Nicky Messner: One ordinary woman’s extraordinary journey to the summit of Mt. Everest

Grounded, honest, ordinary woman who is extraordinary. That is Nicky Messner. When I asked her why she started

expedition mountaineering, with a good-hearted laugh she answered, “Not with the plan to climb Mt. Everest. I started mountaineering to quit smoking.” Nicky Messner is the most humble and unassuming summitter of Everest I have met. She’s genuine. She’s no super human athlete; one could easily mistake her for your everyday climber, triathalon athlete, or marathon runner. She does not carry the attitude of “I’ve summitted Everest.” What she has in spades is patience, perseverance and heart. Nicky is an inspiration to women everywhere that no matter what their goal is, big or small, they can accomplish it.

Her beginnings in expedition mountaineering are a little unusual. This is not the story of a professional climber who has been aspiring to nail the legendary Everest. This is the story of a woman who started mountaineering as a way to quit smoking and live a healthier lifestyle, and through the twists and turns of life was prepared and ready to climb Mt. Everest when the time arose.

Nicky climbed her first big mountain (19,000+ feet) while living in Quito, Equador. She was admiring the mountains from her window, lighting up a cigarette like she had done so many times. Her 30th birthday was approaching and she made a life changing decision – to put down the cigarette and pick up an ice axe. The rest is history.

Messner set her eye on Cotopaxi, a ever looming presence 17 miles south of Quito. It took Nicky two attempts, but on the second time she summitted the mountain. She received her first mountaineering instruction on these climbs and got her first taste of altitude and snow slogs. Cotopaxi was supposed to be the thing that helped her stopped smoking, little did she know what path it was beginning. It would be 6 years before she would climb another major mountain.

Cotoqaxi was the initial spark that got her into mountaineering, but Messner was not bitten by the expedition bug until her 2003 climb of Aconcagua. She chose to climb this 22,841 foot peak because it was an expedition style climb that did not have ice or a glacier on the easiest route. Nicky learned two important things while climbing Aconcagua: 1) she really enjoyed big, long expeditions and 2) she had been bitten by the climbing bug.

After Aconcagua came Mt. McKinley, aka Denali. This was entering a whole new realm for Messner. It is far more technically and physically demanding than either Cotopaxi or the route she chose for Aconcagua. Not to mention she would need an even more complex, sophisticated bag of glacier tricks. To prepare for Denali, Nicky took a week long winter climbing seminar on Mt. Rainier where she learned glacier travel skills, expedition mountaineering specific skills, how to safely travel on a fixed line, and the ever important “how to suffer well” skill. She and her fellow students were even able to summit Mt. Rainier via the Inghram Direct.

Nicky chose to hire David Hahn with RMI to be her guide for climbing Denali. The route she chose was the standard West Buttress Route, which is still no small feat. It was a far cry from the less technically difficult routes she completed on Cotopaxi and Aconcagua (Aconcagua has some technically difficult routes, but not the route Messner took). Mt. McKinley tested here mountaineering skills, mental fortitude and ability to physically carry the very heavy loads. “As you attempt bigger and bigger mountains and harder and harder climbs you start hearing all the bad statistics and nasty experiences. You have to be mentally tough and confident in yourself and your team,” Messner said. “On Denali you need to have very solid technical skills because around every corner it gets bigger.”

Mt. McKinley taught Messner many of the key skills that led to her success on Mt. Everest. The kind of skills that they cannot teach a climber in climbing school; the skills that either one has in them or does not. And that is PATIENCE. “On big expeditions, you have to be able to out-wait the weather, you have to be able to slowly, carefully, strategically cross a crevasse field with camp just in sight when you’re so tired and so hungry and want nothing more than to be able to sprint ahead. To be a good expedition climber you need to have the patience and mental strength to sit in a tent for days on end while the weather howls around you and not mentally get worn down,” Messner commented. Denali is notorious for bad weather. Climbs are scheduled for a month and in that time climbers are pretty much guaranteed at least one locked-down-waiting-out-the-weather stretch, and if they are unlucky there may be a lot of them. Nicky learned she had what it takes to be a good expedition mountaineering; her skill set took her to the top of Denali. She showed inner strength, patience and fortitude, and she most importantly had the passion for this type of climbing.

