Aussie schoolgirl Bianca Adler reaches ‘death zone’ in mission to climb Mt Everest
A Melbourne teen got within 400m of Mt Everest’s summit until treacherous conditions forced her to abandon the mission, but she is refusing to give up.
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A Melbourne schoolgirl has told of the “life or death” decision she made in “pitch-black”, -20 degree gale-force conditions to abandon her dream of climbing Mount Everest.
At 17 years, Bianca Adler would have become our youngest person to summit the highest point on earth, but fell agonisingly short in the so-called “death zone” – just 400m from the 8450m summit.
“It got very windy. I couldn’t see anything, we were on a ridge and there’s a big drop on either side, and it’s very high,” Bianca said from Kathmandu, after abandoning her mission in deteriorating conditions, three nights in to her second Everest attempt.
“The altitude makes you lose your appetite but you have to eat. You take the oxygen off, take a few mouthfuls. A very big effort is just to go to the toilet!
“There’s no one that can help you if something really goes wrong.”
The year 11 Melbourne student had been on the mountain for two months with father, Paul, acclimatising for the ascent.
Her mum Fiona was at Base Camp.
Both are experienced mountaineers, who have summited Everest.
Bianca’s initial summit attempt was thwarted by weather on May 22.
On May 23, Bianca and her sherpa, Pemba Chirring Sherpa, began a final push at 10.30pm
But it was in vain.
“The wind just got way too strong. My hands and toes started to go numb and that’s the start of frostbite,” she said.
“I thought my life is more important.”
Consulting with her dad via radio, and watching other experienced climbers turn back, Bianca made the difficult decision to descend.
“There is a chance that I could have been able to summit but there is also a huge chance that I would have had a big issue … There’s no helicopter rescues. Everyone’s too exhausted to drag you down. So, I’m glad I descended.”
Paul was waiting in Camp 2 with a chest infection.
Both he and Fiona are in awe of their daughter’s “ enormous effort”.
“I know she could have done it, but I’m so proud of the decisions she had to make,” she said.
“With a mountain like Everest, you need all the preparation, the experience, the fitness, the mental strength. But also you need an element of luck, too.”
Currently the youngest woman to summit Manaslu (8163m) and Ama Dablam (6812m) – both in Nepal – Bianca plans to return to Everest one day, after completing her studies at St Leonard’s College in Brighton East.
“I know at some point I will summit Everest. There definitely are other 8000m peaks that I want to climb. I just love the idea of just standing on top of the world.”
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Originally published as Aussie schoolgirl Bianca Adler reaches ‘death zone’ in mission to climb Mt Everest
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