Brit Brownlee completes 14 peaks
British climber Adriana Brownlee has completed the formidable 14-peak challenge by summiting Shishapangma without supplemental oxygen, marking her achievement as extraordinary. This feat also makes the 23-year-old the youngest female climber in the world to conquer all 14 of the world’s highest peaks.
Adriana began her journey at 20, aiming to complete the challenge in record time. By the age of 21, she had already scaled 10 of the peaks, a remarkable accomplishment. She climbed alongside Gelje Sherpa, who was also in the race to become the youngest climber to complete all 14 summits. Though the duo successfully summited the 12 peaks in Nepal and Pakistan, they faced delays in tackling Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, as both mountains, located entirely in China, were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic until 2022.
In the autumn of 2023, two avalanches claimed the lives of four climbers, leading China to close the mountains again until the fall of 2024. By this time, other climbers, including Pakistani Shehroze Kashif (22), Frenchman Alasdair Scot Mckenzie (20), and Nepali Nima Rinji Sherpa (18), had joined the race for the record of the youngest climber to complete the 14 peaks.
All four climbers reached the summit of Shishapangma, the world’s 14th highest mountain, on Wednesday. Nima Rinji became the youngest climber in the world to complete the challenge, while Shehroze became the youngest Pakistani, and Alasdair the youngest European to do so.
Alasdair also led a historic expedition earlier in 2024, guiding a team to summit Cho Oyu from the Nepal side—a remarkable achievement as Cho Oyu is traditionally summited from the Chinese side. Gelje Sherpa, having made three previous attempts, successfully guided the team to the top.
A total of 29 climbers from Seven Summit Treks reached the summit of Shishapangma. Among them, Naoko Watanabe became the first Japanese woman to scale all 8,000-meter peaks, Dorota Lidia Samocko the first Polish woman, Alina Pekova the first Russian, Grace Tseng the first Taiwanese, Adrian Laza the first Romanian, and Mario Vielmo completed all 14 peaks without supplemental oxygen.
Additionally, Nepali climbers Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, Mingtemba Sherpa from Seven Summit Treks, and Tejen Gurung from Elite Exped also completed the 14-peak challenge on the same day.