Third woman to summit Everest talks at Brescia

Den Hond said she decided to take up the physical challenge of climbing the mountain last year in June. “I was thinking about my next challenge and considered walking to the base camp of Everest but then I thought to myself, ‘Why do base camp when you can go to the top,” she told the Chronicle. “This was when I made the decision to attempt summiting Mount Everest.”

She left South Africa on 28 March this year to head for Kathmandu and started her expedition on 1 April. “We reached the summit of Mount Everest on 19 May and I returned to South Africa on 26 May,” she said.

She named the magnificent scenery of the Himalayas, experiencing the culture of Nepal and meeting ‘really incredible’ people, her fellow climbers and the team of sherpas on the expedition, as highlights of her experience.

“Most significantly, the discovery that ‘nothing is impossible’ was what stands out as the highest point in my expedition,” she said.

Despite hiking through temperatures as low as 30 degrees, she said she learned the true meaning of believing in one’s self through her achievement.

Den Hond’s climb raised a huge amount of money for special children and created an awareness in South Africa of child-headed households.

She left the pupils of Brescia House School with a message they won’t easily forget. “I believe that summiting Mount Everest was my gift,” she said.