An 18-year-old high school student from Melbourne has become the youngest Australian to climb Mount Everest, reaching the 8,849-metre summit on Wednesday. Bianca Adler, accompanied by guides Pemba and Ngdu, achieved the feat on her second attempt after turning back 400 metres from the top last year due to strong winds.
According to her Garmin data and an Instagram post, Adler summited at nearly 6.30am Melbourne time (2.30am Nepal time). Her parents, Paul and Fiona, both experienced mountaineers who have previously climbed Everest, accompanied her for part of the journey. In a video posted on a family blog, Adler told her father over a radio call that she felt “really good but the weather is really bad”.
Adler described the descent as tougher, noting large queues of about a dozen climbers and technical sections between the South Summit and the summit. “It was pretty tough getting around them while staying clipped in,” she said in a post on the family’s site. She was resting at camp 4 on Wednesday afternoon and planned to descend to camp 2.
Nepal’s department of mountaineering reported 410 foreign climbers had been issued permits for the spring season, which ends this month. The fee to climb Everest is US$15,000. Adler’s father told the ABC the family was “extremely proud” of her, and her next goal is completing Year 12.
