Published June 25, 2026 05:19AM
At 4 A.M. on May 28, 36-year-old American athlete Tyler Andrews reached the South Summit of Mount Everest for the first time in his life. His goal, the main summit, was only a few hundred feet above him. It was his seventh attempt in two years to set a speed record on the mountain—and it wouldn’t be his last.
“I could see the top,” he told Outside. “It was right there. I could throw a rock at it.”
Even then, he wasn’t ready to celebrate. Before the day was over, on his eighth try, he succeeded in climbing from Base Camp to the summit in just 9 hours and 55 minutes—the fastest ascent ever recorded on that route.
“For every other attempt, I felt just as fit, just as ready, and something always went wrong,” he said. “I was just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
The concern was understandable. Over two years, Andrews had devoted himself full-time to the project and invested well into six figures of his own money across three Everest expeditions, yet had little to show for it. His goal was one of the most elusive prizes in high-altitude mountaineering: the fastest known time from Everest Base Camp to the summit without supplemental oxygen.
The record Andrews was trying to break, set by Kaji Sherpa in 1998 at 20 hours and 24 minutes, remains unbroken nearly three decades later.
For his final climb, Andrews made a different choice than on previous attempts. Donning supplemental oxygen at Camp II, he surged to the summit in 9 hours and 55 minutes, breaking the overall ascent record set by Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa in 2003 by more than an hour.
But the closest Andrews came to the no-oxygen record was arguably his first attempt.
Wardrobe Malfunctions at 24,000 Feet
During his first attempt on May 10, 2025, Andrews reached Camp III, located at 24,000 feet, in just 4 hours and 32 minutes, well ahead of record pace. Because of unusually warm conditions, he climbed to that point in running shoes fitted with microspikes. But when he stopped to change into high-altitude mountaineering boots, the zipper on an integrated gaiter failed in the cold, exposing his foot to the elements and increasing the risk of frostbite. He improvised a repair and tried to continue, but it wasn’t enough.
As the spring 2025 season progressed, Andrews made two more attempts, only to be turned back by bad weather and exhaustion.
He returned that autumn, hoping that a concurrent Red Bull ski expedition would leave the route open yet relatively free of the crowds that often slow climbers on Everest’s fixed lines. After two attempts, he remained empty-handed as the heavy snow made climbing slow and dangerous.
“Everything Fucking Sucks”
Both unsuccessful expeditions left Andrews facing another six months of training and preparation, but with renewed determination.
“Coming back to Kathmandu after both failed expeditions, I was just exhausted,” he said. “The difference between record chasing and racing is that record chasing is binary. It’s like you do it or you don’t do it. Your life is great, or everything fucking sucks.”
When he returned to Nepal in spring 2026, Andrews resumed his usual aggressive acclimatization schedule. He completed training laps on the 21,250-foot Mera Peak and Makalu, at 27,838 feet, then supplemented that work with long sessions on an exercise bike while breathing through a hypoxic system set to simulate an altitude of roughly 36,000 feet.
“I think I was probably the most well-acclimated person on Earth,” he told Outside. “I’m not trying to be arrogant, but I was using the hypoxic generator for the last month at 11,000 meters every day—that’s ten hours a week, on a [stationary] bicycle.”
His team gambled on attempting the record during a late-season weather window, when they expected most climbers to be off the mountain.
But time was running out. The route through the Khumbu Icefall was scheduled to close within days, and Andrews felt the pressure.
Conserving Energy for a Last-Ditch Everest Bid
He began his sixth attempt at 8 P.M. on May 23 despite a forecast calling for dangerous winds.
“I originally wanted to do two attempts and go with no oxygen first, because that was the harder one to do and harder to recover from,” he said. “Camp II was the real decision point. When I got there, our two Sherpas at Camp IV said, ‘There is crazy wind up here. We don’t think anyone is going to go for the summit with or without gas.’ So then I was like, ‘OK, put on the gas. We’ll see how it goes.”
