Hargreaves, Alison

Hargreaves, Alison (1962-1995), British mountaineer, born in Derbyshire, the first woman to make an undisputed ascent of Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen. Hargreaves became a gifted rock-climber while still at school in Derbyshire, before devoting her life to mountaineering. She became a professional climber, and in 1986, with the Americans Tom Frost, Jeff Lowe, and Marc Twight, she climbed a new route on Kangtega (6,779 m/22,240 ft) in the Himalaya of Nepal. In 1988 she became the first British woman to climb the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland, while five-and-a-half months pregnant with her first child. The next few years were dominated by bringing up two young children, but in 1993 she renewed her career with solo ascents of the six most famous north faces of the Alps (the Matterhorn, the Grandes Jorasses, the Cima Grande, the Piz Badile, the Dru, and the Eiger). Her husband and children accompanied her on this trip and on her failed first attempt on Mount Everest in 1994.

The following spring she returned to Everest, this time to the northern side, in Tibet. Despite numerous other climbers on the route, she climbed independently, carrying her own survival equipment and taking no supplementary oxygen. On May 13, 1995, she reached the summit (8,850 m/29,035 ft), impressing fellow mountaineers with the speed, efficiency, and calm competence of her ascent. On August 13 that year she succeeded in the technically more difficult climb to the summit of K2 (8,611m/28,250 ft) in the Karakorum of Pakistan, the world's second-highest peak, also without oxygen. During the descent from the summit, she and five companions were hit by hurricane force winds from the north; none of the party returned alive. Hargreaves is believed to have fallen down the South Face, although the decision was made to leave all the bodies on the mountain.

Her book A Hard Day's Summer, focusing on the achievements of her 1993 season, was published in 1995.