We find out what drives the pioneering Saudi adventurer

Each month, GulfBusiness will feature an interview from the book Game Changers:HowWomenintheArabWorldareChangingtheRulesand ShapingtheFuture by David B. Jones, Sophie Le Ray and Radhika Punshi. In this issue, the authors speak to Raha Moharrak, the younge

Having been a curious child, Raha Moharrak always dreamed of having challenging adventures and seeing the world. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in visual communications from the American University of Sharjah and started her career at a leading advertising agency. However, Raha’s life changed the day she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and challenged herself, her society and culture. It was this adventure that drove her to climb eight more summits, and eventually Mount Everest. On May 18, 2013, Raha made history by becoming the first Saudi woman to summit Mount Everest, a feat that turned her into an accidental role model.

Who did you want to be when you were a child? Did your aspirations change with the years?

“I wanted to be everything; I wanted to do everything. I wanted to be an astronaut, a scientist; I wanted to just live the fullest life I could in terms of adventure. I was always very hungry for that, so my aspirations changed but they were always the same, as in they were always grand. I always wanted to be something grand. For example, I never wanted to be a librarian or something like that. I’ve always wanted to be something that takes life to the next level. I wanted to be a fighter pilot, really, anything that’s just beyond the typical little girl’s dream. My father was always curious about ‘so what do you want to be today, what do you want to be this weekend’, and I always came up with different scenarios, but it was never boring, and it was never typical.”

Are you content with your life?

“I’m very content. I’ve always been a very content and thankful person, but still I have always had the sense of wanting more, the sense of being capable of doing more. I’ve always wanted to go to space; it’s been my dream since I was a little girl, so that’s something on my list. My greatest aspiration or my greatest adventure or challenge would be to find someone in life, or rather for them to find me, who could be my companion and would live the same type of an adventurous life with me. I’ve lived enough of a single life, being a solo traveller and adventurer. I’d love to finally meet my soul mate and go on to the next chapter of my life, my next journey and be a couple and do these things and continue to explore and be adventurous That’s my next step I guess.”

What else are you aspiring for, now that you have already accomplished so much?

“Yes, like I mentioned earlier, my aspirations changed per month; they continue to change and evolve but they all have the sense of adventure, they all have the sense of seeing the world, being out there, being bold and brave and finding the courage to go out, live and see. They did change of course, the more I grew the more I had an idea of certain limitations, but I always took these limitations as an invitation, and they never stopped me from doing what I had in mind. My aspirations continue to evolve, until this day they continue to evolve.”

What would you say is your most valuable asset, character trait or skill?

“My most valuable asset is that I’m extremely passionate and very determined and just overall curious. I take life in; I want to experience it all, and it’s because of how passionate I am and how stubborn I am that I got to where I am today. Being extremely stubborn makes me the woman I am today, but it’s also a very difficult trait to deal with, but yeah, I would say being very passionate. And also, I’m very lucky to have extremely understanding parents and lovely siblings; it is difficult being a Saudi woman who is different, but having parents and siblings like mine has really paved the way for me.”

Tell me one thing about yourself that most of your colleagues/peers don’t know.

“Lot of people don’t know that I’m severely dyslexic and I hate typing, and I find it very difficult to express myself. The other thing a lot of people don’t know is that I’m more or less deaf in my left ear, but I don’t really show it. My biggest fear is being fearless—I can’t find my fears and that makes me afraid. It makes me a bit reckless and it scares me because I will continue to try and find my limits, and if I don’t have them then I’m going to continue to do crazy things and push my limits. I think the only thing that scares me is being claustrophobic. Other than that, everything is fair game.”

Do you believe in the term work–life balance? If yes, how do you maintain it?

“Yes, I most definitely believe in that balance. But I’d be lying if I tell you that I have any idea if I have it in mine. My life is a mixture of climbing, training, socialising, design work, learning new things and spending time with family. It’s up in the air. I think the only constant in my life is training and my beach time, which is absolutely religious for me. I have to spend some time at the beach every week. But other than that everything just flows. I try as much as I can to manage things because I have design clients, I have classes and I’m doing my master’s, but life is life and it gets messy and I think that’s the beauty of it.”

Tell me about your career choice and path. Did you always know you would do what you are doing? Did you study for it, plan for it or was it accidental?

“I studied as a graphic designer and I have my bachelor’s degree from the American University of Sharjah so that is my career path; yes, I studied for it, I planned it and I always knew that I would have a hand in design. But my mountaineering career I completely and absolutely just stumbled upon. I didn’t plan for it; it was an absolute accident. It started off as a curious thing and it ended up completely overtaking my life. I’m very grateful for having the opportunity to actually just start. I started three years ago and now I’m down to my last summit. I think I’ve done 13 or 14, but it was completely not planned.”

Did you face any setbacks? How did you overcome them?

“Yes, of course. Being a Saudi girl, coming from my culture, it is difficult to break barriers. That too allowing me to do the one thing that few men would ever dream of, which is climbing the highest peaks in