FILE – In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
FILE- In this March 19, 2021, file photo, a Nepalese health worker collects a nasal swab sample of Bahraini prince Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa to test for COVID-19 before he heads for an expedition to Mount Everest in Kathmandu, Nepal. A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
FILE- In this Nov. 12, 2015 file photo, Mount Everest is seen from the way to Kalapatthar in Nepal. A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A retired attorney from Chicago who became the oldest American to scale Mount Everest, and 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 been struggling with bad weather and a coronavirus outbreak.
Arthur Muir, 75, scaled the peak earlier this month, beating the record 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 10 hours and 56 minutes is held by a Sherpa guide, Lakpa Gelu.
A climbing accident in 2019, when he hurt his ankle falling off a ladder, did not deter Muir from attempting to scale the peak again. The retired lawyer, who began mountaineering late in life, said he was scared and anxious during his latest adventure.
“You realize how big a mountain it is, how dangerous it is, how many things that could go wrong. Yeah, it makes you nervous, it makes you know some anxiety there and maybe little bit of scared,” Muir told reporters in Kathmandu.
“I was just surprised when I actually got to there (summit) but I was too tired to stand up, and in my summit pictures I am sitting down,” he said.
Muir began mountaineering at age 68 with trips to South America and Alaska before attempting Everest in 2019, when he fell off the aluminum ladder.
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