Mollie Hughes is a mountaineer and motivational speaker based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Mollie has climbed mountains all over the world from the Himalayas of India and Nepal, the Andes of South America, the Atlas mountains of North Africa and closer to home in the European Alps and the mountains of the UK.
She was born in London but grew up on the south coast of Devon. Growing up in such an outdoorsy place Mollie’s passion for adventure grew. At the age of 17 she took part in a school expedition to climb Mount Kenya in East Africa. Mollie quickly became hooked on mountaineering and knew from then that this was going to be something she would do for the rest of her life.
Mollie’s biggest challenge in mountaineering came in 2012 when she set off on an expedition to reach the top of the world - Mount Everest. After twelve months of training and securing sponsorship, two months living in the harsh mountain environment and eighteen hours surviving in the ‘Death Zone’, Mollie completed her challenge - becoming one of the youngest British climbers to summit Mount Everest at the age of just 21.
Mollie climbed from Nepal on the south side of the mountain. But in Spring 2017 Mollie plans to return to Mount Everest and attempt to summit from the North side via Tibet. No British Woman has yet climbed Mount Everest from both of these routes. If Mollie is successful she will become the first British woman to climb Everest from both sides and also the youngest non-Sherpa to achieve this incredible feat.