Take Me Higher: First Chinese Woman to Reach the Seven Summits & Two Poles

On May 24th, 2010, 29,035 feet up in the heavens and after two months of high altitude sickness and near death experiences, Wang Lei finally set foot on Mt. Everest’s summit. The journey to the top of the world’s highest mountain completed her goal of climbing every continent’s highest peak and reaching both the North and South Poles, making her the first Chinese woman and only the tenth person in history to ever finish the task.

A Beijing native, Wang Lei studied computer science in China, but soon moved to the United States after she was accepted to Wharton. During her time at the school, she went on a team-building trip with her classmates to climb Mount Cotopaxi, the highest volcano in South America, and caught the mountain climbing bug. That trip became the first step on a much longer journey, and she now hopes to inspire others by showing how little determination can go a long way.

We recently spoke with her about her journeys over the past nine years and the life-changing experiences she has encountered along the way.

What were your aspirations as a child? Did you ever think you would be climbing mountains? I wanted to be a writer and then a mathematician, and then a scientist, a doctor or a biologist … Because at the beginning you learn only language so I wanted to be a writer, and then you start to learn science, and then, “Oh I want to be a scientist,” and then you learn other stuff. So my goal was always something related to what I learned.

Actually, I never qualified for any athletic team. I barely passed physical education. For girls you just need to run 800 meters, two laps, within four minutes or something to pass the exam for running. Then you run 15 yards, you do a little jump, and you do a little throw. They tested you each semester. Each year, I just barely passed; I was never an excellent athlete.

So what made you decide to take on this journey? It took many years. Slowly, I discovered new things about myself … The first time I saw the mountain [Mount Cotopaxi] I thought, “You’re joking that’s not possible.” I had no training, I don’t even run, I don’t even go to the gym, I don’t even sleep enough, I thought it was impossible, but then the second time I tried and succeeded. It was shocking for me. When I stood on the top of the mountain, I thought, “Really I can climb this mountain? That’s almost impossible.” When I went back home and went running with friends, we ran two blocks, and I said I was tired and I wanted to go home. They were like, “What? Just people like you can climb the mountain? Really? Then I can climb it too.” I said of course, if I can do it you can do it too because really I’m no better than anyone else.

What kind of effect did reaching the summit of Cotopaxi on that second attempt have on you? That experience changed me a lot. That was right after 9/11. At that time people were very pessimistic and depressed, and when I came back from climbing, everything seemed brighter to me. I could feel my spirit totally lifted up. and not just for a few days, it stayed there. Every time I see things I can always see the brighter side, knowing that even if I can’t reach the goal, I can make a difference. I started to change my way of thinking. In the beginning I would think something is impossible and not even bother to try. Thinking, oh maybe I can try so I can began to learn a little bit, try a little bit, then I realized I made some progress, compared to last time. And I also realized I wasn’t really competing with anyone else. It’s about competing with myself and improving each time. I may be slower and I may be weaker than other people, I may never be a champion and I may never be a superstar, but it didn’t matter because I was improving myself. I was beginning to see the very positive effect it had on me, and before you knew it I fell in love with it.

On your website you said you were in debt from student loans, how did you support your travels? I worked from time to time so I would make some money and I did a lot of fundraising. I had some friends and some corporate sponsors but not too many. Not enough to cover everything. Some organizations helped me get some loans.

What did friends and family say about your desire to climb the “Seven Summits” (the world’s highest peaks) and stand on the two Poles? My family didn’t support it, so I actually didn’t tell them too much. They didn’t even know about the trip before I came back. They only knew when I came back safely. My friends gave me a lot of support – friends from college, high school friends and Boston – it’s just amazing. There’s so much work and so many people who volunteered their time to help me do things, including fundraising, video production, marketing, media connection, all that stuff was done by my friends.

How did your parents they feel about you becoming the first Chinese woman to ever complete the Seven Summits and the Two Poles? (Laughing) They don’t care. They just hope I don’t climb anymore!

What perspective did scaling the world’s highest mountain give you on overcoming life’s obstacles? That trip was a two-month process, and during those two months you experience a lot. It’s never comfortable sleeping in a tent. You can never eat enough or carry enough food, and because of the altitude, it’s easy to get sick. You’re sick almost constantly in some sense. There’s a lot of pain and the climbing itself is challenging. You don’t really rest well either – you usually start out at midnight and in really cold conditions … you’re really cold for a while and then when the sun comes up you become really hot and you can’t just take off all your layers. It’s not easy on a steep slope, so you’re never really comfortable. You’re facing all the other challenges, and you can see other people who are facing all this psychological pressure. You can see people stronger than you quit because in the end it becomes a mental game – how your mental strength is.

