Kenton Cool celebrates his ninth Everest summit

Record-breaking Everest mountaineer Kenton Cool has returned safely to base camp after reaching the top of the world’s highest peak for the ninth time.

Berkshire-born Cool made an emotional phone call to his wife Jazz and sent the first ever Tweet from Everest’s summit, using a signal from a 3G mobile phone transmitter at the Nepalese base camp in Khumbu.

Although other mountaineers had made satellite calls from Everest’s summit, Cool’s was the first to use the Ncell network service, installed in October last year.

The Briton’s record-breaking ninth ascent was made to prove it was possible to receive a signal at the summit at 8,848m (29,029ft).

He was provided with a Samsung Galaxy S II handset to provide the best chance of making the calls, and can be seen in a YouTube video, eyelashes covered in ice, speaking to Jazz from the summit, before breaking another record as the first to use Twitter from the roof of the world.

He made the summit of Everest in the early hours of Friday morning.

Kenton Cool has now made five more successful ascents of the mountain than the next most successful Briton with only local Nepalese Sherpas and two other Westerners having summited more times than him. He is also one of only two Westerners to have summited Everest twice in one week.

He guided Sir Ranulph Fiennes to both the summit of Everest and the summit of the Eiger, helping to raise more than £5m in sponsorship for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

His other achievements include numerous first ascents including his ascent of the South West Ridge of Annapurna III in 2003, which won him a nomination for a Piolet d’Or – the mountaineering ‘Oscars’ – as well as becoming the first Briton to ski unaided down an 8,000m peak, Cho Oyu.

He also acts as a global ambassador for Porters’ Progress, an organisation that promotes the welfare of trekking and climbing porters.

Cool, 37, who has a daughter Saffron, splits his time between Gloucestershire and Chamonix, where he acts as a Mountain Guide.