In 2006, Messner decided to tackle another expedition type peak, this one in Nepal. Cho Oyu is the least technical 8000M peak, providing a great introduction to climbing in the Himalayas. This climb was more technical than the route Nicky climbed on Denali, requiring climbing at higher altitudes, the use of oxygen, handlines and learning how to climb while wearing an oxygen mask. Cho Oyu was climbed mostly unroped, since there were not any crevasses on the snow sections, climbers just clip into the fixed lines on the steep parts. When asked how she prepared for Cho Oyu Messner said, “The skills I learned on Denali and in the winter climbing seminar on Mt. Rainier prepared me for Cho Oyu. It was the same basic skill set, just set in a more challenging, technical environment.”

Messner described what it as like to climb Cho Oyu with an oxygen mask. “You leave high camp and go directly up to a yellow band of rock and ice. You have to vertically scramble this rock and ice section while wearing an oxygen mask and carrying an oxygen bottle. You want to take it off the whole time, you’re breathing hard, but you can’t take it off, and sweat is running into your eyes. On top of that, you’re using 6 lines and ascenders. Once you get passed the yellow band it mellows out a bit and it’s a straight glacier climb from there to the summit. It’s actually very ski-able.”

For Nicky, she chose to climb Cho Oyu both to fuel her passion for expedition mountaineering and because she wanted to experience a climb done with oxygen. She wanted to climb into what mountaineers refer to as “The Death Zone,” to see what it was all about, what it was like up there where the air is so thin it is given a fancy, scary name. And she came away loving it. Loving the logistical side of planning and carrying out a 5 week climb, loving the challenge of climbing with oxygen and loving the intrigue of climbing so high you are briefly in the Death Zone. “I really felt a sense of accomplishment at successfully climbing Cho Oyu.” Messner said, reflecting on her summit.

When asked what she learned on this particular climb, Nicky laughed and answered, “I learned that oxygen is the best drug in the world, it is just nectar of the gods.”

After each expedition, Nicky would tell herself that that was her last climb. She had accomplished something incredible, met her goals, completed a dream and challenged herself. There was no larger objective of climbing a harder mountain or even Mt. Everest. She was enjoying the moment, enjoying the experience for what it was and accomplishing something that was challenging.

Everest had never been on her radar during all of those climbs. Finally I could whip out that question I’d been dying to

ask, “How did you decide to climb Everest?” “Actually it was my husband’s idea,” she answered. Her husband Greg commented one night over dinner that she had climbed so well on Cho Oyu, she should take on Everest. Then Greg took has support for Nicky one step further, he quit his job (since they would not give him the time off) and traveled to Everest to stay at base camp with Nicky. It is impressive and a testament to Greg that he would leave his long time job to spend two months at Everest Base Camp supporting his wife in her attempt to climb the mountain.

In spring of 2008, Messner teamed up with David Hahn again, this time with their eyes set on a much larger objective. They planned to attempt the mountain from the south, Nepalese, side. Whether you climb Mt. Everest from the north or the south, each side has it’s own set of challenges. “On the south side, the climbers have to go up and down through the ice fall every time they go on rotation. The ice fall is the most dangerous part of the south side. It collapses every other day. You need to be climbing through there in the very early hours and out by the time the sun hits it. It claims a lot of lives. But on the north side, there’s the vertical rock steps on summit day to deal with. That side is less technical until summit day, then the climber faces the hardest part when they are most tired. There are the first and second rock steps and ladders with a huge drop off on one side, ” Messner commented. When asked why she chose to climb via the south side to climb she answered, “Because I have a fear of heights. On the south side, there’s ice over many of the big drop offs and you cross the ice falls on ladders. I knew I could practice crossing ladders more readily. I rigged ladder crossings at home and would practice walking on them with crampons. I knew my toughest challenges on the south side were something I could work on. It was something I could more easily mitigate than the north side.” And that is one reason Nicky Messner is so successful at expedition mountaineering, she knows how to mitigate the challenges and problems that are within her control.

