On Friday, Tracee Metcalfe made history as the first American woman to climb all 14 of the world’s highest mountains, each over 8,000 meters. She completed this amazing feat by reaching the top of Shisha Pangma in Tibet, which, at 8,027 meters, is the smallest of these peaks.
“It was magical,” Metcalfe shared with ExplorersWeb. The 50-year-old doctor from Vail, Colorado, talked about the final climb.
“This year’s conditions were very different from last year,” she explained. “We had a big snowfall last week, with over a meter of fresh snow at Base Camp. But this time, the snow was heavy and wet, making it stick together well and reducing the risk of avalanches, which was a big problem last year.”
She also described the final, most challenging part of the climb.
“We reached a false summit and had to cross a tricky snow ridge for about 180 meters,” Metcalfe said. Mingma G led the way fixing the rope as we went.
Last year, a race between two American climbers, Gina Rzucidlo and Anna Gutu, to become the first U.S. woman to complete all 14 peaks ended in tragedy. Both women died, along with their guides, in two separate avalanches on Shisha Pangma. Metcalfe was on the mountain that same day but chose not to climb to the summit due to unsafe conditions. At that time, she had already climbed nine of the 8,000-meter mountains, putting her behind Rzucidlo and Gutu in the rankings.
Metcalfe recently shared with ExplorersWeb that the section between Camp 1 and Camp 2, where an avalanche tragically claimed the lives of Naoko Watanabe and Sanu Sherpa last year, was much more stable and safer this time around.
“I usually stay out of the spotlight, but every now and then, I get to shine,” Metcalfe wrote on her Instagram.
