Did anyone really doubt Usain 'Lightning' Bolt would become the greatest sprinter on earth after watching him smash his first world record in 2008? Did the rest of the golfing world really stand a chance once Tiger Woods had claimed his first golf major at Augusta in 1997?

There's something about a great name. It carries an aura that makes people sit up and take notice, it opens doors, it thrusts you into the spotlight, but it's never enough on its own. You need the talent to back it up if you want to reach the top of your chosen profession. Then, perhaps most importantly, you need the drive to keep yourself at the summit.

Step forward Kenton Cool, undisputed king of the mountains. Anyone with even a passing interest in climbing will have found it hard to avoid the recent achievements of the 37-year-old mountain guide. It seems unfair to describe Cool as the rising star of British mountaineering, because it now seems like he's out in front, breaking new ground with almost every challenge he takes on.

In 2006, he became the first Briton to complete a ski descent of an 8,000m peak. In 2007, he became the first British guide to lead a client (the famous Sir Ranulph Fiennes no less) successfully up the treacherous North Face of the Eiger in an ascent that raised over £2.5 million for charity. In May this year he broke his own European record by scaling Mount Everest for the eighth time. Then, in October, he fitted in a ski descent of Manasulu (the world's eighth highest mountain at 8,156) to set another record: first Brit to ski two 8,000ers.

Cool is no ordinary climber. He's a man driven by a thirst for adventure, the desire to push himself to the limit, a burning ambition to be the best, and an astute business brain. But success doesn't just fall at anyone's feet. We all have to start from the bottom, as he explained to me from the Chamonix base of his Dream Guides company. "I first got interested in climbing when I was in the Scouts, but I only became heavily involved when I went to Leeds University in 1991," he said.

"There were a lot of us who loved climbing, we were a super-tight group with lots of energy. There were so many places to climb around Yorkshire, so it took over my life. It was never a case of if we were going to climb at the weekends, it was more like where were we going to climb? I got a typical climbing bum job and spent my spare time in the car driving to all sorts of places; the chalk cliffs at Dover, Wales, Belgium, Bristol, Yorkshire, we practiced everywhere."

"I graduated with a 2:1 in geology, but sacked off a possible academic career because I wanted to climb. My mum was very supportive, which was a great relief because I finally realised there could be a career in what I wanted to do."

"I was never an amazing rock climber but I tested myself in the Alps, then decided to go to the Himalayas. I loved traveling and was fascinated by big mountains, so in my second year of uni I traveled to Pakistan on a climbing trip. That was an amazing experience and I met a lot of great people. It was also when I realised that I was half decent at what I was doing and that I could handle myself at altitude."

Cool suffered a serious fall in the Llanberis slate quarries in 1996 that left him badly injured and out of the game for over a year, but he came back more determined than ever and joined the British Mountain Guides scheme. He gained a big reputation with a series of pioneering ascents, not least a major new route on Annapurna III, which earned him and his two partners a nomination for the prestigious Piolet D'Or Award in France.

It wasn't long before Everest came knocking at the door, but what was it that first drew him to the ceiling of the world? "The first time on Everest, I found myself being paid as the lead guide" he told me. "My climb on Annapurna III in 2003 had gone really well and I was offered a guide's job by a great company from Sheffield called Jagged Globe. "The Everest trip came straight off the back of my guide training, but Jagged Globe was an awesome company that taught me a lot. We only had two clients, but I learned the value of organisation and communication on that first trip – it was a massive learning curve."

And what about that feeling of standing on top of the world for the first time? "The first time was epic." He said. "The first client was just behind me when I reached the summit, so I had five minutes at the top to savour the moment. It was a great sunny day so I sat there trying to pick out all the other nearby mountains. It was a mind-blowing moment that I felt proud and privileged to enjoy."

As much as he revelled in that first ascent, nobody could have predicted the unprecedented success Cool would achieve on Everest over the next six years – he even set a record in 2007 by summiting twice in one week. So what keeps drawing him back to the highest point on Earth? "I love going back to Everest and have made lots of great friends there," he said. "It's different to climbing somewhere like Mont Blanc, because it's kind of old school, a bit like an assault or a siege. The scale is massive, so you need to accept you'll do a lot of waiting around for weather windows and that can be frustrating, but it's all part of the experience. If you can't deal with that, you're probably in the wrong place."

"We play a lot of cards and scrabble at Base Camp and it takes a lot of patience, but it's a very different kind of experience that's great fun. It feels like nothing exists outside Base Camp. Life is so different on Everest to the point that I sometimes wonder what real life really is. Is it on Everest or back home?"

"We missed the whole general election this year, so it's easy to lose a grasp on reality. But then you come home and see things like a murderer on the run in Newcastle and wonder if you're better off back on Everest. I suppose it's a form of escapism that gives you a new lease of life, and it can be a nice break from what's considered normal life."

