Mexican mountaineer David Liano Gonzalez poses with a Guinness World Records certificate in Kathmandu, after becoming the first person to scale the summit of Mount Everest from both the north and south sides in one climbing season.

A veteran Mexican climber has been confirmed as the first person to climb Everest from both sides of the mountain in the same season.

David Liano Gonzalez, 33, reached the top of Everest on May 11 from the south side, and days later started his second successful ascent of the world’s highest mountain from the north side.

Gonzalez, who says he has now climbed Everest five times in total, was awarded the official record certificate from Guinness World Records at a ceremony in the Nepal capital on Thursday.

“I am very happy to have set this record,” Gonzalez told
reporters.

Around 3,500 people have reached the top of Everest since the first conquest in 1953, and climbing to the roof of the world has become a lucrative industry for
impoverished Nepal.

“He (Gonzalez) summited Everest on May 11, 2013 from Nepal (the south side) and on May 19 from Tibet (the north side), becoming the first person in one single expedition season to do so,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, founder of Asian Trekking, the company that organised the
expedition.

Gonzalez said that after his first ascent from the Nepal side, he descended to the Everest base camp and flew to Kathmandu, before making an overland trip to Tibet for his second successful bid.

There are at least four routes to the top of the 8,848metre (29,029ft) mountain. But most commercially guided expeditions follow the Southeast Ridge in the Nepal side and the Northeast Ridge in the
Tibetan side of China.