South African woman conquers Mount Everest in 27 days, on fourth try

Once, twice, thrice she failed but for the failure seemed to have been only her booster. She has now made history after conquering the highest mountain above sea level, the famous Mount Everest.

This is the story of South African Saray Khumalo who is officially the first black African woman to make it to the summit of Mount Everest. It took her 27 days to get to the top of Mount Everest.

The government, local media and South Africans on social media are celebrating her feat. “Congratulations to iMbokodo Saray Khumalo for being the first Black African Woman to reach the top of the world by conquering Mount Everest,” the government said on Twitter.

With a journey up of 8,850-metre (29,035-feet) reports indicate that finally achieved her goal on Thursday morning. Ms Khumalo is a business executive based in Johannesburg. She had previously tried the feat in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

She wrote about her dream to conquer Everest: “My dream is to go higher and go further for as long as I breathe. To pave a way for my children and other ordinary people, so we may realise and accept that ordinary people like us can achieve extraordinary heights.

“To not think too much about the difficulties on the way but keep focused on the end goal and to take their hand, motivate them to realise that they too may dream the impossible dream.”

Timeline of Khumalo’s journey up

• April 20 – Khumalo arrives at Base Camp;
• April 26 – Khumalo ascents to Camp Three before returning to Base Camp to acclimatise;
• May 12 – Khumalo leaves Base Camp;
• May 14 – Khumalo arrives at Camp Three;
• May 15 – Khumalo rests for a few hours at Camp Four before the final push;
• May 16 – Khumalo reaches the top of the world.

Mount Everest, known in Nepali as Sagarmatha and in Tibetan as Chomolungma, is earth’s highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The international border between Nepal and China runs across its summit point.