A former teacher from Hong Kong just broke the record for the fastest Everest ascent by a woman
- Ada Tsang Yin-hung, a former teacher from Hong Kong, scaled Everest in 25 hours and 50 minutes.
- This was Tsang's third attempt at Everest. In 2017, she was the first Hong Kong woman to reach the peak.
- The previous record-holder, Nepali Phunjo Jhangmu Lama, did so in 39 hours and 6 minutes.
A former middle school teacher from Hong Kong just broke the record for the fastest female climber to reach the peak of Mount Everest.
According to a report from Al Jazeera, Ada Tsang Yin-hung, 44, reached the summit of the 29,031-foot peak on May 23. She completed the ascent in 25 hours and 50 minutes.
Tsang beat the 2018 record for the fastest ascent by a woman, set by Nepali climber Phunjo Jhangmu Lama, who scaled Everest in 39 hours and six minutes.
Tsang left the Everest base camp at 1:20 p.m. and embarked on a non-stop climb, reaching the top at 3:10 p.m. the next day, per the South China Morning Post.
"I always tell my team, 'Aim high, expect high, so you can achieve high.' When I reached the mountain top, I felt like I proved this was not just empty talk," Tsang told the SCMP.
This was not Tsang's first time reaching the summit.
Tsang told Hong Kong news outlet HK01 that her first attempt in 2014 failed when an avalanche cut off her team's path to the top. In 2017, she successfully completed a four-day trek to the top of Everest.
She told the SCMP that breaking the record for the fastest climb by a woman was not her goal at the outset this time. Instead, she just wanted to see how hard it would be to finish her ascent in a shorter amount of time.
Attempts at reaching the summit persist even through the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped climbers from flocking to Everest.
The LA Times reported this week that 41 teams were pushing on with their mountaineering attempts even after reports of a COVID-19 outbreak in the Everest base camp. Local authorities have issued 408 permits to foreign climbers this season.
Tsang is one of three individuals who have recently left their marks on the mountaineering scene at Everest.
On May 23, 75-year-old Arthur Muir summited Everest and officially became the oldest American to reach the top of the world's highest peak, the BBC reported. And on May 24, Zhang Hong, a 46-year-old Chinese national, became the first blind man from Asia to reach the peak, per Reuters.
On May 12, two climbers died on Everest's high-altitude death zone after they lost consciousness amid harsh conditions. Three people - a Sherpa who died on May 18, and the two climbers - have died on the mountain this year.
Around 1% of all climbers die while attempting to summit Mount Everest. No permits were issued in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the climbing season in May 2019 saw a particularly high death toll of 11 people.