Anja Blacha

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Anja Karen Blacha (born  June 18, 1990 in Bielefeld ) is a German endurance and extreme athlete . She holds a number of records: In 2017 she was the youngest German woman to climb Mount Everest and the youngest German to conquer all Seven Summits . In 2019 she was the first German woman to be at K2 . In 2020, she completed the longest solo polar expedition by a woman in the world by running from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole on skis and without any form of outside help .

Origin, education and private life

Blacha grew up in Bielefeld and lives and works in Zurich. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Mannheim , supplemented by studies at UC Berkeley and Korea University . She then went to London , where she completed a master's degree in philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London .

Blacha is also active as a fencer . In 2012 she was named Sportswoman of the Year by the University of London .

Expeditions

Seven Summits

Anja Blacha started climbing in 2015 when she climbed Aconcagua , the highest mountain in South America at 6,962 m. In the same year, she climbed the 4810  m high Mont Blanc and the 5895  m high Kibo in the Kilimanjaro massif, before climbing Denali in Alaska in 2016 , the highest mountain in North America at 6190  m . In 2017, she completed the ascent of the Seven Summits with expeditions to Mount Everest (8848 m) and Mount Vinson ( 4892  m ), the highest mountain on the continent of Antarctica .

Blacha climbed the highest mountains on every continent with a 100 percent first success rate in just under three years. In 2017, at the age of 26, she was the youngest German woman to climb Mount Everest, which she had climbed via the northern route from Tibet . In the same year, at the age of 27, she was the youngest German to reach all seven peaks.

No year summit height continent
1 2015 Aconcagua 6962 m South America
2 2015 Kilimanjaro 5895 m Africa
3 2016 Denali 6194 m North America
4th 2016 Elbrus 5642 m Europe
5 2016 Carstensz pyramid 4884 m Australia
6th 2017 Mount Everest 8848 m Asia
7th 2017 Mount Vinson 4892 m Antarctic

K2 expedition

In July 2019, Blacha climbed the K2 . The ascent took place as part of a double expedition: To acclimatize for the K2, she first climbed Broad Peak , the twelfth highest mountain in the world at 8051 m. Then she climbed the K2, the second highest mountain in the world at 8,611 m. She took the Abruzzi spur for the ascent and the Cesen route for the descent. She reached both peaks without additional oxygen.

She was the first German woman and the eighth person from Germany to climb the K2.

Solo expedition to the South Pole

In November 2019, Blacha set out on a nearly 1,400-kilometer ski march through snow and ice to the South Pole. She mastered this alone and with 110 kg luggage that she had stowed on a sled and pulled behind her without aids. After almost 58 days, she reached her goal in January 2020. She is therefore the first woman who has made a solo expedition from Berkner Island to the South Pole without aids and thus set the record for the longest expedition in Antarctica that has been "solo, unsupported, and unassisted" by a woman so far ( in German roughly: 'autonomously, without support and without help').

At the end of 2018, at the age of 33, the American Colin O'Brady was the first person to cross the Antarctic alone and on cross-country skis. It took him 54 days for 1470 kilometers. In 2012, the 34-year-old British Felicity Aston had "covered 1,744 kilometers in 59 days, while working with specially created food depots on the way, which counts as support".

Before that, other men had set out on this trip, alone and without support, including the polar explorer Børge Ousland in 1995 and the former British Army officer Henry Worsley in 2015 , who had to break off his expedition for health reasons and later died.

Other tours and expeditions

Women moving awareness

After Blacha was often ridiculed when she mentioned her goals, she turned the saying she got to hear as an answer on these occasions into her personal motto: “Not bad for a girl” (German: “Not bad for a girl”). With this she wants to make it clear in a humorous way that women are capable of mastering extraordinary challenges: “I want to show what skills women have to create things that only men can do.” That means: “Male domains are accessible to women. "

Others

In 2018, Blacha was featured by Zeit Campus magazine in the # 18FUR18 section as one of 18 people under 30 who “make Germany better”. The campus editors wrote: “What we can learn from her: Stay down to earth despite top performance.” In particular, the editors alluded to the fact that Blacha collected rubbish (“empty canned food and bottles”) that others had left on her expedition would have.

In 2020, Blacha became known to a wider audience when she appeared on the February 14 episode of the 3 to 9 talk show.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ivonne Michel: Anja Blacha from Bielefeld is the first German to conquer the K2. Mindener Tageblatt , August 11, 2019, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Stefan Nestler: K2 climber Anja Blacha: "More flexible on the mountain without a breathing mask". In: Adventure Mountain. August 7, 2019, accessed on February 18, 2020 (German).
  3. ^ Christian Althoff: Alone to the South Pole. Westfalen-Blatt , October 31, 2019, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c Andreas Sieler: Anja Blacha after an expedition to the South Pole: "Male domains are accessible to women". Frankfurter Rundschau , February 10, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Jens Reichenbach: Bielefeld mountaineer conqueror reports of great feelings and deaths on the mountain . In: New Westphalian . May 27, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b c Björn Jensen: Anja Blacha wants to be the first woman to travel alone through the Antarctic. Hamburger Abendblatt , November 5, 2019, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Christian Althoff: Done! Westfalen-Blatt , January 11, 2020, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Jan Philip Häfner: Young summiteer: “A feeling of freedom” | Forum - the weekly magazine . 19th January 2018.
  9. ↑ Angela Benavides: K2 Summit Tally Spikes From Zero to 24 . July 26, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  10. ↑ Angela Benavides: A Remarkable K2 Season Wraps Up . July 27, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  11. ↑ Stefan Nestler: Further summit successes on K 2: With and without bottled oxygen . July 25, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  12. ↑ Matthew Weaver: Explorer Henry Worsley dies attempting unaided Antarctic crossing (English) . In: The Guardian , January 25, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2019. 
  13. ↑ Not Bad For a Girl - 1400 kilometers. A big goal. Intersport , accessed April 1, 2020 .
  14. ^ Zeit Campus, issue number 1/18, December 5, 2017
  15. ↑ 3 to 9 : Anja Blacha - extreme athlete. Radio Bremen TV , February 14, 2020, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Blacha, Anja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blacha, Anja Karen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mountaineer
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1990
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld