- 73rd Everest Day
KATHMANDU, MAY 28
American mountain runner Tyler Andrews scripted history by scaling Mount Everest (8,848.86m) from Base Camp to summit in just 9 hours and 55 minutes, setting a new Fastest Known Time (FKT) for an oxygen-assisted ascent and capping what has been one of the most remarkable Everest seasons on record.
Andrews, an endurance athlete and co-founder of the Chaski Foundation, left Everest Base Camp at 7:11 PM on May 27 and stood atop the summit at 5:06 AM on May 28, breaking the previous oxygen-assisted FKT of 10 hours and 56 minutes set by Lakpa Gelu Sherpa in 2003, according to Dawa Steven Sherpa, Managing Director of Asian Trekking, which organised the expedition.
The climb was Andrews' sixth attempt at the record over two years, having previously tried without supplemental oxygen before switching to an oxygen-supported bid.
The achievement adds Andrews to a long list of record-setters this season. He holds over 100 speed records globally, including marks on Manaslu, Ama Dablam, Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, and Mount Fuji. In September 2024, he set a speed record on Manaslu (8,163m), completing the ascent in 9 hours and 52 minutes without supplemental oxygen, breaking the previous record by more than two hours.
The Everest attempt was part of Project Himalaya: Run Everest, a fundraising initiative for the Chaski Foundation's youth athletic programmes in Nepal and Ecuador, and was dedicated to the memory of Greg Krupa, a fellow runner and supporter of the foundation who passed away in April 2026.
Andrews was safely descending from the South Summit on Thursday, Dawa Steven informed. A feature-length documentary on the full journey is also currently in development.
A season of records and milestones
The Spring 2026 Everest season, which closes on Friday, May 29 - Everest Day and the 73rd anniversary of the first ascent - has been one for the record books in nearly every measure. Summit counts crossed 900 and were expected to cross 1,000 by season close, according to Khimlal Gautam, Chief of the Department of Tourism's field office at Base Camp, a figure that would mark the highest single-season summit total in Everest's history.
A total of 494 climbers obtained summit permits across 51 teams, comprising 389 men and 105 women, with total royalties received amounting to Rs 1,078,691,475. This was also the first season under the new permit fee structure, with the fee raised from $11,000 to $15,000.
On May 20, a record 274 climbers summited Everest in a single day from the Nepal side, the highest single-day figure in the mountain's history.
The season's most prominent individual milestones included Kami Rita Sherpa extending his own world record with a 32nd Everest summit on May 17; Pasang Dawa Sherpa reaching the top for a 30th time; Lhakpa Sherpa becoming the first woman to summit Everest 11 times; and Chhuldim Ang Dorjee Sherpa and Pema Chhiring Sherpa each completing their 25th ascents.
Mingma David Sherpa, Nepal's first mountaineer-parliamentarian, summited on May 27, becoming the first elected lawmaker in history to stand atop the world's highest peak, carrying Nepal's Parliament flag to the summit and returning safely to base camp the same day. British guide Kenton Cool logged his 20th Everest ascent, the most by any non-Nepali climber, while American Garrett Madison reached the top for a 16th time, becoming the second non-Nepali with the most Everest ascents after Cool.
China led all countries with 109 permit holders, followed by the United States (77), India (61), the United Kingdom (32), Japan (14), Australia (15), Russia (18), Canada (12), Ireland (11), Brazil (10), Nepal (12), and Poland (12).
A season that nearly stalled
The season was not without its anxious moments. A large unstable hanging serac at the Khumbu Icefall blocked the route to Camp I for eight days in late April, delaying the start of acclimatisation rotations and compressing the already narrow summit window. The route eventually opened on April 28 after a joint team of 13 EOAN mountain guides and eight SPCC icefall doctors pushed through, following an earlier unauthorised crossing by a small independent group that suggested a viable line. EOAN General Secretary Rishi Ram Bhandari credited the combined effort for saving the season.
Despite the early drama, the season recorded relatively few casualties. Five deaths were confirmed, two Indian climbers, Arun Kumar Tiwari and Sandeep Are, who died during descent after summiting on May 21, and three Nepali climbers: Phura Gyaljen Sherpa, 21, who fell into a crevasse near Camp III; Bijay Ghimire Bishwakarma, the first Dalit to summit Everest, who died of suspected cardiac arrest in the Khumbu Icefall on May 10; and Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, 52, who died on May 4 after falling while hiking from Gorak Shep. The casualty rate was at 0.5 per cent, low for a season of this scale, Gautam noted.
"The current season was an unexpectedly successful one," Gautam said. "But this situation clearly shows that we now need to think about Everest expeditions from a new perspective."