Messenger OF THE MOUNTAINS

SILVIA VASQUEZ-LAVADO IS ON A JOURNEY TO HEALING, ONE PEAK AT A TIME. WE CHATTED TO THIS TRAILBLAZING ABOUT FINDING PEACE MOUNTAINEER IN THE THIN AIR.

- CHARIS TORRANCE

IN 2005, with barely any training, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado did her first climb - a hike of more than 60 km to Everest Base Camp. Today, at the age of 42, she is not only the first Peruvian woman to summit Mount Everest, but also the first openly gay woman to complete the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Some people are drawn up the mountain for glory; others are pushed up by pain,' she says.

She was born and raised in Lima, Peru, during a civil war. The turmoil around her reflected the nightmare she was living in her own home. In her memoir In the Shadow of the Mountain, Silvia recounts in brutal detail the sexual assault she suffered as a child at the hands of someone working in her home. Years of abuse resulted in emotional distress and a lack of self-esteem. Silvia eventually told her mother what had happened, and at the suggestion of a therapist she sent Silvia to the US. Denying her trauma and hiding her sexuality from her family caused Silvia to spiral into alcoholism. I was running my life into the ground, and I was in this unrelenting, vicious cycle of self-destruction.'

Eventually, she turned to her mother, who convinced her to return to Peru to go on a powerful Amazonian meditation retreat. On an ayahuasca-fuelled trip, Silvia had a vision of herself as a young girl, around the age of the abuse, and saw herself as an adult embracing the little girl. It was an emotional moment. 'I spent my entire life up until that point trying to forget who I'd been because it brought me so much shame and pain.' Mountains formed between them, and the little girl grabbed her by the hand and led her into them.