And there are other challenges: the weather isn’t good, conditions aren’t good. And you begin to question yourself, “Can I do it?” You have a lot of self doubt and this is over a two-month period so you have a lot of time to think “should I go home?” Other people cannot finish the climb because of the difficulty. There is so much strain on your physical strength, but you have to be very positive all the time. People who can’t be calm and positive can’t climb the mountain.

What kept you going through your self-doubt? I like to prove the doubters wrong, I like to say “Okay, I’m not the strongest one, there are many people stronger than me, but do I have to be Superwoman to climb this mountain?” I believe any normal person can do this.

With such a physically and mentally demanding journey up Everest, what kind of training did you have to take on before setting out? It was a combination of strength, speed, agility, everything combined. You combine strength training with cardio, so it’s a lot of cross-training. I had a personal trainer. I probably put in at least three to four hours per day. I started intense training in late September, so it took almost half a year altogether. Other trips were much easier; this trip was the hardest one. I knew I couldn’t take it lightly. Other trips I did training by myself: go do some running with the running club or go to the gym and do a little bit of weights, little things here and there, but this one I wasn’t so sure. I needed professional help.

Were there any scary moments? At one point I was about to rappel and my harness wasn’t fully secured. I didn’t properly close it because I had so much equipment on me, I had an oxygen mask on and I couldn’t see it. I did it without looking and no one checked it. I almost killed myself, but I realized it was broken and came back. At another point, the adapter connection on my oxygen bottle was leaking, so after a while there was ice on it and I couldn’t use it – I basically didn’t have oxygen for a while. I feel like it was half an hour but I think maybe it was 10 minutes. It was at about 8,400 meters (27,559 feet) – and anything over 8,000 meters is called the death zone, so humans don’t survive long at that altitude without oxygen. I was getting really nervous and cold at that point. With no oxygen at that altitude, the body temperature drops. The human body can’t naturally adapt at those altitudes so a lot of basic functions don’t work.

Once you reached the summit of Mount Everest what was going through your mind? I had a little bit of relief, and the next thought was that going down would be the biggest challenge. You can’t relax when you reach the summit because going down is much harder and very dangerous – climbing up is easier. It’s very dangerous to spend all your strength going up and then have no strength left going down. That’s how people die. They don’t think that they actually need more than 50% of their strength. You have to train really hard to be strong enough. If you only train to reach the top, you’re guaranteed to die, you shouldn’t go all out to reach the top. When you go up, you always have to think, can I get down?

What is the significance of becoming the first Chinese woman to do this? I think the significance is to show people that you can pursue a dream that looks almost impossible. It also shows that with very strong mental strength, you can overcome a lot of hurdles because not many people think people like me can reach this goal. And it actually shocks a lot of people that someone like me can do this.

How was the experience different from climbing the Seven Mountains and reaching the Two Poles? It’s a very different kind of terrain, different kind of climate, a different set of skills. Climbing mountains, you mainly carry weight on your body. Going to the poles is relatively much flatter and you don’t use climbing equipment, but you actually drag a heavy sled. The challenge is also different – people say the South Pole trek is like dragging a bathtub on a treadmill in a white wind tunnel. You see nothing because there is no scenery. On the mountain, you see all kinds of vistas, and rocks and all these references. At the South Pole, there’s no reference, everywhere you look is the same – clouds and white snow and there are no rocks so you can’t point out a reference. We made a big arrow and put it on our waists, so if you slightly turn, the arrow would point you in the right direction. And if you look back you can easily find yourself zigzagging so you always have to keep yourself going straight. It’s also really boring so it’s also extremely hard mentally.

The North Pole was also different, it was much more exciting because there’s a lot of pressure ridges. They form when two big chunks of ice collide and it creates a pile of ice and there are gaps between the ice, and you can’t hop the ice, so sometimes you have to be able to navigate without falling into the icy cold water. Sometimes you have to detour, the wind can blow the ice away from the pole, so you can be going forward but the ice is going backwards, and you end up going nowhere. There’s no Pole, there’s no office (unlike at the South Pole). The ice melts so there’s nothing fixed there. Once you just get to the pole, after just a millisecond, the ice floats away and then you’re no longer at the Pole.

What’s next on the horizon? I didn’t start out this whole thing with the goal of setting a record – it was more of trying to do something to challenge myself. I think by chance I ended up being the first, but I’m not really going for records after this. I’m more interested in showing how doing something that seems impossible will inspire other people and fill them with hope.

Find out more about Wang Lei’s adventures at www.leisventures.com