PUSHING Boundaries WITH ALLIE PEPPER

Australian mountaineer Allie Pepper is attempting to become the fastest person to reach the true summit of all 14 of the 8000m+ peaks without supplemental oxygen. Speed record aside, the feat has only ever been achieved by a minuscule number of climbers. Allie is aiming to complete it in just under three years.

The week before she left Australia, she chatted to Vertical Life’s assistant editor Wendy Bruere about what draws her to such heights.

Allie fell into climbing after misreading a Blue Mountains TAFE brochure. In her early 20s, looking for direction in life, she saw a course in Outdoor Recreation. She loved the outdoors and wanted to re-create herself, so it seemed perfect.

Sighting the brochure—and immediately enrolling in the course— came at a time of soul-searching. After high school, Allie had set out to travel. There was a stint of hippie van-life in Australia, partying hard with her punk boyfriend in London, then ditching him in Kathmandu while she set out on a spiritual journey across India and Nepal. Eventually, she landed back in Australia.

“After all that searching outside myself, I didn’t find what I was looking for,” Allie said. “I decided I needed a career path as I had low selfesteem.”

Luckily outdoor recreation did, in fact, lead to some personal re-creation, ultimately launching Allie’s lifelong obsession with the mountains. She began with rock-climbing and discovered she was quite good at it.

“I’d grown up in the Blue Mountains but never climbed,” she said.

Six months later, Allie was working with the Australian School of Mountaineering, and before too long a work trip to New Zealand for a technical mountaineering course fine-tuned her direction.

“It changed my life. I found my passion,” stated Allie. “Straight after the course, I went with another student and we climbed Mount Aspiring together. It was our first peak without someone watching over us to check that we wouldn’t die. I loved it, and I was addicted.”

And so began her career as a mountain guide, leading expeditions in Argentina and running Allie Pepper Adventures in Australia’s Blue Mountains and Snowy Mountains.

Now in her late 40s, Allie is attempting the hardest challenge of her life: to set a record for the world’s fastest time to reach the true summit of all 14 of the 8000m+ peaks without supplemental oxygen.

Project Above the Clouds, a.k.a. 14 Peaks No O2.

She has plenty of experience behind her. In between her guiding and work, Allie has ticked off an impressive list of summits in the Andes and the Himalayas, including Cho Oyu (8188m) in 2007, without supplemental oxygen. In 2011 she climbed Everest (Sagarmāthā in Nepali; Chomolungma in Tibetan). Last year she became the third Australian to summit the infamously risky Annapurna 1 (8091m).

She’s noticeably shy about sharing a detailed plan for the world record attempt, brushing off my attempts to pin down her strategy. “It’s mountaineering, so anything could happen. I have the goal: I know the ‘what’, I don’t necessarily know the ‘how’.” However, she adds that the aim is to finish by June 2026.

Some key words in Allie’s plans are “true summit” and “without supplemental oxygen”. This defines her exact attempt and separates it from other famous records.

In the 14 Peaks documentary, we saw Nirmal “Nims” Purja knocking off all the 8000ers in just over six months. However, according to the online mountain bible 8000ers.com, Nims stopped short of the “true summits” of Manaslu and Dhaulagiri in his 2019 speed record. An aweinspiring feat regardless, and worth noting that the “true summit” of both has only been confirmed in recent years. In 2021, Nims returned to reach the true summit of each anyway.

Nims also used supplemental oxygen—standard practice for mountaineers at these heights. Above 8000m is considered “the death zone”. The air is so thin at such heights that the human body cannot survive for an extended period. For context, at sea level the air is nearly 21 percent oxygen, but at the summit of Everest it drops to less than seven percent.

Another speed record (with supplemental oxygen) was set in May this year by Kristin Harila when she reached the true summits of the 14 highest peaks in one year and five days. She’s still climbing though, repeating mountains she conquered in 2022, as her goal is to set a record of under six months.

Allie is, however, looking to achieve something a little different to the other mountain gurus.

“In the past, before we had GPS technology, it was difficult to know exactly where the true summit was on some peaks. However, now that we do know, we cannot claim the summit without going to the highest point on the mountain,” she said simply.

And regarding the matter of oxygen? “Because I can.”

Allie is currently just one of a handful of women worldwide who take on 8000ers with nothing to bolster the thin air they breathe.

“I discovered my gift on Cho Oyu in 2007 when I climbed above 8000m without oxygen,” she said. “It's a challenge where I discover what I am capable of in a world where the body cannot survive for long.”

