Twenty-three-year-old Adriana Brownlee has climbed into the history books as the youngest female to reach the summit of all 14 of the world’s highest mountains, known as the eight-thousanders. The mountaineer, from London, completed her huge feat on Shishapangma (8027m) on October 9 at just after 8am.
The final push was described as emotional. Adriana said: “I started to cry. I hadn’t reached the summit yet, I couldn’t even see it, but I knew it was going to happen.
“It took another hour before we reached the incredible summit. By this time it was just sunrise and we had a beautiful clear sky.
“It was the most incredible moment. I cried again remembering that I had just summited all 14 8000m peaks and made history.”
The summit also makes Adriana the second official British climber to summit all 14 peaks.
She said: “British explorers have long broken boundaries. I’m proud to set another world first and keep that tradition alive.’”
She joins an elite list of just 64 people worldwide who have completed the same challenge.
What are the world’s 8000m mountains?
The list, in height order, is: Mt Everest (recently adjusted to be 8849m tall), K2 (8611m), Kanchenjunga (8586m), Lhotse (8516m), Makalu (8463m), Cho Oyu (8201m), Dhaulagiri (8167m), Manaslu (8163m), Nanga Parbat (8125m), Annapurna I (8091m), Gasherbrum I (8068m), Broad Peak (8047m), Gasherbrum II (8035m), Shishapangma (8027m).
Adriana’s childhood dream
As a child, Adriana dreamed of the mountains. She wrote in a piece of homework at primary school that one day she wanted to be “famous for climbing the highest mountain in the world”.
When she was eight, she scaled the highest peaks in England, Wales and Scotland – Scafell Pike, Snowdon and Ben Nevis – in 22 hours with her dad Tony.
She said: “I have always had a love and fascination with mountains for as long as I can remember.”
The challenge of the world’s highest mountains
It was at the age of 20 in 2021 that Adriana finally reached the top of Mt Everest before embarking on her bid to climb the other 8000m peaks.
Over the following three years, she set several world firsts. She was the youngest female in the world to summit K2 and the youngest person to summit Gasherbrum 1 without supplementary oxygen. She also completed her final mountain this month without the use of extra oxygen.
Adriana said: ““I quit university and my degree to pursue a career in mountaineering and sacrificed friendships, regular teenage life and more, but it was all worth it.
“Mountaineering is my escape in life. It makes me feel free and truly connected with myself so it becomes an obsession to go back.
“I want to push my body and achieve my personal goals. I also hope to inspire youngsters all over the world that there is no set path in life. You can create your own destiny and journey which can be unique to you if that’s what makes you happy.”
To find out more about Adriana and her achievements, see @Adri.brownlee.