Annapurna, Nepal

I’m a moderately-skilled, low-altitude mountaineer (mostly rock-climbing and summit scrambling)—which puts me in a position of more than a little awe of those who push the boundaries of alpinism. So, naturally, I was quite enthused when I heard from a designer friend in Porto today (Toze, aka Antonio Coelho, himself one of Portugal’s premier mountaineers) that his long-time climbing partner, João Garcia, has just become the 10th climber to summit all 14 of the world’s mountains over 8000 meters (26,246′) without supplementary oxygen. For João, this culminates a quest he began 17 years ago with the ascent of Cho Oyu (João was also the first Portuguese to summit Everest, in 1999).

The summit of Annapurna marked another first on 17 April 2010, the day of João Garcia’s ascent: the 36-year-old Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit 13 of the 8000ers, putting her at the front of the race among women climbers to match Reinhold Messner’s momentous 1993 achievement.

Parabéns!