Before she left Australia, Allie said she planned to begin with Dhaulagiri (8167m), the furthest west of the peaks in the Himalaya. As VL goes to press, she’s turned around on Dhaulagiri, headed to Everest instead and made it to 8450m.

Allie emailed from Kathmandu, describing Dhaulagiri as “an epic lesson in patience”, where poor weather and heavy snow left her stuck at Base Camp for a week.

“We went up for a summit push when we had a good weather window,” she wrote. “But we didn't make it due to an unexpected snowstorm. I was up to my vajayjay in snow, making the trail for everyone when no one wanted to go in front.”

On Everest, she reached an area on the ridge called The Balcony before an unexpected snowstorm followed by high wind halted the attempt. Although short of the summit, Allie attained the highest altitude of any Australian woman not using supplemental oxygen.

“[We] made the decision to turn around when my core started to freeze. At that height the body uses a third of its energy to regulate its temperature. You are 10 times more likely to get hypothermia if you don’t use oxygen,” said Allie. “One man who did not use oxygen that day remains on the mountain close to the summit, Szilárd Suhajda.”

She refused to be disheartened by her outcome. “Firstly, I know my body can handle that height without supplemental oxygen. Secondly, I have shown I can make the right decisions up there, when my brain is starved of oxygen, to return alive.”

Facing danger

High-altitude mountaineering comes with high risks: unpredictable and extreme weather, long sections of technical climbing at altitude, avalanche-prone slopes, and other perils.

Daunting as it sounds, Allie isn’t focused on the danger.

“The hardest part of everything for me is just to maintain my current mindset, to go with the flow, not try to control everything so much, and just accept it’s going to be what it’s going to be in any situation,” Allie said thoughtfully. “And to maintain that focus even when unexpected stuff comes up. The key is to remain in the moment, to do the best I can, and make the best decisions I can.”

Before she left, I asked Allie if she had any concerns about particular summits. “So, there’s no mountain you’re looking at thinking, ‘Ooh, that’ll be a toughie’?”

“There’s no point thinking about all the things that could happen,” Allie laughed. “I’ve lived through so much adversity on the mountains; there are so many things I could focus on in terms of challenges. But instead, I want to focus on the now and what I can control in each moment. It doesn’t help to think of everything that could happen.”

To be clear, though, what Allie is attempting is extraordinarily hard. Andrew Lock, an Australian mountaineer who has climbed 13 of the 14 peaks without supplemental oxygen, offered some insight.

“Climbing without oxygen means that it takes longer to recover after each little burst of activity,” Andrew explained. “It feels like you can’t get enough air into your lungs, and the air that is getting in isn’t doing the job—and of course it isn’t.”

According to Andrew, up to 7000m the effects of altitude are “quite manageable”, but anything over 8000m starts to hurt and “every step is an effort”. (Note: Andrew’s definition of “manageable” is probably not the same as mine.)

Andrew mentioned that on the plus side, Allie will have acclimatisation in her favour. Hitting all the peaks so close together will help maintain altitude fitness. “Allie’s very determined and fit and strong, so she’ll have every chance,” he said.

“The hardest thing will be just maintaining that motivation—at altitude you’re never warm no matter how big your down suit is because your body is not burning oxygen to generate heat to trap,” he said.

Andrew detailed other effects of low oxygen: You don’t sleep well, you have constant headaches, you’re nauseous, you need to eat, but you lose your appetite.

“There’s always a voice at the back of your head saying, ‘If you go down, you can get warm, and you can get fed, and the pain will be over’,” he said.

The long journey

Allie’s project has been many years in the making.

“I wanted to do it 15 years ago after I climbed Cho Oyu in Tibet without oxygen, but back then I had no idea how to raise the amount of money I’d need,” Allie said.

Cho Oyu was the game-changer for Allie. It was her first peak over 8,000m, done without supplemental oxygen, and she climbed the last section alone after her climbing partner suffered frostnip and had to remain at base camp. It took Allie eight relentless, bitterly cold days to reach the top and return. On the summit day, she was the only person to make the peak. She has described it as being the hardest thing she had ever done at the time.

But while the idea for her current record attempt began to germinate after Cho Oyu, there was work to do to develop her skills, connections and ideas of how to raise the funds. High-altitude mountaineering is expensive, and 14 peaks in three years astronomically so.

With so far limited financial support from sponsors, Allie has used up all her savings, sold her car, and is in the process of refinancing her home. She says she will do “anything and everything” to chase her dream.

Beyond all this, fostering the right mindset also took time. “I had to believe in myself enough and believe that I am worthy to be a professional athlete,” she said.

