Hong Kong Teacher Sets Record as Fastest Female Climber to Reach the Summit of Mount Everest

A Hong Kong teacher set the record for the fastest female climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest when she reached the peak on May 23.

Tsang Yin-hung, a 44-year-old mountaineer and teacher from Hong Kong, set the record for the fastest female climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 23, 2021.

A Nepal government official who timed Yin-hung told the media that she scaled the 29,031 feet ( 8,848.86-metre) mountain in 25 hours and 50 minutes, beating the previous record by 13 hours.

The mountain climber had tried to reach the summit earlier in May, but her guide, Pemba Sherpa, advised her to stop due to bad weather conditions. She then did the climb later in the month.

Yin-hung told the press she felt relieved and happy to have made the record, but she never set out to do so. She explained she could show that her hard work paid off to her students and friends:

"I feel relieved because I can prove my work to my friends, to my students."

Yin-hung has always told her students and friends that if they aim high and expect high outcomes, they will achieve high rewards. So it's only suitable that she broke such an impressive record.

During the climb, Yin-hung only took two breaks to change her clothes between a base camp at 17,390 feet and the summit of Everest, which sits at 29,032 feet. Fortunately, she did not encounter any other climbers making their ascent.

A 75-year-old retired Chicago Lawyer, Arthur Muir, broke the record for the oldest person.

This was advantageous as other climbers could have created a delay. After she made it to the highest camp, South Col, she encountered climbers making their descent, but they did not impact her time.

Yin-hung, who was born in mainland China but moved to Hong Kong at 10 years old with her family, stayed humble about her impressive feat , explaining that luck had a part to play in her climb:

"For the summit, it is not just not your ability, team work, I think luck is very important."

The climber started her mountaineering 11 years ago and first climbed Everest in 2017. Four years later, she ended up breaking the record for the fastest female climber previously held by a Nepali woman, Phunjo Jhangmu Lama, who did it in 39 hours and 6 minutes.

Other Everest records were broken this year. A 75-year-old retired Chicago Lawyer, Arthur Muir, broke the record for the oldest person to summit the mountain. The record was previously held by Bill Burke, who climbed the mountain in 2009 at 67.

Another record broken this year was by Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa, who broke the record for the most ascents of the mountain as he made his 25th ascent this season.

Nepal also issued a record number of permits this year. The country handed out 408 Everest permits, and so far, up to 350 people have summited the mountain. The season ends after May when bad weather comes to the area.