89-year-old woman becomes oldest person to climb Mount Kilimanjaro

PHOENIX, Arizona (KTRK) -- A Phoenix woman is back home after setting the world record as the oldest woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Anne Lorimor, 89, received a huge homecoming at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday, where she arrived on her flight back from Tanzania.

Lorimor used to be a university instructor, and she says she's always loved hiking.

The trip up and back down the tallest freestanding mountain in the world took Lorimor nine days.

Experts say you don't need a lot of technical skills to climb Kilimanjaro, but the biggest challenge is getting used to the altitude where the oxygen is thinner.

"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. I was afraid that if I couldn't keep oxygenated enough, I couldn't go."

This isn't the first time Lorimor has climbed Kilimanjaro. She says she also climbed it four years ago when she was 85 years old.