'When I see a summit, I smile': Emirati teen on scaling peaks and setting records

Emirati teen mountaineer Fatima Al Awadhi has a compelling message for young people: it’s never too early to reach out and seize your dreams.

A petite powerhouse of energy and spirit, Ms Al Awadhi, 19, has already set several records in scaling the world’s highest peaks.

And over the next seven months, the Abu Dhabi resident will take on a new set of intense challenges. She has set her sights on the Seven Summits – climbing the highest mountain on each continent – and reaching the North and South Pole to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam before she turns 20. She has already completed four of the seven summits.

“Whenever I look at a summit, I can't help but smile and think: You did it, you set a goal, and you executed it,” she told The National. “One of the proudest moments is being able to hold my flag and be like, this is where I came from, look what I'm capable of doing.

“I want to tell young people, no matter what your age is, it's never too early to start dreaming and achieving and to make the most of the resources around us, especially in the UAE. We have so many opportunities. We just need to seize them and make things better.”

Ms Al Awadhi will travel to Iceland soon for ski training before heading to the South Pole to ski a daunting 111km to reach the southernmost point on Earth.

“I will be the youngest in the world to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam if successful,” she said.

The title is currently held by a Japanese climber who was 20 when she reached the North Pole to complete the Grand Slam.

Summits to conquer

Ms Al Awadhi has three more peaks to climb – Aconcagua, at 6,961m the highest in South America, Mount Everest at 8,849m and Denali, North America’s tallest at 6,194m.

She hopes to “inspire others to do things different, put themselves in different environments, push themselves and discover what they're truly capable of”, she said. “I want people to be able to look up to me, not saying, ‘Wow, she's extraordinary,’ but to recognise something within themselves, realise that even they could do more.”

An economics student at the American University of Sharjah, she enjoys speaking to children in schools.

“I started falling in love with the challenge, but it transitioned into something bigger,” she said. “I presented to schoolchildren and saw their curiosity and how inspired they were. That's when I realised that I'm not just climbing for myself. I'm climbing to represent what Emiratis are capable of, what the youth is capable of.”

Show caption: Fatima Al Awadhi trains by pulling a weighted sledge in Duba…

Sense of purpose

Her most recent record was summiting Lenin Peak in Kyrgyzstan in July, making her the youngest Arab to climb more than 7,000 metres. Although not included in the Seven Summits challenge, the peak is vital training for 8,000m ascents.

Ms Al Awadhi’s journey began during a difficult time in high school, when her father was in a coma and she was searching for a “sense of purpose in life”.

It was when she was on her first trek in the Nepal mountains as part of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award that she heard of the Seven Summits challenge from a teacher.

“I was going through a lot in my life – my father was in a coma for just over four years and he passed away a year after,” Ms Al Awadhi said. “When you're going through something like that, you sometimes try to see life in a more positive light because you want to get out of that negative mindset. When I did my trek in Nepal, I saw new possibilities for my future, and I decided that I didn't want it to end there. I wanted to look forward to something. That's when I heard of the Seven Summits.”

She started her mountaineering journey by climbing Kilimanjaro (5,895m) in Tanzania, and a year later became the youngest Emirati, at age 17, to summit Mount Elbrus (5,642m), the tallest mountain in Europe.

Ms Al Awadhi became the youngest Arab at age 18 to summit Mount Vinson in Antarctica, the highest peak in Antarctica at 4,892m, and then climbed Carstensz Pyramid in Oceania, which is 4,884m high.

She prepares for her climbs while studying, uses weighted backpacks in endurance sessions and is training for the South Pole by pulling a weighted sledge on UAE beaches.

Meeting the UAE President

Ms Al Awadhi speaks of her gratitude and honour at the support from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed. When raising the UAE flag at the summit of Lenin Peak in July this year, she displayed a message from Sheikh Mohamed to young people on the values of ambition, hope, resilience and perseverance.

“Just a few weeks before I left for Lenin Peak, I met the President, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, who showed me his support, which I’m truly grateful for,” she said. “I felt more motivated because I knew I was representing Emiratis. He actually told me, ‘You represent the spirit of the UAE,’ and that really stuck. That's what I kept in mind on my way to the summit.”

More climbs

She hopes this mindset will help her handle the altitude sickness and exhaustion that will come in her upcoming climbs.

“I keep on reminding myself that I’m climbing for something much bigger than myself,” said Ms Al Awadhi. “My mum always says that she can't sleep at night whenever I'm away. However, I know that she knows what it's like to dream big; I know how proud she is. I was a very shy child and now I'm able to climb these big mountains. I guess she's happy that I'm able to live a life where I'm able to dream and I'm able to achieve.”