The Record Setting Women of Everest. #10 for Lhakpa Sherpa
and 18 year old American Lucy Westlake Summits at Sunrise
With clear skies, low winds and warm temperatures, Lhakpa
Sherpa just made her 10th ascent of Mount Everest, the most for any woman. Like
her male counterpart Kami Rita Sherpa on 26 ascents, she just keeps breaking
her own record.
And Lucy Westlake just became the youngest American woman to
scale the peak, at just 18 years of age. An endurance athlete, triathlete and
also the youngest woman to complete the U.S.’s 50 high points last year, it
seems she may just be getting started.
She surpassed American Samantha Larson, who was also 18, who
finished up with Everest on her way to becoming the youngest American woman to
do all the 7 summits.
Melissa Arnot, with Dave Morton in Camp 1 on Makalu. Melissa
holds the American record for most ascents of Everest by a woman, with 6. More
impressively, her last one was done without oxygen up the North Ridge. Photo:
Robert Anderson
And should you wonder who is the overall youngest woman? It
was 13 year old Indian Malavath Purna who reached the summit on 25 May, 2014,
admitting she didn’t even know it was a world record when she did it.
Also Indian, Santosh Yadav was the first woman to climb Everest
twice, on her second ascent ascending the far more challenging and dangerous
Kangshung Face in 1993, along the route I first led an expedition to in 1988
and climbed along with Paul Teare, Ed Webster and Stephen Venables.
The first woman to summit Everest of course was Junko Tabei,
in 1975, who then went on to also be the first woman to ascend the Seven
Summits, in 1992. At 4′ 9″ tall (145 cm.), it’s quite possible she may also
hold the record for the most number of steps taken to reach the top?
The first woman to reach the top without oxygen was the
indomitable New Zealander Lydia Bradey (right), in 1988, before going on to
summit the mountain a further 5 times. More recently, in 2019, she guided
Roxanne Vogel (left) on her international odyssey from San Francisco to the top
of Everest in just 12 days. Photo: Mingma Sherpa
The fastest ascent on the South Side of Everest was made by
Hong Kong Teacher Tsang Yin-Hung, in a shade under 26 hours. “When you aim
high, expect high,” says the teacher, who said she was not looking to break the
record, just challenge herself.
Should you fear there is just not enough time left in your
life for Everest, Japanese woman Tamae Watanabe summited first at 63 years of
age from the North side, then came back and did it again at 73 via the South
Col, breaking her own record for the oldest woman to the top.
The Full Circle Everest team has three women members as
well, Abby Dione, Rosemary Saal and Adina Scott. So while attempting to become
the first all Black team to climb together, they could also be putting some of
the first black women on top of the peak as well.
Sophia Danenberg on the summit in 2006, who like Samantha
Larson, were happy to make the trip to New York to spend a night at the Ruben
Museum for our Peak Experience, guiding and teaching young New Yorkers about
ascending to the heights of Everest.
The first African-American and Black woman to climb Everest
was Sophia Danenberg, ascending the South Col route in 2006. If Everest is the
high point for many people, Sophia’s other accomplishments, if anything, put it
in the pale of her continued accomplishments in business and in life.
This year, with her ascents of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri
already completed in just 10 days of climbing, Norwegian Kristin Harila will
soon be headed to Everest on her quest to break Nims Dai record and complete
all the 8,000 meter peaks in a record setting 6 months – lets just hope the
weather holds for her.
Kristin Harila – two of the the 8,000 meter peaks down, 12,
including Everest to go.
And if anyone is opting to keep the noise down on Everest
down and their carbon footprint a bit lower by forgoing the common helicopter
ride back down the Khumbu, they can make an attempt at Lizzy Hawker’s record,
for running from Everest Base Camp back to Kathmandu in just 63 hours – a
record that holds across both men and woman.
