Chasing the
Seven Summits

Why the Seven Summits?

After I decided to do this pretty mega challenge, one thing I said I really wanted to do was a blog. I love sharing stories, and what better way to keep people in the loop than writing a blog?!! So, welcome to my first blog! Woop woop! This feels so fun to write and I’m looking forward to sharing all about my experiences throughout the journey. Whether that’s through training plans, explaining how on earth we’re going about planning such a big challenge, writing about the summits themselves or simply blabbering on about whatever comes to mind in the moment. I’m so excited to share all the positives and negatives of this journey!

For my first blog, I thought the best idea would be to share my why. Why am I doing this challenge???

So, the first seven summit I discovered was Mt Everest. In 2023, I completed the trek to Mt Everest Base Camp – with my extra awesome expedition manager Kae Tinto. This came about because my teammates and The Polar Academy (TPA) volunteered me to go on this trip. Craig (TPA founder) gave me a phone call one random Tuesday and straight up asked if I wanted to trek to the base camp of the highest mountain in the world. After being speechless for a minute or two then bursting out crying… I obviously said YES! Over the next year I began my training, walking up my local hills every spare day I had – dragging tyres up them too! Along the way, Kae and I fundraised for The Polar Academy. By the end of the trip, we had fundraised a total of £13,000. The time finally came to leave for Nepal. The trek was truly the most fun and most challenged I’d ever been. It felt like a life changing moment for me. The mountains were incredible. I felt so small surrounded by these towering giants. The shape of the mountains was so incredibly striking and the intricate details of rock and ice were fascinating to look at. I could not believe what I was waking up to each morning. Then we got our first sighting of Mount Everest. In the distance, you could see the highest point on earth peeking out behind the other mountains. Looking at Everest, I said “I want to climb that one day”. That’s where the idea began. Seeing the top of the mountain and it feeling so close but being days and days of climbing away had me hooked. That point in the trek was the turning point for me.

Upon returning home, I had a look at Everest expeditions. This is where I lost my inspiration for a couple years. The cost of an Everest expedition is around £100,000, give or take. I decided this was literally impossible to achieve. Over the next couple of years, I obsessively followed along the Everest summit seasons, wishing there was something I could do to make this possible for myself.

Then in May 2026, I did yet another fundraising challenge with Kae. We completed the Camino de Santiago, trekking across 115km of northern Spain in 5 days. We took on this challenge with 26 others, raising £30,000 for The Polar Academy. On this trek there was a fabulous woman named Andrea Guy. She is on the seven summits quest. I got chatting to her throughout the week and the inspiration for climbing Mt Everest was reborn. Hearing her experience on the mountains was fascinating, I listened in awe at every story she told me. Hearing all the good and all the bad she had faced made me realise this is a passion I could not let go. I want to do everything I can to make myself physically and mentally strong enough to complete this extreme challenge. Whatever the cost, I will make it happen.

I returned home and the research began. Although not only did I decide I want to climb Mount Everest. I want to climb the highest peak in every continent. Meeting up with Kae, I told her my idea. She looked at me with eyes filled with excitement, wondering when the planning will begin!

Now, you may ask: Okay Molly you saw Everest and decided you wanted to climb it, but why the other 6??? And yeah, the look of Everest is fascinating, but WHY do you ACTUALLY want to go up there? This is something I have been fighting to understand over the past six months. Every time I tell someone my idea and truly picture myself standing at the top of these mountains, I get extremely emotional. There is something about this challenge that I feel so connected to. It has taken me hours of journaling, speaking to people, and reflecting on my TPA journey, but I’ve finally figured out my why.

In school, I went through years of severe bullying. Because of this, I made myself invisible. I felt like if I was seen something bad would happen to me. I was terrified of putting myself out there. I hid in my bedroom in my spare time. At school I went different routes through the corridors just to avoid confrontation. In queues I would slump down so I blended into the rows of people. My entire personality was compressed, and I became a shell of myself. After years of battling the idea of doing anything that would show me to the world, The Polar Academy found me. This charity truly changed my life. Our years of intensive training, teamwork and expedition made me realise it was okay to do things that make you visible. I had finally got my happy and bubbly self back, and the real Molly came out her shell. After The Polar Academy, I started university, trekked to Mt Everest base camp, travelled to some insanely cool countries, and enjoyed doing activities that would make me stand out.

This is where my WHY comes in. My experience with The Polar Academy was just the start. I’ve had years since to reflect on the journey and figure out what really matters. By completing this challenge, I will stand at the highest point on every continent. I will literally feel like I am being seen by the entire world. That’s why I get so emotional thinking about it. I was once a timid girl terrified of walking into restaurants by myself, now I’ll be climbing some of the highest mountains on the planet, being seen by everyone across the globe. I am excited to no longer be scared, and I want to share this feeling with others that are. I want to stand at the top of these peaks and show that it’s powerful to be seen. I want to be seen by the bully that tried to put me down, and show that it only made me stronger. I want to be seen by the people that have gone through what I did, to show that literally anything is possible and you DON’T NEED TO BE SCARED!

