Writer climbs up with the greatest Sherpa to scale the peaks, so to speak (6)
I believe the answer is:
nepali
'sherpa to scale the peaks so to speak' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'writer climbs up with the greatest' is the wordplay.
'writer' becomes 'pen' (something which writes).
'climbs up' says the letters should be written backwards (I've seen 'climbing up' mean this).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'the greatest' becomes 'ali' (Muhammad Ali was known as the Greatest).
'pen' written backwards gives 'nep'.
'nep'+'ali'='NEPALI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nepali that I've seen before include "Native of one Himalayan state" , "Kathmandu native" , "Foreigner" , "One from Katmandu" , "Asian national" .)