Photo: @extremeofficialn@ushakov343
A 40-year-old engineer from New York claims to have set a new Mount Everest speed record. Andrew Ushakov says he left New York just after midnight on May 15, 2025, flew to Kathmandu, left from Base Camp on the 16th, and stood on the summit just before 9:30 am on the morning of May 19, 2025. He says he climbed from sea level to the summit of the world’s tallest peak in three days, 23 hours, and seven minutes.
The above details come thanks to Ushakov’s expedition organizer Elite Exped, which says he’s the first person to reach the summit of Everest from the Nepali side in under four days.
Ushakov’s accomplishment is turning heads for a handful of reasons. For one, he’s not a professional athlete or full-time mountaineer. Although his Instagram page does detail a number of serious climbs, including in South America and Antarctica. The Ukraine-born engineer attended Columbia University and co-founded an AI company, Mastermind, Inc. That wouldn’t leave a lot of time to train for an expedition like Everest, let alone commit to the typical expedition time of six weeks. The acclimatization process alone can take an average of four to six weeks.
Another interesting twist is that Ushakov made his attempt at the same time as four British nationals were working on a speed record of their own, traveling from London to the Everest summit and back in seven days. That team has reportedly summited Everest and is trying to make it back to London within the seven-day period.
This week, The Inertia’s Evan Quarnstrom wrote about that group of British mountaineers using several methods to acclimate prior to arriving in Nepal. Among the British team’s methods were sleeping in hypoxic tents, which simulates living at high altitudes. It reduces the impact of altitude sickness and improves aerobic performance. Ushakov also slept in one of these tents at home in preparation for the climb.
“I’m ecstatic, although physically exhausted, to have achieved what many people in the mountaineering world said was impossible,” he wrote on the website EverestSeatoSummit.com, which also details his expedition. “I hope this shows that you don’t have to be a professional athlete or a full-time adventurer to do something extraordinary. You can hold down a job, raise a family, and still accomplish something that pushes the limits of what you thought was possible. I did this as a regular guy, with a broken arm and a dream. This is for the 99 percent of people out there who think big goals are off limits. My message is that if you want to achieve your dreams – even if everyone else says it’s impossible – just give it a try.”
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According to reports, Ushakov had apparently broken his arm in several places after getting caught in an avalanche earlier this winter.
Ushakov’s climb was also apparently able to provide valuable scientific data. He reportedly swallowed a biometric tablet which was linked to a smart watch before going up Everest. The tech recorded real-time data about his vitals, which will be used to research the effects of altitude on the human body and its performance capabilities.
Guinness has not officially called the climb a world record and we are waiting for further details to fully substantiate Ushakov’s claim. We will update this piece as further details become available.
