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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Seven Summits - 65 Year Old Woman Climbed Them All

I've written about climbing the Seven Summits before. This time I have the inspiring story of Carol Masheter, who - at age 65 - became the worlds first woman to scale the 'Seven Summits'.

For those who don't know Seven Summits refers to the highest mountains on all seven continents.

Here's Carol's story, courtesy of The Salt Lake Tribune:

Photo courtesy of Carol Masheter On March 17, Salt Lake City resident Carol Masheter, 65, reached the summit of Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, making her the oldest woman in the world to have reached the summit of the highest mountains on each of the world's seven continents.


Utah woman oldest to climb seven continents’ highest peaks
Carol Masheter took to the mountains when life hit her hard in middle age.

First Published Mar 21 2012 01:09 pm • Last Updated Mar 21 2012 09:58 pm
Carol Masheter, at age 65, says she is now the oldest woman to have reached the top of the tallest mountains in all seven continents, a feat completed in four years: Denali, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Vinson Massif, Everest and Kosciuszko.
It’s likely she will keep the record, because those who issue permits for Everest in Tibet have since decided no one over 60 can attempt the climb.
Masheter, who arrived home in Salt Lake City from Australia Wednesday morning, said that attitude makes no sense when held up to death-rate statistics for big mountain climbs. Older people have better survival rates, she said, likely because they have better endurance and judgment.
"Each climber needs to be evaluated on their own merits," she said.
Masheter’s merits can be traced to her childhood in Orange County, Calif., where her parents loaded chores onto her and her siblings and didn’t pay them any allowance, but did pay them for chores her mother and father normally took on. Her parents required the kids to tithe to their church.
Masheter says she has saved 10 percent of her income for herself since age 8; by the time she was a freshman in high school, she was considered so responsible and organized that her neighbors would have her take care of their homes while they were away.
So you could say Masheter was in training all her life. But it wasn’t until she was 50, when life dealt her multiple blows — over a period of about 18 months, her sister became ill, Masheter lost her job as a university professor, her mother died and the man she loved left for someone else — that she started climbing.
That was in 1997, in South America. "I was discovering my talents rather late in life," she said. And they weren’t knitting or playing bridge.
Read the full story here...
 Especially remarkable is that Carol paid for all climbs herself and managed all trips in her three weeks of annual vacation. Way to go!