Nepali sherpa scales Mount Everest in record time

A Nepali sherpa set a new record for the fastest climb of Mount Everest yesterday by reaching the top of the world's highest mountain in eight hours and 10 minutes, Nepal's tourism ministry said.

Pemba Dorje, 27, who climbed from the Nepali side of the 8,850-metre mountain, broke the earlier record of 10 hours and 56 minutes set by another sherpa in May last year.

It was his second ascent in a week. He had accompanied a Swiss economist, Rupert Heider, to the top of the mountain last week.

A total of 1,373 people have climbed Everest so far from the Nepali and the Chinese sides since 1953 - 241 of them more than once - and 178 have died on its slopes.

There are 64 expeditions on the mountain from both sides in the current climbing season that started in March and continues through May.

Three South Koreans and one Japanese climber died in separate incidents on Mount Everest this week.