I asked Allie what advice she wishes she could have given herself those 15 years ago. She replied slowly and thoughtfully, deciding to answer in terms of what advice she would now give to others: “The best thing you can do if you don’t believe in yourself is to work on your self-growth and mindset. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how strong you are or how many mountains you’ve climbed; if you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t achieve what you want to achieve.”

Allie continued, “I’ve had people who believed in me, but I didn’t focus enough on them. Now I notice that everyone else believes in me… If you can accept that everyone else believes in you and question why you don’t also believe in yourself, that’s when you dive deeper into what’s holding you back.”

It’s hard to believe that a mountaineer like Allie, who inspired a generation of Australian adventure wannabes like myself, ever doubted herself. But her self-belief took another major hit a few years back when she endured menopause. Suffering from intense symptoms and in a haze of depression, aching joints and anxiety, she thought that was it for her climbing career.

She came out the other side (as I’m starting to suspect she always does) with renewed vigour—and a sideline in advocacy; she was recently part of a round table at Parliament House discussing issues related to menopause. She urges other women going through menopause to educate themselves and take charge of their lives and treatment.

“Mental health professionals, even psychiatrists, don’t realise they need to treat the symptoms of menopause. As soon as I got the right medication, everything changed and it was like, ‘I’m back!’ I’ve been on my hormones for a year and feel fucking amazing!” Allie said.

“I have a catcphrase, ‘Going from menoPause to menoPeak’.”

Part of her advocacy is helping other women embrace the second act and live life to the fullest, in mind and body.

“When menopause hits—and it hit me like a freight train—it’s an opportunity to go, ‘Well, I have all of this experience and have done all of these things and learnt all this stuff, so who am I now and who do I want to be next?’” said Allie.

“Many people reach middle-age and think they’ve done everything, but we’re just halfway there. I could live to 100–that’s a lot of time! How can we live to the fullest in our bodies, in our minds, and make sure the next half of life is amazing?”

Allie may be the very embodiment of menoPeaking right now. Even just the preparation for her project sounds alarmingly intense. For months she worked with professional coaches, training six days per week, building both strength and endurance.

Training included weights at home, running up to 30 kilometres (with 1600m of ascent) at a time, and using a hypoxic machine—essentially a device that removes oxygen from the air to simulate altitude—while she did indoor workouts on her bike.

Allie’s passion for the mountains is balanced with a sense of purpose. She brings a determination to inspire and educate others, shaped by her early experiences guiding in South America, where being a woman made her an outsider.

“I started guiding in South America in 2000, leading an expedition up Aconcagua, and I didn’t see any other female guides at all. The men there didn’t understand—couldn’t even comprehend—that I was guiding,” Allie said. “I spent a lot of time proving myself, having to be stronger, smarter, faster and whatever else in the mountains.”

Even though perspectives are changing, and more women are visible in the mountains and on 8000ers these days, Allie noted that there is still a lot of prejudice that people, particularly minorities, must navigate.

“I guided a group of gay women in the Himalaya. They were couples, sharing tents, and we couldn’t even tell the sherpa who was working with us,” said Allie. “It’s always been one of the more challenging things, dealing with other people’s attitude towards whoever they perceive as being different,” she said.

Accessing the mountains can be hard enough. As well as the fitness and strength needed, it’s an expensive hobby. An ascent of Everest can be upwards of $100,000; at the opposite end of the scale, a week-long mountaineering course in NZ will still set you back over $5,000. Not to mention gear, travel and insurance.

Allie has some straightforward advice for welcoming people who have made it into the hills, though. She urges everyone to put aside any beliefs and judgements of what they think a mountaineer should be.

“We’re all there to experience the same thing, and we’ve all got fears and challenges. Reach out, ask people about themselves—being interested in other people and open to having a conversation is all it takes,” Allie said.

“No matter your background, how much experience you have, or gender, sexual preference, beliefs, whatever, everyone has the right to experience the mountain without prejudice, without shitty comments, without people saying, ‘why are they here, they’re not going to make the summit’.” field, follow her on Instagram @alliepepperadventures and check out backcountrycuisine.co.nz

As Allie reaches for a place in mountaineering history, her message is clear: The mountains are for everyone.

Allie has a soul purpose, not a sole purpose. In her own words:

This might sound a bit corporate, but my purpose—my soul purpose—is in my name.

Align: to align my mind, body and spirit

Love: to live my life through love

Live: to live my life to my full potential

Inspire: to inspire others to do the same

Educate: to educate others on how to do the same

My passion is mountaineering, and when I combine my passion and my purpose, that gives me my motivation and my drive to do my best everyday.

That’s my power behind everything, the reason I wake up and get out of bed.