At 5:07 AM on May 20, Danish climber Regine Mai stood on top of Mount Everest – 8,848.86 meters above sea level.
With the summit on Wednesday, she became the youngest Dane ever to climb the world’s highest mountain.
“I am beyond proud,” she wrote in an Instagram post after the extreme expedition.
Helicopter escape before the final summit push
But the road to the top was anything but easy.
During the expedition, harsh weather conditions at Everest Base Camp led Regine Mai and her guide, Jakob Urth, to take a helicopter down to Namche Bazaar to recover before the final summit push.
For a few days, the focus shifted from frozen camp meals and altitude exhaustion to giant burgers, proper sleep and recovery at a lower altitude.
“Best decision ever,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Absolute dreamteam”
Shortly afterwards, the team headed back toward Everest for the final and most brutal climb to the summit.
On Instagram, Regine described the expedition team – consisting of herself, guide Jakob Urth, and sherpas Ngima Sherpa and Phurba Nurbo Sherpa – as an “absolute dreamteam”.
Before the summit push, Regine had brought letters from family and friends all the way to basecamp.
There, she spent time reading the messages while mentally preparing for the overnight climb to the top of the world.
More stories from the Everest expedition to come
Even though the summit has now been conquered, the adventure is far from over.
Regine Mai says on Instagram, that she will share much more from the Everest journey in the coming weeks.
But right now, the priorities are simple: “Rest, food, shower.”
