Tough Girl Podcast Adriana Brownlee - On a mission to summit all 14, 8000m peaks and become the youngest woman ever to do so.
Nov 29, 2022
49:09
Adriana in her own words: “My aim is to become the youngest person to complete all 14 8000m peaks. The current record is 30 years 166 days, held by Mingma "David" Gyabu Sherpa, an absolute legend with whom I got to climb on both K2 and Everest. My plan would be to summit all 14 in 3-4 years meaning I would be 23 years old when I complete my mission. In 2021 I summited three of them, Mt. Everest, Mt. Dhaulagiri and Mt. Manaslu all within 6 months. This is a challenge of both mental and physical resilience, power and grit. High altitude mountaineering is one of the deadliest sports in the world, this doesn't scare me. It ignites a fire of passion inside me.” “Be the trailblazer of your own life” New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time - Subscribe so you don’t miss out. Support the mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media especially in relation to adventure and physical challenges. Visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast. Thank you. Show notes
- Who is Adrianna
- Being a full time mountaineer
- Living between London and Nepal
- Starting to climb at 9 years old
- Doing the 3 peaks challenge in 24hrs and becoming the youngest person to complete the challenge (this record has since been broken)
- Getting into endurance events with her dad
- Role models in the adventure/mountaineering world
- The why behind climbing Everest
- Wanting to be unique and different
- Feeling under pressure to go to University
- Why university wasn’t for her and quitting after 3 months
- Trying to make a living from mountaineering
- Having Nimsdai Purja as her guide
- Paying for expeditions
- Being supported by her parents
- Reaching out for sponsorship
- The work that goes on behind the scenes
- Connecting with the North Face
- Taking on the Welsh 3000ers in 24hrs at 16 years old
- Starting at 3am on Crib Goch a grade 1 scramble
- Climbing Aconcagua - her first taste of altitude and why it was a boring climb
- The hardest part of the climb
- Coping with the down time, dull days
- The mental side of mountaineering
- Learning the art of patience
- Facing and dealing with fear in the mountains
- Letting the negative thoughts in and not being able to think straight
- How things can change in minutes
- Trying to stay calm
- Magical moments in the the mountains
- Being inspired to take on the 14,000 project
- Training and fitness to take on the 8,000m peaks
- Plans for 2022 and the next few years
- March - May 2022 - Kangchenjunga (Summited May 17th 2022), Lhotse (Summited May 22nd 2022), Makalu, (Summited May 28th 2022)
- Flying to Pakistan for K2 and BroadPeak (Both Submitted July 2022)
- How climbing with her guide works - Gelje Sherpa IG @gelje_sherpa_
- The current record for climbing the 14, 8K peaks is 36 for a woman - Adrianna would be 23 (she has 4 more mountains to climb)
- Connect with Adrianna (see below)
- Final words of advice