Peak performance
Fastest woman to climb Everest
A Hong Kong teacher has become the fastest woman to scale Mount Everest — smashing the previous record by more than 13 hours.
Tsang Yin-hung, 45, climbed from the base camp to the summit of the world’s highest peak in 25 hours, 50 minutes, beating the record of 39 hours, 6 minutes set by Nepal’s Phunjo Jhangmu Lama.
“I just feel kind of relief and happy because I am not looking for breaking a record,” Tsang said. “I feel relieved because I can prove my work to my friends, to my students.”
She only took two breaks to change clothes while climbing from the base camp, located at 17,390 feet, to the 29,032-foot summit on May 23.
She said she barely encountered any other climbers on her way to the highest camp at South Col, and after that, ran only into people making their descent, which did not impact her final leg up to the summit.
“For the summit, it is not just not your ability, team work, I think luck is very important,” Tsang said.
She tried to scale the mountain during a previous trip earlier this month, but poor weather forced her to turn around.
Tsang was born in mainland China and moved with her family to Hong Kong when she was 10, Agence France-Presse reported.
She said her family had “no resources,” forcing her to participate in free athletic programs at her school.
“When I was young I used to run on the mountains, play basketball and do other sports,” she said.
She began to train as a mountaineer 11 years ago and first climbed Everest in 2017.
There have been around 350 people who have summited the mountain this spring, as climbing groups grappled with bad weather and the COVID-19 outbreak, tourism officials said.
Tsang wasn’t the only recordbreaker this weekend. Retired Chicago lawyer Arthur Muir, 75, a grandfather of six, became the oldest American to climb Everest.
“You realize how big a mountain it is, how dangerous it is, how many things that could go wrong,” Muir told reporters after descending on Sunday. “Yeah, it makes you nervous. It makes you know some anxiety there and maybe a little bit of scared.”
Bill Burke had held the previous record for oldest American — scaling Everest at 67 in 2009.
The fastest male climber is Lakpa Gelu, a Sherpa guide who completed the feat in 10 hours and 56 minutes.