Nepal’s Phunjo Lama reclaims her title as the fastest female Everest summiter
Twenty-four hours, 6 minutes. That’s how long it took Phunjo Lama to summit Mount Everest and return to base camp this past May, setting the new fastest record for a woman ascending the world’s tallest peak. To avoid the dense crowds that can pile up on the mountain this time of year, Lama set out during the evening, foregoing sleep in the name of beating the previous record, set by Ada Tsang in 2021.
Lama had previously set a record with her summit in 2018, making the roundtrip journey in just over 39 hours. Records aren’t what motivates her, however, but rather a love for the landscape. Long a mountaineering guide for other summiters, Lama grew up living at 4500m above sea level in Nepal’s remote Tsum Valley until she moved to Kathmandu as a teen.
“Mountains are my playground and my home,” she recently told CNN. “A mountain never says that you are a woman and you are a man. Which is why I like mountains, because a mountain is always equal.”