The Polar Academy was the turning point that gave me the strength to decide to do a challenge like this. I want to share what I learnt and be the turning point for others to do the same for their lives.

Plotting the Peaks

You may be wondering how on earth do you go about making the seven summits happen? Seven mountains to plan, training to complete, skills to learn, money to raise, kit to buy. It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare. I am here to talk through everything I’ve done so far.

Once I decided I was going to climb the seven summits, I knew I would need some help. I’m a 21-year-old university student with absolutely no background in organising something this big. I immediately went to Kae Tinto, the woman who organised the Mt Everest Base Camp trek that originally inspired me to do this challenge. Kae is a trustee and patron of The Polar Academy. She is a retired solicitor and for over 20 years has organised and participated in multiple fundraising treks in Scotland and internationally. Kae and I have built up a wonderful friendship over the years, and I was delighted to hear she wanted to help me with this journey. Kae and I have been having regular meetings to discuss the plan, picking different coffee shops every time. Once this challenge is complete, we may be more educated in hot chocolates and brownies than the actual mountains… joking.

So, we’ve split the planning into phases.

Phase one: educating ourselves

We are both very much mountain lovers who obsess over the mountains and follow pretty much everyone there is to follow on Instagram. But we needed to know the nitty gritty. We’ve listened to all the podcasts, watched all the films and read all the books. We’ve researched everything that involves climbing these mountains. We know the costs, the routes, the best time of year to go, everything you can think of. Then I planned my timeline for the mountains. You should see the excel spreadsheet I’ve got on the go, it’s mental… Once we knew all this, we were ready for phase 2.

Phase two: contacting and getting to know guides and companies

For a challenge this big, we need to pick someone I can trust and connect with. We went along to a talk by Adriana Brownlee. Adriana is co-founder of AGA Adventures, and the youngest to climb all 14 x 8000-metre peaks. Her talk inspired me more than I already was for this challenge. Hearing about her expeditions was so motivational. During her talk she spoke about AGA and the values of her company, which I absolutely resonated with. After the talk we managed to meet her! I honestly couldn’t believe I was listening to a talk by this legend let alone shaking her hand! I told her about my challenge, and she suggested a zoom call to discuss – I was in shock.

We contacted more companies and have now had many zoom calls with these awesome people. We spoke with Garrett Madison, the founder of Madison Mountaineering. He has personally led more climbers to the summit of Everest than anyone in history, holds the US record for the most Everest summits, and led the first successfully guided expedition to the summit of K2. This was mental. Garrett seems to be a very level-headed man; someone you could trust with your life completely. He was very open to hearing about and helping me with this challenge. His company’s commitment to education and training for his climbers was a standard I very much noted down. Hearing his perspective was very important.

We’ve spoken with Mike Hamill, founder and owner of Climbing the Seven Summits (CTSS). This man literally wrote the book on climbing the seven summits – would recommend btw! He has more than 20 years of high-altitude guiding experience and shaped the system we use today for climbing the seven peaks. His welcoming approach to our call made me feel very included in their amazing community, and his expertise was unbeatable.

We’ve had a call with Jangbu Sherpa. This incredible man has guided clients to the summit of Everest, K2, Makalu, Lhotse and Dhaulagiri alongside multiple other summits in Nepal. Most importantly he has led successful expeditions on the Seven Summits. Jangbu Sherpa is involved in mountain rescue and emergency response and led multiple high-stake rescues on Everest. I was in awe that we got to speak to this inspirational and incredibly humble mountain guide. Being guided by him would be a privilege I would never get over.

We then had our zoom with Adriana of AGA Adventures, where her partner and co-founder, Gelje Sherpa, popped his head in. Not only was Adriana sitting on a call with me but Gelje too. Literally two living legends that I’m a massive fan of! He too has summited the 14 x 8000 metres, is the youngest person to summit K2 in winter AND has the highest solo rescue on Everest. The call with Adriana was amazing, encouraging and her advice was very much something I’ll have in the back of my mind during this journey.

Then, we met up with Kirsty Mack. Kirsty became the first Scottish woman to summit K2 and has completed 6 of the 7 summits. Funnily enough she has also climbed with Jangbu Sherpa and said what an amazing guide he would be. Kirsty’s stories were incredibly fascinating, but also a reminder that mountaineering comes with great risks. She was probably the most down-to-earth human I’ve ever met, and so incredibly humble. It made me laugh when the waiter came over to take our order and she was debating whether to get a cinnamon swirl, joking she would have to go on a run after. The conversation essentially turned to the waiter giving her a slight bit of advice on training and fitness, not realising he was speaking to a woman who has summited the highest mountain in the world as well as the most dangerous… but of course, she kept that quiet.

