Mount Everest climbers hold world's highest tea party

March 11 (UPI) -- An adventurer from Seattle was awarded a Guinness World Record for hosting the world's highest tea party when he and his team sat down for hot beverages at a height of 21,312 feet above sea level on Mount Everest.

Andrew Hughes, an endurance athlete and adventurer, received word from Guinness World Records this month that he and his team had officially set the record for the world's highest tea party when they had tea and snacks at an altitude of 21,212 feet on May 5, 2021.

Hughes said he was preparing to summit the Nepal mountain during the COVID-19 pandemic when he came up with the idea to set a Guinness World Record in the process.

Hughes, who successfully reached the summit on May 23, 2021, served tea to team members Ronan Murphy, Kristin Bennett, Garrett Madison, Sid Pattison, Robert Smith, Art Muir, Helen Cokie Berenyi, Krisli Melesk, Ben Veres, Kevin Walsh, Kristin Harila, Mark Pattison, Rick Irvine and James Walker.

The tea party also featured a selection of Girl Scout Cookies.

"I brought them all the way from Seattle," Hughes said of the cookies in a news release, "but had ordered them purposely from Girl Scout Troop 6000 which has been specifically designed to benefit and contribute to the girls in New York's City Shelter System."