Kenton Cool is master of the mountains

Fresh off the plane from Kathmandu, after his latest Everest expedition, Cool confesses that most of his baggage allowance was taken up with a soda stream. "It's important to be interested in food. By taking Parma ham or Branston pickle or making the water more interesting you'll have some because it's nice rather than thinking: I must eat 150 calories to get up Everest'." Then, with a mischievous grin, he adds: "You'd be surprised at how much I know about calories."

Cool, 36, says he's called "the bad boy of the mountain" by his peers because he climbs commercially, dividing his time between co-running mountain guiding firm Dream Guides in Chamonix and public speaking in London.

But even with eight summits under his belt, a good run is never problem-free. Only last week Cool found himself heading back up Everest to help 22-year-old Bonita Norris — the youngest woman to scale Everest — who had fallen at around 8,500m and had frostbite. "Luckily she was lucid. But we were all fearful as she'd been outside for 26-28 hours."

Everest expeditions have attracted criticism of late for exploiting unfit, inexperienced tourists. "A rival company this year had 15 clients who'd mostly never worn a harness. There are people who are willing to take your money to get you up. Sure, it's a honey pot."

So one can't help but wonder if Norris was too green — would someone such as Cool's previous client, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, have tripped up so easily?

"Maybe not but then I could break
my neck tomorrow," says Cool. "It comes down to physical strength and resilience, which Bonita had — she wouldn't have made it otherwise."

Scottish climber Peter Kinloch was not so lucky. He reached the top last week only to die during his descent. He suddenly lost his sight and had to be abandoned by the party struggling to bring him back down the mountain. He is the 30th climber to die on Everest in the past five years.

Cool puts Norris's physical endurance down to her two-hour daily runs but, as he puts it: "Two hours' running in a park doesn't compare to 20-odd hours spent climbing in knee-high snow at minus temperatures. Having a high base level of fitness helps, though. Usually I advise people to walk their dogs for 10 hours on a Saturday to get a feeling for the long slog. The physical preparation is important but you also need to want to climb it: 80 per cent is mental preparation."

The implication is that experienced climbers can cut corners but, says Cool, who skis to keep fit when he's not climbing, you can't. "You're still dealing with an 8,848 metre-high mountain" — risking frostbite, hypothermia and extreme altitude sickness for 10 weeks.

Some 250 Western climbers try to summit Everest every year. Of these, Cool says: "Some [of their guides] have good credentials, some have flaky ones The commercial teams can get people to the top and it's great until it goes wrong and there are such small safety measures."

This is the striking difference between his £40,000 bill — Norris arranged her trip up Everest's South side mainly through sponsorship — and that of other companies who guide up the North side for around £20,000. But for that price, Cool serves more than posh nosh.

"I guided four clients on my recent trip, another firm I know had two guides for 19 clients and only a few summited. If something serious had happened to two of them, then what? You send the other 17 down? But it's good to see people on the mountain. What's great is that it's open to anyone. But people must take responsibility for their actions."

Cool does. In 2007 his mother was diagnosed with cancer and at the end of that year's trip he flew back early. This year, once Norris was back home, Cool raced back to Britain to be with his heavily pregnant wife, Jazz. He is taking 10 days off before returning to Chamonix. "This autumn I'm skiing down Manaslu and I hope to be on Everest next year. But 2012 will be big." With that, he slopes off into Fulham Broadway to unpack and, presumably, plan his next record.

Kenton Cool will be speaking at the Intelligence2 Mountain Festival, June 15, £25, intelligencesquared.com