ON the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest, Glenmorangie has claimed an altitude record after finding photographs taken at 21,300ft on the mountain of a bottle of their single malt.

In May 1993 the company sponsored the first British woman climber, Rebecca Stephens, to climb Everest and provided her team with Glenmorangie 10 Year Old to raise spirits at Base Camp.

Now, 20 years on, the firm has found pictures in its archive of team members at Camp Two at 21,300 ft holding a bottle of Glenmorangie, believed to be the highest a bottle of single malt has ever reached on Earth.

Glenmorangie managing director Paul Skipworth said: "We were amazed to discover last week that they had actually taken a bottle to Camp Two, which we believe to be the topmost point on Earth that a bottle of single malt has ever reached."

The find comes almost 60 years to the day after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay scaled the world's highest peak. To mark the occasion, Glenmorangie will make a donation to Ms Stephens' chosen charities –the Mount Everest Foundation and The Himalayan Trust UK.

She said: "It's only when Glenmorangie showed me the pictures from their archive that I realised how significant taking that bottle up to Camp Two had been."

Weeks after her Everest climb Ms Stephens returned to Glenmorangie's Highland distillery to lay down a cask.

In 2003, it was bottled to commemorate her achievement and to raise £15,000 for The Himalayan Trust UK, which helps the Sherpa community.