Blue Mountains climber Allie Pepper has made history by becoming the first Australian woman to conquer the fifth highest mountain in the world - Mount Makalu (8485m) in Nepal - without the use of supplemental oxygen.
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It's the second 8000 metre mountain peak she has reached this climbing season - after successfully reaching the summit of the world's 10th highest mountain on April 14 when she conquered Mt Annapurna (8091m).
She told her followers on Instagram it was "the highest I have climbed without [supplemental] oxygen so far" and "the longest summit push of my life".
"Luckily she [Mount Makalu] was kind to us, just some frost nip."
It took her 20 hours from camp three to the summit and then another nine hours down.
The adventurer reached the top of the world's fifth highest mountain on May 7. Makalu is considered by many climbers to be a more challenging peak than Everest.
The Hazelbrook climber is on a record breaking quest to climb all 14 of the world's tallest peaks, without supplemental oxygen, in the fastest time possible.
Her posts on Instagram about the journey have shown the very real struggle. She thanked her partner Mikel Sherpa and his brother Nima Power who are assisting her.
Pepper is hoping to climb Kangchenjunga (8586m) next "to close out the [Nepalese spring climbing] season" after resting in Kathmandu".
With Mount Makalu behind her, she has now completed four of the 14 summits and aims to finish the challenge in under two years. She conquered Broad Peak in Pakistan on July 15, 2023 and her second peak was Mt Manaslu in Nepal in September, 2023.
"I was able to capture footage of myself looking over the top of the true summit [of Manaslu] to make sure there was no more up. That video has now been seen more than 32 million times [on instagram]."
"There are currently only two men in the world [Ed Viesturs and Viekka Gustafsson] that have verified ascents of all 14 x 8000 metre peaks true summits without additional oxygen. They took 16 years to complete their projects."
Pepper readily admits that "climbing without the use of additional oxygen in the death zone is a dangerous feat".
But she is minimising the risk by climbing with the support of two experienced Sherpa climbers. Nepalese Sherpas are the undisputed strongest climbers at high altitude.
"We all have mountains to climb in our lives. I hope that by showing I can continually step forward in the face of adversity, others can too. No matter the obstacles we face."
Pepper grew up in the Blue Mountains, discovering climbing when she was 23 years old after signing up to an Outdoor Recreation course at TAFE.
"I found a career path that I enjoyed and was naturally quite good at."
She has led mountaineering and trekking expeditions to the Himalayas, making more than 40 ascents of mountains over 5000 metres.
She calls her bid from "menopause to menopeak" and says "night sweats, depression, brain fog, aching joints and struggling from recovering to training" made her feel "I might never climb again".
She's now on the right medication after seeing a specialist doctor for menopause and feels normal again.
"I have been on this medication for more than two years now and all my symptoms have disappeared and I am stronger than ever.
"I'm working so hard to do it. This is my passion. I could die anywhere. We come to the planet and we have a certain amount of time that we are here and we don't know how long it is, so I might as well do what I love."
Salty Films is making a short feature documentary about her history making story. Go to https://www.alliepepper.com/ to help.
