CLIMBING MOUNTAINS

Nepali mountaineer Dawa Yangzum Sherpa is not just a champion climber. She's paving the way for the next generation of women climbers by passing on her knowledge and expertise. Find out more about the trailblazing and transformative work she does with Rolex.

- Renée Batchelor

When it comes to feats of human endurance, climbing Mount Everest, the highest point above sea level on this planet, is surely one of the greatest challenges one can conquer. It's no wonder then that the Goliath of mountaineering has attracted climbers far and wide, since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first victoriously summited it in 1953. Seven decades later, as thousands of climbers from around the globe have successfully reached the summit, Nepali mountaineer Dawa Yangzum Sherpa has been hitting impressive peaks of her own, both literally and metaphorically.

Dawa Yangzum started her professional mountaineering career in 2009, and just three years later successfully summited Mount Everest in 2012 at the tender age of 21. Although one could surmise that it was her destiny to conquer mountains-she came from a rural village that lies 4,200m above sea level, and was thus exposed to the surrounding mountainous topography from a young age-her gender was something that could foreseeably have prevented an illustrious career, despite her skills and ability.