ninth time respectively.

Australian Steve Plain became the fastest person to summit the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents when he reached the peak of Everest on May 14, knocking nine days off the previous record.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old Nepali woman did not stop at Everest: she also summited the world's third highest mountain, Kangchenjunga, and fourth-highest Lhotse over a 26-day period.

The mountain also claimed the lives of five climbers, including an experienced Sherpa guide who was knocked down a crevasse by a rescue helicopter.

Everest attracts hundreds of mountaineers each spring, when a window of good weather opens up between late April and the end of May, prompting a rush for the top.

There are mounting concerns, however, that the numbers are unsustainable, with fears of dangerous overcrowding as well as a worsening environmental situation.

Each year, climbers generate tonnes of rubbish, including over 25 kilogrammes of human waste per person, of which just a fraction is brought off the mountain.