Climbing the World’s Tallest Mountains In Menopause

Just 14 mountains across the globe are 8,000 meters tall or higher. A small handful of people have reported summiting all of them, and only two men have done it without supplemental oxygen—which generally puts the body in a state of hypoxia, or lack of sufficient oxygen to sustain normal bodily function. Now, mountaineer Allie Pepper, age 49, is tackling them all without supplemental oxygen, while going through menopause.

There’s a perception that women have to slow down during menopause, but Pepper is proving them wrong one summit at a time. Mountaineering is one of the most challenging sports on the planet due to the terrain, rapidly changing weather conditions, and obstacles like crevasses—or massive, deadly cracks in the ground often found on glaciers. As a climber with over 20 years of experience, Pepper was no stranger to these obstacles, but summiting mountains with crippling menopause symptoms was an entirely different challenge. 

“When I went off the pill, I had an avalanche of symptoms. It was so overwhelming. I didn’t think I’d be able to climb again,” Pepper remembers. “It was harder to recover from training. I had less energy. I was having very bad brain fog, depression, insomnia, and night sweats—just dripping in sweat in the middle of the night. I had aching joints. If I sat down and I went to get up, I felt like I was 100 years old. My body was sore 24/7,” says Pepper. 

Pepper’s worst symptoms hit around the same time she started tackling the 14 peaks. After months of unsolved symptoms and hormone tests conducted under a few different doctors, Pepper’s current physician pointed out that her estrogen levels were very low and that she was a candidate for menopause hormone therapy. She immediately started on an estrogen gel and progesterone tablet. “After about one month, all of my really severe symptoms—the aching joints, night sweats, and insomnia—were gone,” she recounts. One year into treatment, she finally felt normal.

“[Climbing the 14 peaks] became my dream in 2007 after I went to the summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet–my first 8,000er, alone and without oxygen. At the time I felt like I won the Olympics. It was physically the hardest thing I had accomplished in my life. I never knew until then what I was capable of at extreme high altitude. I felt like my true self up there, my spirit was at home,” Pepper wrote in an Instagram post. 

So far, Pepper has successfully tackled Manaslu, Annapurna (the deadliest mountain in the world), Broad Peak, Makalu, and Cho Oyu. Although her summit bids on K2 and Cho Oyu were successful, she did use oxygen on the way, which means she’ll have to repeat them to complete her goal of climbing all 14 peaks within 3 years. 

“Over the years I couldn’t ignore my dream. It never went away, it was always with me no matter what I did.”

Still, tackling a single 8,000-meter peak is no small endeavor, let alone 14 of them. Pepper’s current struggle is finding funding to tackle each peak, which can cost around $50,000. After a lot of soul-searching, she made the heartbreaking decision to sell her father’s home after she lost him to a heart attack to support the cost of her most recent climb. 

Pepper isn’t giving up. She has her eyes set on China as her next 8,000-meter destination. 

“When you find a dream, that dream attaches to you,” Pepper says. “It’s like a backpack. You’re carrying it around for your whole life. You can choose to ignore it, or you can choose to face it. I literally grabbed my dream and said I’m not ignoring you anymore. I’m going to do anything it takes.”

And thanks to menopause hormone therapy, that dream is possible for Pepper. “I’m climbing harder now than I ever have in my life because my estrogen is at an optimal level again. I don’t feel like I can live life to the fullest without the help of hormone therapy.”