Alison Hargreaves climbs Everest

Climbing to the top of Mt. Everest is something very few people have done. Climbing it without the aid of oxygen puts one in rarer company still. And being a woman to accomplish both made Alison Hargraves truly one of a kind. Hargraves, a mother of two, was always a skilled climber, and in years past climbed the great north faces of the Alps — including over the Elger mountain, one of the toughest summits in the world. Then she decided to try what nobody, man or woman, accomplished before – to climb Mount Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga, the three tallest peaks on earth, and to climb them unaided.

On this day, May 13, 1995 Hargraves became the first woman to scale Everest without sherpas or supplementary oxygen. Such a feat was only accomplished once before, by two men. Hargraves became the first woman to reach the peak of Everest in that way, but her real focus was on the second of her three-mountain challenge.

K2 was considered a much tougher climb, and Hargraves went along with a small expedition of international climbers to begin her ascent. In the middle of the climb, they noticed a change in the atmosphere, which several took as a warning of an approaching storm. Her accompaniment turned back, but Hargraves pressed on, reaching the summit and radioing the weather was splendid. That soon changed, as a violent arctic wind shredded tents and blew climbers straight off the face of the mountain. Hargraves was never heard from again, but her last radioed words symbolized her spirit. She said, “I’m going up.”