I was delighted to be invited to speak at the four-day Mountain Festival (“Festiwal Górski”) in Poland recently. I was even more honoured to be sharing the line-up with some of the biggest stars of the mountaineering world.
This included incredible people who have inspired me on my own climbing journey, so it was truly amazing to hear them talk about their experiences. I was lucky enough to meet and chat with some of them too.
Mountaineering legends share their experiences
Krzysztof Wielicki is one of the greatest Polish climbers in history and was only the fifth man to summit all of the 14 8000-metre peaks. He was also the first person to climb Everest, Kangchenjunga and Lhotse in winter.
Leszek Cichy made the first winter ascent of Mount Everest together with Krzysztof Wielicki in 1980, to establish the winter ascent record of 8,848 metres. He was also the first Polish climber to complete the Seven Summits (the tallest peak on each continent).
Adam Bielecki is best known for completing the first winter ascents of Gasherbrum and Broad Peak – both among the 14 Peaks.
Nina Williams is an American professional rock climber who is known for many first female ascents, free solo, including ‘Too Big To Flail’, a 50ft highball in the Buttermilks, California. She even spoke about how she cheated when she was younger, but then got caught and realised she needed to live through the consequences. She’s now a completely different person; a motivational speaker and still climbing.
Monika Witkowska was the second Polish woman to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain but the most difficult. Monika conquered this peak in July 2022, 36 years after Wanda Rutkiewicz became the first Polish woman to do it!
Dorota Rasińska-Samoćko is currently attempting to become the first Polish woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders. She was just behind Monika Witkowska on K2 to summit her ninth mountain, so she’s well on the way to achieving this record.
This takes her ahead of Wanda Rutkiewicz who sadly died in her attempt to become the first woman to reach the summit of all 14. She had successfully conquered several of the mountains before meeting her untimely death on Kangchenjunga in 1992.
Dorota now equals Poland’s Kinga Baranowska who has also climbed nine of the 14 peaks. It’s all really exciting stuff!
And then there was me! I really was in good company.
You don’t need to be an athlete to climb Everest!
My presentation was all about how you don’t need to be an athlete to climb Everest – everyone can do it! This is something I’m very passionate about – I literally want to shout it from the top of the mountains! It was brilliant to be able to speak about it at such a high-profile event with so many well-known mountaineers.
I talked about where my love of climbing comes from and some of the experiences I’ve had so far. I’ve climbed six of the Seven Summits and am halfway through the Crown of Europe (the highest peaks in each European country). I’ve also climbed other iconic mountains such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn.
Then at 6.25am on May 15th, 2022, I climbed to the top of the world. (check out my Everest Q&A for more insight)
But I’m not an athlete. So, if I can climb Everest, you can do too!
I work a normal 9am-5pm desk job, so for me climbing Everest is possible for everyone.
Yes, physical fitness is important, but it’s not the most important factor. In fact, there have been times when people who were physically much stronger than me failed, when I didn’t. There are other factors which are much more important for climbing Everest, such as staying healthy. This is incredibly difficult when you’re on the mountain where there’s no oxygen and your body can’t heal.
It’s also about mental strength. If you’re not mentally strong, it doesn’t matter how fit you are physically as your mind will end up defeating you.
Meeting my idols
As much as I enjoyed speaking at the Mountain Festival on a career level, it was also amazing for me personally to hear from and meet some of the people who have inspired me to climb throughout my life.
We went out on a hike of Śnieżnik led by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy, which was joined by 100 people who wanted to meet them. They were both very nice, very chatty, and warm.
I also met Adam Bielecki at the festival party, and he kindly signed my copy of his book ‘Under the Frozen Eyelids’. He was so friendly and smiley, he was joking with us constantly.
I was also lucky enough to finally meet Monika Witkowska. Monika was in the Everest base camp when I was climbing Everest. I just missed her as I was already higher up acclimatising. She came to meet my guide, record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja, and star of the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible – this is well worth a watch if you haven’t already seen it.
She was so lovely and very positive. We even enjoyed a shot of South African rum together!
All in all, the festival was a great experience and I look forward to hopefully speaking at more events in the future.
