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UAE: Meet the woman who scaled Mt Everest, Lhotse in under 24 hours

She called it her quest, climbing to the top of the highest mountain in the world

The photographs are glamorous; the smile infectious. The UAE’s flag gently flutters as the wind rushes past it, and for a second, in the thrill of what’s just happened, the icy temperatures don’t seem to matter any more. There’s just that feeling of elation, of success.

For Danah Al Ali, this was a goal she had spent years working towards; she had become the second Emirati woman to summit Mount Everest. But she wasn’t done yet. She would go on to climb Lhotse, becoming the first Emirati woman to summit both peaks in under 24 hours. Lhotse is the fourth-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga.

“Lhotse wasn’t really on my radar. Until someone asked… I started thinking about it, and I thought, ‘Okay, why not?’ It was definitely a challenge. You’ve just got to the top of Everest, you come back down, and to think you’re going to have to climb another mountain again after that, but it’s all in the mind. There were seven of us who had signed up for the double summit, but only three of us actually completed it after coming back from Everest. I don’t need to do the second one, but I'm glad I did it,” the Abu Dhabi-based mountaineer recalls.

Early days

Her first brush with mountain climbing came in 2013, when the adventure-lover decided to scale the 5,895-metre Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. “I've always been in love with extreme sports, so I was looking for something new, and Mount Kilimanjaro came up [in conversation]. I thought, ‘Okay, that'll be interesting’.” At this point, she had gone on no hikes or climbs. “I had no prior experience,” she laughs.

But that only served to make the mum-of-two cautious and more determined. “I’ve always worked out on and off. Back in 2013, I was still a very young mom, but I’d maybe go to the gym two, three times a week. To get ready for Kilimanjaro, I hired a personal trainer. I had about three months [before I left]; I was just going into the gym focusing on strength training and then, in my own time, I’d put the backpack on, my hiking boots on, and walk outside.”

When she had walked all the way to the top of the East African peak and was making her way down the incline, she locked in on a new dream: “I decided that I wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world.”

Preparing for the climb

To hone in on what you want is one thing, getting there quite another. Danah decided to use actual mountains as her training ground; after Kilimanjaro, she went on to summit Mount Elbrus, which at 5,642 metres above sea level, is the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. Then she climbed the 6,962-metre Aconcagua in South America. “In between all that, I went to Chamonix. I went there twice for technical and ice climbing training,” she recalls. And because her most vivid concern while reaching her goal was the time she was spending away from her young children, she took her kids along when she could.

Walking up an elevated altitude can be gruelling; there’s the thinner air up top for one thing. For another, you’ve to carry your own supplies. In the case of Danah, there was the added element of trying to make the trip enjoyable for her children. “Kids are resilient. I told them, ‘We’re going on an adventure.’ I started including them in all these things at a very young age. At the time, I remember we were supposed to be staying in a hut on the mountain. My kids were like, ‘No, we want to stay in a tent’. So while everybody had a proper hut, proper beds and everything, we used a tent and sleeping bags. They wanted that whole experience of being outdoors. It was incredible, and it gave them a glimpse of what I do and what I love,” she explains.

She was ready for her big Everest trip in 2017, but something came up. “Then 2019 [we were ready, but] something happened. And then 2020, was my year. Everything was set up, and then COVID hit,” she sighs, adding that these occurrences did nothing to deter her from her goal; instead, they taught her resilience.

Before the climb

She began to make some adjustments to help get her fitter for her purpose. “In the six months [leading up to my journey], I started including trips to Ski Dubai, just to get my body acclimatised to the cold. I’d test every single piece of equipment that I would buy, which would include something like putting in batteries for the headlamp, just to make sure that I knew how to work it, how to attach it to my helmet,” she explains.

She would also go out into the desert in her boots and gear, to help her gain strength and stamina. “That’s where I learned how to use a solar panel,” she says. “I put my solar panel outside on the car while I was doing my training, thinking that it is collecting energy and I'll charge my phone later. And then I realised that it doesn’t work that way, you have to attach the device while it’s charging, and that’s how it works.”

She was also determined to make this a swift trek to the top. “A normal expedition would take up to two months. I wanted to reduce the time that I was away from my family, so I pre-acclimatised. I used a Hypoxico tent, which mimics the environment of low altitude. Between February and April, I would sleep in the tent eight hours a day; I’d start off at 3,000 metres and then, depending on my oxygen levels and the advice that I got from the company, I would start to increase [the attitudinal conditions]. By the time I left, my body was acclimatised to 6,000 metres,” she says.

Balancing motherhood with ambition

When she decided to conquer mountains, Danah was already a mother and a full-time employee. “I remember when I first started, not just as an Emirati woman, but as an Emirati mother with children as well… people often said, ‘Okay, how do you do it? How do you manage your time?’ And at the end of the day, it really comes down to finding your balance.”

She also had to contend with different cultures. “I had to educate people. I remember when I used to go to Chamonix, they’re more of a mixed group [of men and women camping together]. It doesn’t mix with our culture, our religion. And just trying to explain to them that these are my requirements [was difficult]. Fortunately, they received it well. It’s the same with food [you have to tell people what’s okay and what’s not],” she says.

Challenges from Mother Nature

And then there was the challenge of explaining to her father that these were safe ventures. “My family was a big challenge; my dad was like, ‘you're a mum’. You’re doing something that’s dangerous. You know, the rates of death on average. But I did my research, I educated myself on what the risks were. Every year I listened to the news and understood the mistakes [people made]. “One of the most common mistakes is people not listening to their guides. You go with a tourist company, because they are the professionals. They are the people that have done this year in and year out. They know what they are doing. But then if the company says, ‘Okay, we're not going to go the weather’s bad’, and some people just go off on their own. And then they get lost. I wasn’t going to do that.

“I'd reach out to a lot of the companies and ask them about their success rate, their qualifications,” she mulls.

She would ask them about potential scenarios that could arise. It was only after doing this research that she would decide on a company and a path to take. The caution paid off. “I had such a great experience, I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” she says.

Takeaways

One of the things that have stayed with her is the depth of the bonds she was able to make. “I met some amazing people from all over the world. I bonded with another woman because we basically shared a tent at one point … And on the last day, we were crying, we were hugging. We’ve kept in touch and I’m sure at some point, if they come to visit the UAE, or if I go to visit them their country, we’re just going to pick up where we left off. Because that bond that you make going through such a difficult situation that you can all relate to is just incredible.”

While one journey is over, the lessons Danah learned en route remain. “I learned resilience. I learned patience — it is not easy to be on a mountain away from showers, my bed, my family, all the comforts that we get used to, things that we take for granted every day. And every time I come back from any mountain, not just Everest. I’m just so grateful to have all those things around me, so appreciative of the little things in life.”

There’s silence on the line when I ask her if she’s planning another climb. Then she laughs: “I thought I didn't [want another trip] after coming back from Everest, but I think it’s already been a year, and I’ve already got that passion to be back outdoors, to be back challenging myself. It’s hard to stop once you start.”

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