Andrews’ sixth bid ended at around 26,000 feet when worsening weather and logistical issues forced him to turn around. As he descended, he deliberately conserved energy, knowing he would likely have one final chance before the mountain closed.
“I knew they were going to close the mountain on the 29th, and it’s now the 24th. Now we have only three days, so every second matters. We know we’re going to have to go on the 28th because it’s the latest possible day we can go,” he said.
A Controversial Summit on Everest
For Andrews’ final attempt, there was no question: he was going to use oxygen.
“We decided ahead of time that this was a gas attempt,” he said. “Honestly, it just felt like with this season and the way things had gone, there were just less variables out of my control with gas than without.”
The forecast also called for snow later on May 28, increasing the risks of a slower ascent without supplemental oxygen.
“I was very confident, and I still am, that I could do the no gas record,” he said. “But the likelihood that something’s going to go wrong on that day that is going to derail it—that’s going to have me back in Kathmandu crying in the shower—it’s just not worth it.”
“The no gas record was going to take at least 30 hours round trip, even in fast conditions,” he continued. “So we’re going to summit in the afternoon in a snowstorm and then come down in that snowstorm with no one on the mountain? The mountain is closing the next morning. It just felt too tight for us from a safety perspective.”
Andrews left Everest Base Camp for the seventh and final time at 7:11 P.M. on May 27. He reached the top of the Khumbu Icefall in two hours and eight minutes, put on oxygen at Camp I, and ran across the Western Cwm to Camp II.
His team’s decision to wait had paid off. The route was nearly empty.
Just over an hour after leaving Camp II, he passed Camp III. After another two hours, he reached Camp IV. The final climb to the summit took nearly three hours as daylight spread across the mountain’s Southeast Ridge.
At 5:06 A.M. on May 28, Andrews stood on the summit of Everest for the first time. In the process, he became the fastest person ever to climb the mountain from Base Camp to the summit, completing the ascent in 9 hours and 55 minutes.
Despite decent conditions and all of the years of effort, he didn’t linger.
“I was thinking about the descent the whole climb. I knew that I had gotten the ascent record. Even if I died on the way down, I thought, at least I have that.”
His greatest concern was the return through the Khumbu Icefall during the heat of the day, when warming temperatures increase objective hazards.
“I’ve never enjoyed being in the icefall,” he told Outside. “But it was pretty fucked up there this year. I booked it through the icefall on the way down in an hour. A really stressful hour.”
Andrews arrived back at Base Camp at 11:44 A.M. on May 28, completing the round trip in 16 hours and 32 minutes, including roughly 25 minutes spent on the summit. The mountaineer and his team celebrated the achievement publicly, but his decision to use supplemental oxygen raised eyebrows in some corners of the climbing community.
Tyler Andrews’ An Unapologetic Decision
According to the Himalayan Database, when Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa set the previous speed record in 2003, he used supplemental oxygen only above Camp IV and relied on oxygen systems that delivered significantly lower flow rates than modern equipment. Most commercial climbers today use roughly 2.5 liters per minute to conserve supplies at altitude. Andrews said he began using oxygen at Camp I and climbed at flow rates between four and six liters per minute during the ascent.
He is unapologetic about the decision.
“I don’t have any remorse about my decision. At the end of the day, I pushed myself just as hard with oxygen as I would have without,” he said. “I wanted to do something that I was going to be satisfied with, and that I could come down the mountain and be proud of. That’s how I feel. I honestly could not care less about what anyone else thinks about what I did.”
When asked whether he might return for a third season to pursue the no-oxygen record, his answer seemed definitive.
I love Everest, but I’m definitely done with the south side. I’ll never go through the icefall again. Period,” he said. “Even if Elon Musk wants me to take him up, I’m not doing it. It doesn’t matter how much he paid me.”
But there is always the north side of Everest.
When I pointed this out, Andrews looked up with a tired smile. “It’s definitely not a no.”