Mt. Everest carries many reminders of its dead, both in the form of memorials, but also with the human remains that still rest on its slopes. I asked Nicky about the death factor on Everest, how she mentally overcame seeing the bodies of the dead and memorials to those who have not returned. “You must mentally prep really hard. All you hear is the bad media, the bad news. I would mentally go down my list of how I’m mitigating all risks that I can mitigate and how I’ve prepared for this expedition. And I know that I’ve managed all the problems that I can manage. As for seeing dead bodies on the climb, I was concerned about it. As I left high camp, I knew that somewhere along the way in this little circle of light from my headlamp there would be a dead person. I wondered how that would feel and look. When it did happen it made things extremely real. I looked at the body, analyzed it, reminded myself how I’ve prepared and moved on.”

In addition to the sheer physical challenge, Messner said that the other largest challenge was the mental marathon. Many climbers are not able to overcome this challenge. “There’s a lot of down time at Everest. It’s one of the hardest things about climbing Mt. Everest, it’s a mental marathon for two months. Two months of sitting there having to entertain yourself, wondering what’s going on at home, it’s a real mental struggle to keep focused and up. For big expeditions, it’s important to have patience and to find excitement every day. It’s important to get excited about the little things. Everyday can be different.”

Messner had trained hard. She had prepared. She had climbed numerous expedition-style mountains. She had taken

ice climbing courses in Ouray, Colorado. And she had already visited the Death Zone on Cho Oyu. After so much preparation, acclimatization rotations, and training, it was time to make the summit push. After bad weather threatened to turn them around and many hours of climbing, Nicky Messner reached the summit of Everest at 7:26am. For a half hour, she literally stood on top of the world, a far cry from that first failed attempt of Cotopaxi.

I asked Nicky what it felt like to summit Mt. Everest, “I still don’t have the words. I’m still a little speechless, still awed and humbled by her [Mt. Everest]. For the longest time I could not verbalize that I had climbed Everest, it felt like it is someone else and not me. I mean, it is things astronauts and Ed Viesturs does. I’m still overwhelmed by it. I feel like a normal person, someone who used to smoke. I don’t climb mountains every weekend, I only do it every now and then. I’m coming to terms with the accomplishment. But it has boosted my confidence in other areas of life.”

Whether it is deserved or not, Mt. Everest has a legendary quality to it. Sure it’s not as technical as K2 or as notoriously dangerous at Anapurna. But there is something about Everest and those who stand on its very highest point, an untouchable quality in the eyes of those who are not serious alpinists. Nicky encountered this, “Early on I didn’t tell people I had summitted Mt. Everest because as soon as I told them the look in their face changed. I could see they had put me on a pedestal.”

Now she is sharing her journey of climbing Everest as a way to inspire ordinary people go after their lofty goals and dreams. That is why she started Be The Exception.

And that is why she is leading an all women’s trip to Kilimanjaro. “So many women said to me that they couldn’t do it,

so I want to show them that they can.”

Nicky Messner is embracing her role as inspirer to many, ordinary woman turned successful expedition mountaineer, and motivator who is showing others that they too can be exceptional. Up next on her radar is Shishipangma and Broad Peak in Pakistan, K2, and returning to Mt. Everest to do a carry over from the north Chinese side to the south Nepalese side.

Nicky is no Ed Viesturs or Jerzy Kukuczkaor or Wanda Rutkiewicz, though she does share the same last name with the legendary Reinhold Messner. She is no sponsored athlete. She has not been climbing before she could walk. But she is you, she is me, she is the everyday woman who digs deep within themselves to find that inner strength, fortitude and passion to accomplish the extraordinary. She is the voice that says “it is possible” where so many like to use the phrase “it isn’t”. She is an inspiration to us all.

Genevieve Hathaway is the Editor of Alpine Athena. For her bio see the About section.

Tagged as: alpinism, Climbing, expedition mountaineering, mountaineering, Mt. Everest, Nicky Messner