Chris Cope chats to Mollie Hughes, who conquered Mount Everest
Chris Cope chats to Mollie Hughes, who believes that if you really want to achieve something, you can.
FOR most of her life, Mollie Hughes has – quite literally – dreamed big. She achieved her latest goal last May after becoming the youngest woman in the world, at the age of twenty-six, to climb Mount Everest from both its north and south sides, following her first trip five years earlier in 2012.
Although she never imagined she would have climbed the 8,848-metre Himalayan mountain twice before she even reached thirty, Mollie has long held an interest in exploring.
She started climbing at the age of seventeen, and a dissertation she wrote on Everest climbers while she was studying sports psychology set her on a path towards scaling the world’s highest mountain herself.
Her record-breaking climb last year saw Edinburghbased Mollie leave at the beginning of April before reaching the summit in mid-may – although a number of weeks were used to acclimatise to the harsh surroundings.
“I felt more confident than the first time I was there. I felt like a better mountaineer – I was five years older and I had been climbing for five years more,” she said.
“It took everything to get up there, both physically and mentally, but I don’t think there was any point where I thought I couldn’t do it.”
The final climb includes a trip through the worryingly titled “death zone” – an area past 8,000 metres where oxygen is in short supply – before the summit is reached, which can be dangerous in poor weather.
“We had been climbing all through the night and we were completely exhausted,” Mollie reflected.
“By the time you get up there, the sun is just rising and you can see out over the whole of the Himalayas. It’s pretty magical. But it’s not really the time to celebrate, because you’ve got to get all the way back down again. The feelings of achievement come in when you’re back down at base camp and can properly relax.”
Mollie explained that getting down from the peak is actually harder than getting up it because of fatigue, and so that’s when most accidents happen.
“You’re just so exhausted getting down because you’ve been climbing for five or six days to get to that point, and you’ve been climbing the death zone, too,” Mollie explained.
Mollie has also climbed in the likes of South America, the Alps and at home in the UK, and she’s keen to inspire others, regularly holding talks with youths and at corporate events to inspire the mind.
So what qualities does someone need to become a successful mountaineer?
“It’s all down to the psychology of it, really,” Mollie replied. “Anyone could get up there if they trained physically, but you need to have the right mindset.
“You definitely need a huge amount of resilience – the ability to push yourself as far as you could have imagined pushing yourself, but then push more. And obviously a lot of perseverance and self-belief that you actually think you can do it.”
The adventurer describes herself as someone who was “super shy” throughout school and university. But it seems that, through mountaineering, Mollie has found a way to express herself – and in perhaps one of the most striking ways possible.
“I always had this deepdown belief that I could do something and hopefully achieve something in life,” she said. “I try to tell younger people that they don’t have to be the loudest, the cleverest or the most confident kid in the class. If they really want to achieve something, then they can.” n