Female mountaineer hopes to top feats of ‘macho men’

A NORWEGIAN climber is on track to beat the time record for ascending the globe’s 14 highest peaks, part of her quest to change how the mountaineering world views women athletes.

Kristin Harila has already climbed six mountains more than 26,250ft high, including Everest, in the last two months.

The 36-year-old hopes to match or surpass Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja and his groundbreaking 2019 record of six months and six days, an achievement that smashed the previous record and was profiled in a Netflix film.

“In history and until now, it has been the strong macho men going out climbing mountains,” Harila said this week.

“When I talk to people that are not in this sport, they believe that men are more capable than women

“If we are going to change, we need to get attention and show that women are just as capable.”

Male climbers and guides far outnumber women in the top tier of the sport, with only a handful of women mountaineers getting attention and sponsorships for their expeditions.

Out of nearly a thousand climbers who visited Nepal’s Himalayan peaks this year, only around a fifth were women, according to Nepali government data.

Harila’s first notable climb was on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro in 2015, but she made headlines last year for becoming the fastest woman to travel between the summits of Everest and Mount Lhotse, in Nepal.