Kathmandu: Arthur Muir, a retired attorney from Chicago, who became the oldest American to scale Mount Everest, and Tsang Yin-hung, a Hong Kong teacher, who is now the fastest female climber of the world’s highest peak, on Sunday returned safely from the mountain where climbing teams have struggled with bad weather and a coronavirus outbreak.
Arthur Muir at the age of 75 scaled the peak earlier this month, beating the record set by another American, Bill Burke, at age 67.
Tsang Yin-hung, (45) of Hong Kong scaled the summit from the base camp in 25 hours and 50 minutes, and became the fastest female climber. The record of 10 hours and 56 minutes is held by a Sherpa guide, Lakpa Gelu.
A climbing accident on Everest in 2019, when Muir hurt his ankle falling off a ladder, did not deter him from attempting to scale the peak again. He began mountaineering late in life, and said he was scared and anxious during his latest adventure.
Muir began mountaineering at age 68 with trips to South America and Alaska before attempting Everest in 2019, when he fell off the ladder.
Climbing was closed last year due to the pandemic.
Married and a father of three, Muir has six grandchildren.
Tsang made only two stops between the base camp, located at 5,300 meters (17,390 feet), to the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit to change, and covered the near vertical distance in 25 hours and 50 minutes.
She was lucky because there were barely any climbers on the way to the highest camp at South Col. After that, on her way to the summit, she met only climbers making their descent, which did not slow her speed climb.
She made a previous attempt on May 11, but bad weather forced her to turn back from a point very close to the summit.
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