After each of these interactions, I take a minute to myself. I have literally spoken to some of the best in the business, and I am still star struck by it. They are all human beings I look up to and aspire to follow in the footsteps of, yet all extremely modest.

BUT, the purpose of these calls was to gain further insight into their guiding styles, company logistics and to simply see what I thought of them. (Speaking with Kirsty was purely to meet this phenomenal woman, and the guidance she gave was very valuable.) Of course, I loved them all… so now I’m in a predicament because I have no idea whose company to choose.

Phase ???

To be honest, Kae and I did plan on having our different phases of this plan, but we did only get as far as the first two and now, we’re just doing what we need to do, when it needs done, continuously planning for what’s next.

We’ve now created a website, which you’ll be reading this on. The website is for when we approach people/companies, there’s a professional and legit platform for them to view. It’s also something for people to follow along and keep updated with my progress. I also have my Instagram (which if you’ve not followed you better do it now! @mollyssevensummits hehe). My Instagram is a personal platform to post my journey on in a slightly more casual way. Social media is one of the best ways to get yourself out there so that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s also a great way of me having everything stored up in one place so I can look back and reflect on the journey.

My logo was created by Sonja at Tiso, who took a photo of me in all the gear and transformed it into the logo you can see now. The logo has my challenge name and The Polar Academy’s “inspiration through exploration”, a message I want to carry throughout this adventure. The logo has the globe in the background as it is a world-wide adventure, as well as seven little peaks to represent the seven summits I’ll climb. I can’t believe something like this has been created for me.

So far, these are the main things we’ve completed planning wise. Although we still have a long way to go to make this happen. Funding being one of them. I’m hoping to find some big sponsors that value the message I want to get across and help make this trip happen. Another big bit of news from me funding wise is I got my first grant!! I sent an application to join a prize pot. This grant is for people doing big things for good causes. I took forever to write the application, wanting to make it perfect. I had to film a 2-minute video as well, which I was sooooo uncomfortable doing. I’ve realised writing applications is difficult because describing my back story with The Polar Academy and what led on to me wanting to do this challenge in 100 words or less is quite a challenge. After lots of edits, I sent it off and honestly put it to the back of my mind as I truly didn’t think I had a chance. Next thing I know, I’ve got an email saying I’ve won part of the prize pot! ME? They’ve given ME part of the money? WHAT?! I was absolutely in shock. I actually got the email while I was up Kilimanjaro, it was the perfect end to my first seven summit. It really did make it feel like that trip was the start of something real, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Another thing I’m juggling at the minute is my life outside of the “mountain stuff” – which is what everyone who asks how it’s going refers to it. I’m in my final year of uni, meaning I have a dissertation to write among lots of other coursework and exams. This is literally the most important year as it all goes towards the result I get for my degree. Then there’s work. I work at The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews as a supervisor in the conference and events department. I am fortunate to be on a 0-hour contract, meaning I don’t have to do set hours per week and for the most part choose when I work. However, whenever I’m not doing uni or have pre-arranged commitments, I work every hour I can. I choose to work as often as possible, purely because it means I can save up money to do more “mountain stuff”. As well as the “mountain stuff”, work and university, I do try and have a social life. I have an amazing group of uni friends, friends from home, family and a boyfriend to make time for. My calendar has been filling up fast but I’ll always have time to see the people I love. Spending time with them is the time I value the most.

My fitness has also become a priority. I began going to the gym a few months ago. This was something that once absolutely terrified me. It was completely out my comfort zone, and I hate the feeling of not knowing what you’re doing. But my dear friend Scarlett is luckily a D1 swimmer with the University of Nevada. She kindly took me to the gym for multiple sessions and showed me how to use the machines and do different exercises. She even wrote me a training plan!! So, we went over all the movements and as she’s a bit of an expert at all things gym, she was able to reassure me that I was doing all the movements correctly. I’ve been going 4/5 times a week. On top of this I go bouldering and lead climbing with my boyfriend Sam. Then, on free days, I go out to the Scottish Highlands and tick off as many Munros as possible. For now, I want to make sure I have strong foundations for when the time comes to really focus on training.

In the last six months, my life has gotten busier than it has ever been before. It’s a new challenge juggling absolutely everything going on. But I am loving it so far. It’s motivating knowing everything I’m doing is because I’m choosing to. The fact it will lead to big things is extremely motivating. I genuinely plan on putting everything I can into making the seven summits happen. The next few tasks involve picking guides for each mountain, contacting potential sponsors and hopefully launching my challenge in the media. As I write this the website also still hasn’t been launched so, that’s on the agenda too… We do also have some big plans coming up that I will share when they happen. Until then, the ‘to do’ list keeps on growing and growing.