Women in the mountains: Adele Pennington
Every year the International Society for Mountain Medicine, the British Mountain Medicine society and the UIAA brings together leading experts to share research and perspectives at the Mountain Medicine World Congress. This year, Vertura had the pleasure of sponsoring one of the speakers at the Women in the Mountains panel. Adele Pennington has not only climbed, but guided, Everest successfully (twice!). She has climbed six of the world’s 8000m peaks, and is also one of very few British Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructors (WMCI). It was an absolute pleasure to hear her speak and then sit on a discussion panel with Adele in a room full of passionate medics and mountaineers. There were so many take aways from the session, it felt important to share with as many women as possible.
The Congress kicked off with a plenary session for all 200-odd delegates on Women in the Mountains. I was pleased to see this session wasn’t an optional topic, but one put front and centre of the programme. Adele talked about some of the challenges she faced as a 5-foot nothing woman working and playing in what could be considered ‘a man’s world’. She shared a story of a client who visibly ‘huffed’ when assigned her as an instructor instead of one of the other available men. Her response was to drag him up Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis at such a blistering pace that the Royal Marine was reduced almost to tears and had to admit that winter mountaineering was actually ‘quite hard’.
Having discovered climbing and mountaineering was something she was both good at and enjoyed, Adele’s first expedition experience was an invitation to climb Ama Dablam, in winter, alpine style. Let me tell you, that is no mean feat. Even climbing that mountain with full support of a Sherpa and fixed ropes took almost everything I had. You really got a sense of just how tough Adele is, when she describes carrying 30kg on her 57kg frame because she was determined to pull her weight and carry the same loads as the men on the team.
Adele climbing between Camp 1 and Camp 2 on Dhaulagiri (Adele Pennington collection)
Her experience on Makalu, where her and a male teammate were stranded at a high camp after a storm and had to fight their way down to basecamp, gave a sense of her extraordinary determination. She mused on the difference in attitude between her and the male teammate who had seemingly given up hope and almost accepted he would stay where he was and wait to die, while she was singularly focussed on getting down, one step at a time. That tenacity not only saved both of their lives that day, but is the thread that runs through Adele’s career guiding and climbing the world’s highest peaks in the harshest environments (that’s Scotland in winter, in case you were wondering!).
Something that Adele said stuck with me: there are biochemical differences between how men and women respond to stimuli like physical activity. She mused that perhaps men seek endorphins from power-based activity more than women; who seek dopamine from sustained effort and more endurance-type activities. There might be a reason why women can often out-endure men, and it’s probably hardwired in our physiology.
There are other differences that Adele talked about, some of which are more cultural. After a climbing accident where she broke her pelvis, she said she felt embarrassed and like she’d failed. She pondered whether the same accident would have become a tale of bravado and derring-do when told by a man. Watching the way the media reported Alison Hargreaves’ death on K2 cemented her decision not to have children, so that she could fulfil her mountaineering ambitions without having to deal with comments on her suitability as a mother who climbs mountains. This degree of judgement is something that men rarely have to deal with, and has changed little over the years, sadly.
When discussing the challenges of high-altitude mountaineering, Adele quipped that ‘Menstruating at 8000m isn’t fun, but not much is at that altitude!’. One of the advantages of being a female pair on Everest was that they understood the impact this had on each other and laughed through the discomfort. Although slower than the men in their team, they summitted 2 hours later which had the benefit of having the mountain to themselves.
Adele also talked about the changes she experienced in her mindset during perimenopause, and how anxiety crept in to her climbing where previously she’d felt confident. Dealing with the changes our bodies go through over our lifetimes is something that is being talked about more, but within the male dominated outdoor space it’s still not that widely discussed.
After Adele’s talk there was a panel discussion and workshop around the topic of women in the mountains, which I had the pleasure of taking part in. When asked what advice she would give to women in the mountains, Adele had two points. First to ignore male egos, and second that you have to believe in yourself. And if you think about it, the two are linked. Men seem to have an inbuilt confidence in themselves, like they never have a moment of self-doubt. As women we seem pre-disposed to over think, analyse, question ourselves and our competence. What would it be like if we trusted ourselves a bit more, not in an egotistical way but with quiet confidence? It’s not that we need to be more like men, but trust that our skills, experience, and resilience as women allows us to achieve great things. Adele is living proof of that.