The Bond-girl 007: World record climber to go on world speaking tour after becoming fastest woman to reach the Seven
Summits expedition reaches final days
Annabelle Bond, the fastest woman in the world to have climbed the Seven Summits, will spend the rest of the year
motivating people to climb to greater heights in their life.
On May 11, Bond, 35, became the fastest woman to climb the highest peaks in the world’s seven continents when she
reached the peak of 6194m Mt Denali (formerly Mt McKinley) in Alaska. The British climber is the highest achieving
female climber in the world this year. Within 360 days, she had completed the odyssey of seven summits: Mt Everest
(Asia), Carstensz Pyramid or Mt Kosciuscko (Australasian continent), Denali-Mt McKinley (North America) , Aconcagua
(South America), Elbrus (Europe), Vinson Massif (Antarctica) and Kilimanjaro (Africa). Bond is the fourth fastest
overall out of men and woman and she became the 12th woman and 100th person in the world to reach the peak of the
highest summits in all seven continents. She is becoming known as Bond-007summits. ``It has been a tough year mentally
and physically and I feel I have risen to another level in life.
``I will be giving motivational talks to corporate executives in the USA, the UK, Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Chile
and Dubai in seeking to improve people’s business and life performance. ``Starting in July 2005, I will begin my talks
on a worldwide tour which includes film footage of all the seven climbs, showing the highs and lows of what it is like
trying to be the fastest woman in the world to climb all seven summits.
``My Everest climb was filmed by the Discovery channel which has and has already been released in Canada in a six-hour
documentary so I decided to document all the other climbs too.’’
Singapore-born and Hong Kong-raised, Bond said she also wants to help children on her tour to become committed to
making exercise a part of their lives.
She will continue raising money and awareness for the Eve ovarian cancer appeal.
For the record, Bond climbed Aconcagua (23,880 ft) in four days which is almost unheard of. She got frostbite on both
her toes and was taken to hospital in Argentina right after the climb. ``Two people in a group alongside us died after
our summit day on Mt Denali. My rope team were probably one of the last people to speak to one of them.
``It was my first close proximity with death in that our guides were dealing with the bodies. It was a very sad ending
to an amazing year and a very poignant reminder how fragile life is in the mountains.’’
Bond comes from an adventurous family. Her grandmother was a pioneer of adventure travel. In 1929 she was up at
22,000ft in Nepal in crampons and plus fours working as a nurse to the famous British climber Hugh Ruttledge. She was
there before Mallory and Irvine!! pictures of her on my website ( under Everest 2004 and training section - at the
bottom of the page)
``I am passionate about raising money for the Eve appeal that specialises in ovarian cancer research. I had a tumour
removed one month before climbing Everest last year.
``I made two decisions, one to go ahead with climbing Everest irrespective of the results and two to highlight for
other woman how important screening is so any cancer can be detected early.
``My results were benign. I was one of the lucky ones and I have raised about $1.5 million for the cause.
``Apart from being the first natural blonde to complete the seven summits I survived in temperatures on Denali and
Vinson in Antarctica of almost minus 30CDeg – to the point where my PDA froze!’’
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