The world’s highest peak can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern face in China’s Tibet, but Chinese authorities have closed the route this year.

Nepal’s tourism department said an estimated 275 people scaled the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak on Wednesday, noting that a higher number had reached the peak in 2023 from both sides.

Officials said the final number will be tallied after the climbs are verified, which requires photographs and statements from the climber’s expedition company and guides.

“This is the highest ever number of single-day summits in the history of Mount Everest expeditions that have reached the peak of Mount Everest,” Himal Gautam, spokesman for the department, told AFP.

“We still need to verify the official data, as we must issue certificates to them.”

In 2023, a higher number of mountaineers from the Chinese and Nepalese sides reached the top of the Everest in a single day, he added without giving a number.

A climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business in Nepal since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent of Everest in 1953.

The country has issued a record 492 Everest permits this season, with a city of tents set up at the foot of the mountain for climbers and support staff.

Approximately 600 people, including mountaineers and support staff, have climbed Everest since the start of this year’s spring climbing season last month.

The high numbers have rekindled concerns about overcrowding on the mountain, which straddles the Nepal-China border, especially if poor weather shortens the climbing window.

The climbing season is likely to wrap up by the first week of June.