For many serious adventurers, climbing Everest, the world's tallest mountain, is the ultimate goal. But for Kit DesLauriers, scaling the 29,035-foot peak was just the first part of the plan. After reaching the peak's dizzying summit on October 18, she strapped on skis and sailed 500 feet down its face.
With this feat, DesLauriers became the first woman and first American to ski off the summit of Everest. The next day, she skied the Lhotse Face, a steep wall of ice. She has now skied the highest peaks on all seven continents. Everest is on the border of Nepal and China, in Asia.
DesLauriers, 36, holds the 2005 world and U.S. titles for freeskiing, in which competitors perform jumps, flips and tricks. She spent many 16-hour days training for Everest. But she needed more than physical strength. "I was most surprised at the mental stamina it takes," she told TFK. "Everest is like a mountain on top of a mountain on top of a mountain on top of a mountain."
DesLauriers made the treacherous trek with 13 other climbers, including her husband, Rob. They carried oxygen tanks and relied on experienced climbers from Nepal, called Sherpas, to guide them. At 5.5 miles above sea level, the air is very thin, the temperatures subzero and the weather unpredictable. On the morning that they reached the top, she had to wear goggles to keep her eyeballs from freezing.
DesLauriers is back home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She will soon return to her routine of teaching women's ski clinics and competing. She also lans to start a nonprofit group to help others accomplish their dreams. "You really have to do what you want to do and not let anybody tell you it's impossible," she says.