Cheering crowds gathered at Kathmandu Airport on Monday to welcome home mountaineer Nima Rinji Sherpa. The 18-year-old has become the youngest person in history to reach the top of all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter (26,000-foot) mountains.

On October 9 he reached the top of Mount Shishapangma in Tibet, thus completing what is considered the great feat of mountaineering.

"Thank you so much everyone," he told his supporters in Kathmandu on Monday.

Ahead of his return from China, he wrote on his official Instagram account that his achievement was a "tribute to every Sherpa who has ever dared to dream beyond the traditional boundaries set for them."

"Mountaineering is more than labor; it is a testament to our strength, resilience, and passion," he added.

Feat seldom achieved by seasoned climbers

Nima Rinji Sherpa comes from a family deeply rooted in the Sherpa mountaineering community and his father and uncles run a popular trekking company. Despite this, he only started high-altitude climbing two years ago at the age of 16.

All of the so-called "eight-thousanders" are in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, crossing Nepal, Pakistan, China and India. To reach the peaks, mountaineers must cross what is known as the "death zone" for its unpredictable weather and lack of oxygen.

Since Italian Reinhold Messner became the first to summit all 14 peaks in 1986, only 50 climbers have managed the same feat.

es/zc (AP, AFP)