Nepali mountaineer reclaims title of fastest woman to climb Everest

A Nepali woman has set the record for scaling the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, in less than 15 hours.

Phunjo Lama reclaimed the title of the fastest woman to scale Everest on Thursday morning.

She started the climb from the base camp at 3.52pm on Wednesday and stood atop the 29,032ft summit at 6.23am local time on Thursday.

“She has scaled Everest in 14 hours and 31 minutes,” Khim Lal Gautam, a senior official with the Expedition Monitoring Field Office at the Everest base camp, was quoted as saying by The Himalayan Times.

Ms Lama is a mountaineer from a remote village called Chhokangparo in the Tsum Valley of Manaslu region.

She came to worldwide attention in 2018 when she set the record for being the fastest woman to scale the Himalayan peak in 39 hours and 6 minutes.

Her record was broken in 2021 by Ada Tsang Yin-hung, 45, of Hong Kong who scaled the peak in 25 hours and 50 minutes.

Before this climbing season started, Ms Lama had decided to reclaim her title, said Shiva Bahadur Sapkota, general secretary of the Everest Summiteers Association.

Ms Lama, who is reportedly a single mother in her thirties, has trained in the Swiss Alps and Nepal’s Himalayas. She summited Everest on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti — a significant Buddhist festival — and advocated for world peace.

“Through my climbing I wish to promote women’s empowerment in Nepal and inspire other young girls to chase their dreams and show them that anything is possible,” she said earlier, “and in the future become a mentor for other young women who wish to become climbers.”

The Independent has reached out to Ms Lama for comment.

Ms Lama, who is the first female helicopter longline rescuer in Nepal, has been awarded the Tenzing-Hillary Award by her country.

Nepal, meanwhile, has announced a new set of rules for mountaineers in the Himalayas following a deadly year in which 18 people died on Everest and five bodies had to be left on the mountain.

As the spring climbing season gets underway, Nepali officials say climbers must carry small, passive trackers that can be sewn into a jacket and don’t need power to run. They can be detected through packed snow up to 20 yards away and further when tracked from the air using a handheld detector.