Three foreigners scale Mount Everest after two-year hiatus

Kathmandu, May 12 (IANS) Three foreign climbers reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday after a two-year hiatus.

Two Britons, Kenton Cool and Robert Richard Lucas, scaled the 8,848-metre peak along with two Nepalese Sherpas at 8.20 a.m., an officer at the tourism department told Xinhua news agency.

Following their footsteps, a Mexican climber, David Liaono Gonzalez, along with one Sherpa, scaled the peak a few minutes later.

All Everest expeditions were cancelled in 2014, marking it a "Black Year" following the death of 16 Sherpas, while an avalanche triggered by the massive April 2015 earthquake that killed 19 climbers had also halted expeditions last year.

Earlier on Wednesday, nine Sherpas had reached the top of Everest to fix climbing ropes to the summit.