89-year-old Arizona woman sets world record

A Phoenix woman is back home after setting the world record as the oldest woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

According to KNXV, 89-year-old Anne Lorimor got a big homecoming welcome at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Thursday where she arrived after her flight from Tanzania.

Lorimor used to be a University instructor and says she’s always loved hiking, but she’s never been a professional climber.

Still, the trip up and back down the tallest freestanding mountain in the world took her just nine days, KNXV reported.

Experts say you don’t need a lot of technical skills to climb Kilimanjaro. They say the biggest challenge is getting used to the high altitude, where oxygen is thinner and that was a concern for Lorimor.

“There was a point when I really was concerned because I fell before I started up the mountain and I had great pain in my side and I couldn’t take deep breaths. And I was afraid that if I couldn’t keep oxygenated enough I couldn’t go,” said Lorimor.

KNXV states this isn’t the first time she has climbed Kilimanjaro. She also climbed it four years ago, when she was 85-years-old.