"Climbing the mountain again never feels as breathtaking as the first time, but I still love it. I massively enjoyed it this year because we were out at the front breaking the trail and it felt like Everest expeditions of old. The romance of the first time may have gone, but a successful trip is still very rewarding."

One of the obvious consequences of sustained success in such a high-profile arena is fame, which is something Cool has become accustomed to in recent years. Some people find recognition hard to come to terms with, but like every challenge he seems to face, he's taken it comfortably in his stride. "The media attention I've been getting is definitely good for business," he said.

"It's good for Dream Guides and it's good for the public speeches I do, so having a high profile has to be a good thing. Am I sellout? Well, some would say I am for forfeiting personal climbing for guiding and courting a media profile. But that's just the way it is. I've got a wife, a young daughter and two mortgages, so I'm not ashamed of my high profile and I'll make use of it while I've still got it."

"Do I like it? I suppose I do. I'm not exactly David Beckham, I don't get stopped by people in the street asking for autographs, but the fame has definitely been a good thing for me."

Cool has admitted in the past that people refer to him as ‘the bad boy of the mountain' because he now climbs commercially rather than purely for the love of it, but he hasn't let it get to him.

"People always criticise commercial expeditions, but when things go wrong and people get into trouble on Everest, we're the ones who are happy to help them out," he said.

"It costs me a lot of money to go back up and get involved in rescues. Plus I'm putting my Sherpas, and my life, on the line. People shouldn't criticise us, because most of the problems on Everest come from poorly organised or non-commercial expeditions. But we have broad shoulders, and we have the reserves and energy to do it - it's in our interests for things to run smoothly for everyone."

"We charge our clients around $60,000 for an Everest expedition, but there are companies that do it for a third of that price. That's great if you get up and down with no problems, but it's the low budget teams who often get into trouble. We have more Sherpas, tents, radios, oxygen – everything is of a better standard. And without being bigheaded, our clients are buying into my experience on the mountain, which doesn't come cheap."

"I don't want to point fingers at other teams, because accidents can happen to anyone. We had a situation with one of our clients this year (22-year-old Bonita Norris) where she fell and lost feeling in her legs, so we had to do a rescue from 8,700m. We were prepared for it and had enough reserves, so thankfully she got down safely. It's all about covering bases and preparing for the worse."

"We don't take loads of clients every year. We like to have a smaller team who can share victories and tears as one. It's all about the experience, which we want to be safe and fun."

So how does the experience of guiding clients up the mountain compare to breaking out and doing it on your own? "It's very different because you have to reel yourself in when you're a guide," he said. "I don't climb as much as I used to. I've probably gone from rock climbing five times a week to about five times a year, but things change. I still have a massive passion for climbing because it's more than just a sport, it's a way of life."

Cool's remarkable achievements in the Himalayas mean his name will always be inexorably linked with the world's highest mountain, but it was perhaps his daring descent of a mountain 20km to the west of Everest that marked his finest hour. He was persuaded to climb Cho Oyu, the world's sixth highest peak, in 2006 by a former Everest client and be part of a small team who would ski down from the summit. His companion, Nick Farr, reached the summit but couldn't get his frozen boots on, leaving Cool to ski down on his own. He'd only been skiing for five years, but that didn't stop him becoming the first British person to complete a successful descent of an 8,000m peak.

"I jumped at the chance to do the ski descent," he said. "But one by one all my team-mates were forced to drop out, leaving me to do it on my own."

"It was pretty daunting and very stressful. Nobody could believe it was me who actually ended up doing it on my own, because I'd done less skiing than the others. That was a pretty out-there expedition but I threw myself at it and it was an amazing experience."

Cool now splits his time between Everest, the Dream Guides base in Chamonix and his family home in Gloucestershire. His wife, Jazz, has recently given birth to the couple's first child, so life has just got a bit more complicated. "It's hard running your own company in another country and spending so much time away from your family," he said. "My wife and daughter are in the UK, so it's tough to find a balance."

"But I like the hectic life because I get bored quite quickly. I'm always doing something – climbing, cycling or turning up at airports and flying somewhere. I think a hectic life is a full life."

"Everest still looms large for me, though. I hope to back there in 2011, but I'll definitely be there in 2012. We have massive, epic plans for 2012 that we hope to announce soon."

"My immediate plans for the future are to keep growing the company, keep myself in the mountains and maybe get out and doing a bit more climbing for myself."

For my final question I wanted to know what the man with the entire world as his playground would consider the perfect day. What would he do if he had no responsibilities and could spend 24 hours doing exactly what he wanted? "That's an easy one," he told me. "Right now, I'd love to spend a day at home with my wife and baby daughter Saffron."

Oli Reed works for Match magazine and spends his life interviewing footballers – but he’d rather be out climbing. He previously interviewed Alain Robert in Summit 57.

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