Kami Rita Sherpa had stood at the top of the world just days earlier, exultant at having summited Mount Everest for a record 28th time.

The Nepali climber was given a hero's welcome on his return to Kathmandu, but all that joy appeared to have deserted him as he surveyed life's highs and lows from an armchair in the small, neat living room of his rented apartment, while his wife poured tea.

"There is no future in Nepal," the 53-year-old father of two told Reuters over the weekend.

"Why stay here?" he asked, speaking in his native Nepali and a smattering of broken English.

"We need a future for ourselves... for our children."

Wearing a baseball cap bearing the legend "Everest Man", and his face blackened by wind and snow burns, Kami Rita is clearly proud of his achievements. But he is also grateful that the money he made as a guide on mountain expeditions helped him move to Nepal's capital so that his children could have the education he never received.

His son, 24, is studying tourism and his daughter, 22, is doing an Information Technology course.

"This would not have been possible had I continued to stay at Thame and not taken to climbing," said Kami Rita, who left school in his mountain village when he was around 12 years old.