Briton becomes youngest female to climb the world’s 14 tallest mountains

When Adriana Brownlee was an eight-year-old girl, she dreamt of being famous for climbing the highest mountain in the world – Mount Everest.

Fast forward 12 years later, her dream came true when she was just 20-years-old.

But Everest was just the first in a long line of mountains that Adriana had in her sights.

Now, at the age of 23, she has become the youngest female to climb the world’s 14 highest peaks.

She reached the 8,027-metre summit of Shishapangma, in Tibet, on October 9, becoming the second British person to complete the gruelling feat.

Adriana, who grew up in Teddington, south west London, but now calls Kathmandu, Nepal, her home, talked to Metro about the experience.

‘It is going to take a few weeks to sink in,’ Adriana revealed.

‘I’m taking the time to relax now but I feel an enormous sense of pride in what I have achieved.

‘Before I reached the summit of Shishapangma I started to cry. I couldn’t even see it but I knew it was going to happen.’

Adriana was first inspired to get into mountaineering as a little girl and comes from a family interested in adventuring and sport.

In a piece of primary school homework, she said her dream was to ‘be famous for climbing the highest mountain in the world’ and added: ‘I have always liked mountains and especially high ones.’

At the age of 8, she got her first taste of mountaineering after she completed the three peaks (Snowden, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis) in just 22 hours with her dad Tony.

’12 years later I climbed Everest but I didn’t want to stop there,’ Adriana revealed.

‘I decided to take on the 14 peaks. I quit university and pursued a full-time career in mountaineering.

‘I never looked back.’

But it hasn’t been all plain-sailing for Adriana during her adventures. At one point her family even prepared for her death.

‘The scariest experience was climbing Dhaulagiri in October 2021,’ Adriana said.

‘At the time I didn’t have much experience and I wasn’t with my normal guide.

‘We were 6,500m up and within two hours we were hit by a storm and didn’t think it was going to be too bad.

‘But winds ended up being between 90 and 100km/h and I couldn’t move and my hands had completely frozen.

‘To warm them up I put them in my guide’s armpits which prevented my fingers from falling off.

‘I still struggle to feel the sensation in my fingers.

‘Then we were on the summit and suddenly I felt all my energy drained and my eyes felt like they started to darken.

‘Me and the guide noticed our oxygen levels had reached zero and we were 8,200m high.

‘I tried to calm myself down because the guide didn’t have a radio. We had no choice but walk down slowly because I didn’t want to die.

‘My parents had still prepared for my funeral though because I had not been in contact with them for 32 hours.’

Among her other achievements, Adriana is the youngest woman to have climbed the world’s second highest peak on K2 on July 28, 2022.

She is also the youngest woman to have climbed the world’s five highest peaks, according to the Guinness World Records.

She says the driving force behind her passion is the hope to inspire future mountaineers.

‘Society tells us to do things in the right way, like go to university, get a good job, settle down,’ Adriana said.

‘But I want to teach and inspire people that there is more to life than this.

‘You can create your own destiny and journey which can be totally unique to you if that’s what makes you happy.

‘Being female in mountaineering is difficult. We are just as strong as men and nature is bigger than all of us.

‘Mountaineering is down to you and is an individual sport. If people put their mind to it they can achieve anything.’

In the future, Adriana is going to focus on helping a new generation of young people get into mountaineering.

But for now, she is going to take a long rest.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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