Nepalese Sherpa, 52, scales Mount Everest for 26th time to beat his own record for the most climbs

Sir Edmund Hillary (left), from New Zealand, and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (right), from Nepal, the first men to reach Mount Everest’s 29,032-foot summit

Sir Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal, became the first people to ever to summit Mount Everest when they completed the mountain’s harrowing 29,032-foot climb on May 29, 1953.

Hillary, who was a 33-year-old beekeeper at the time, was paired up with Norgay as part of a British expedition to reach the summit.

The British wanted to beat Sweden to the top of the mountain after Swiss climber Raymond Lambert – also accompanied by Norgay – reached 28,210 feet before turning back due to lack of supplies just a year earlier.

Hillary was selected out of the British Commonwealth and Norgay was chosen…