Hong Kong teacher Ada Tsang makes safe return to base camp after Everest climb
The city’s first woman to conquer the world’s highest peak later taken to Kathmandu via helicopter after brief rest
Ada Tsang Yin-hung, 40, reached the summit of 8848-metre Everest, along with fellow Hongkonger Elton Ng on Sunday morning. They are among 10 Hongkongers who have accomplished the feat.
The pair arrived at the base camp at an altitude of 5,300 metres at about 12.30pm (Hong Kong time), according to Mingma Sherpa, a representative of the guide agency providing them with assistance, who said the two later returned to Kathmandu in Nepal via helicopter after a brief rest at the camp.
“At the top of Everest, I wish for all Hong Kong people under the Lion Rock to pursue their dreams and do things they’ve always wanted to do. What I want to do the most right now is to go back to Hong Kong,” a cheerful Ng said in a Facebook live video on his way to Kathmandu. The physiotherapist said he will return to Hong Kong on Thursday morning.
Ng said the journey was “not easy” as he encountered many challenges to reach the top. Illustrating the dangers the team faced, four climbers died on the mountain in the past month. “The weather was terrible when I tried to reach the summit,” he said.
The two-day trek and staying at the camp has made him and Tsang very good friends.
While Tsang could not be immediately reached, pictures sent to the Post by Sherpa showed a beaming Tsang sitting in front of a tent, with a smile on her face.
Tsang has said her pursuit of mountaineering allowed her to lead by example and inspire her students with a lesson from outside the classroom.
“I am super happy for Ada. This time, she made it. She is such a nice person but she had bad luck in 2014 and 2015,” Sherpa said.
In 2014, on her first attempt to scale the mountain, Tsang was forced to abandon her trek after an avalanche near the base camp killed 16 Nepali Sherpa guides, leading to the suspension of all expeditions that season.
She returned to the Himalayas the next year. This time she was caught up in an avalanche triggered by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake that killed 17 climbers and left Tsang with a fractured skull.
