Kathmandu, May 15 (IANS): A Nepal Army team summited Mt. Everest on Monday in order to collect waste discarded on the world's highest peak.

Ten members of the team led by Lieutenant Col Kishor Adhikari, including five Sherpa climbing guides, reached the top of the mountain at 10.05 a.m.

"Ten of the 13-member team have conquered the peak. They will descend collecting the waste dumped en route to the mountain peak," Nepal Army spokesman Brig Gen Krishna Prasad Bhandari told Xinhua news agency.

The Nepal Army has been leading in waste collection on Mt. Everest and other tall mountains since 2019, and three teams have been mobilized this year to clean the highest peak as well as Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Baruntse and Mt. Annapurna.

The team led by Adhikari aims to collect around 10 tons of waste from the Mt. Everest area alone.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt. Everest, and a record high of 478 climbers from 65 countries and regions have received the permits to ascend it from the Nepal side during the spring climbing season, according to Nepal's Department of Tourism.