{"id":41571,"date":"2018-12-14T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=41571"},"modified":"2019-05-08T14:22:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T21:22:51","slug":"meet-the-first-openly-gay-woman-to-complete-the-seven-summits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/meet-the-first-openly-gay-woman-to-complete-the-seven-summits","title":{"rendered":"Meet the First Openly Gay Woman to Complete the Seven Summits"},"content":{"rendered":"

On <\/span>June 23<\/span>, 2018 Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, age 43, stood on the summit of Denali, the highest mountain in North America. She was the first openly gay woman to complete the Seven Summits, a challenge to climb the highest mountain on each continent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her first words atop the peak, captured via video, were \u201cNature doesn\u2019t discriminate. Love is love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vasquez-Lavado\u2019s journey had begun 13 years prior, in August of 2005, on a healing meditation retreat with her mother in Peru. In her mind\u2019s eye, she saw herself embracing her younger self and walking among mountains. As a child she had been sexually abused and bullied, and she wanted to heal her past self. She could have taken the vision metaphorically, but she took it literally.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I need to take this massive pain that has paralyzed my life to a mountain, then why don\u2019t I walk to the tallest mountain in the world?\u201d She said to herself. \u201cWhy don\u2019t I go up to the base of Mount Everest in Nepal?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two months later, Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> found herself with seven days off of work on the other side of the world. The trek to Mount Everest basecamp (17,600 feet) usually takes two weeks. She made it in four days. \u201cHere I was, this tiny little speck, walking among these gigantic and majestic gifts of nature, and for the first time in my life, I felt seen, I felt held, I felt safe,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was as if the mountains were telling me: \u2018No one is going to hurt you again.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vasquez-Lavado

Vasquez-Lavado at Everest basecamp in 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

After reaching basecamp with her guides, Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> climbed a nearby mountain, Kala Patthar (18,514 feet), hoping to see a shooting star. There, she broke down in tears, feeling courage and strength. In that moment, she told Mount Everest (29,029 feet) she\u2019d come back and attempt to climb to the summit under two conditions. First, she\u2019d come back as a mountaineer so as to not put anyone in danger. Second, she\u2019d come back with a social cause. \u201cI remember so vividly seeing the sun coming between [me and] Everest, the energy was so powerful,\u201d she said. \u201cAs I looked at it, I don\u2019t think my adult self was the one making the realization, it was my inner child.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But her promises didn\u2019t end there. She<\/span>\u00a0decided that if she was going to become a mountaineer to climb Mount Everest, she might as well try to climb all of the Seven Summits. \u201cAs a survivor, you kind of like to live in this fantasy world,\u201d she said. \u201cYou carry so much pain, you find safety in dream worlds. You dream big because that\u2019s the way also to stay alive.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The next year, on December 9, 2006, Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span>\u2019s partner Lori passed away. She was heartbroken. She told herself, \u201cIf you can\u2019t tolerate this burden for yourself, at least make sure you can keep doing things to help others.\u201d So she made yet another promise: to summit each of the seven mountains in honor of Lori, leaving her photo at the top of each peak. The same year, she climbed Kilimanjaro (19,341 feet) in Tanzania and the next year she summited Mount Elbrus (18,510 feet) in Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vasquez-Lavado remarried and it wasn’t until 2013 that she began thinking about climbing again.<\/span> There were two catalysts. In April of that year, her<\/span>\u00a0mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. Three months later, she<\/span>\u00a0got a divorce, leaving her life in chaos. She took some time in the aftermath of the losses to do some inner healing and a message came to her clearly again: She needed to continue fulfilling her promise to climb the Seven Summits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, Vasquez-Lavado picked Aconcagua (22,841 feet) in Argentina, heading to the mountain in January 2014. The night before her summit bid, a headache came on and she was overwhelmed by fear and doubt. She got scared, thinking she might not make it. Years ago, she had tried Denali and failed to make the summit. She thought, \u201cMaybe I\u2019m not meant to do this thing. Maybe it\u2019s too much for me.”\u00a0 She sobbed in her tent at 19,000 feet. Luckily, her tentmate was asleep, snoring loudly. <\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, she summited and placed a picture of Lori at the top of the mountain. After the climb, tired and happy in her tent, she started to fall asleep when she heard a voice: \u201cSilvia, you have to keep on this journey. You also made a social promise. You\u2019re going to bring survivors of sexual violence from San Francisco [where she was living] and Nepal to the base of Everest so they can find the courage and strength, the same way you did.\u201d She said she woke up shaken, worrying that she had altitude sickness. But that didn\u2019t stop her from listening to the voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> returned to San Francisco and began putting the pieces in place to launch a nonprofit to help survivors of violence heal through adventures in nature. In 2015, her<\/span>\u00a0high-alpine dream became a reality with the launch of Courageous Girls<\/a>, whose stated mission is to heal, honor and empower young girls and women.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A

Courageous Girls train for Nepal.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the very same year, Vasquez-Lavado summited <\/span>Mount Kosciuszko (7,310 feet) in Australia, Carstensz Pyramid (16,024 feet) in Indonesia and Vinson Massif (16,050 feet) in Antarctica. <\/span>Through her nonprofit, she worked toward taking a group of Nepalese girls, also survivors of sexual violence, to the basecamp of Mount Everest. In order to make the trip possible, she invited a group of six American women who funded the young girls’ travel in addition to paying for their own. \u201cIt was so beautiful to have these older women, most from the Bay Area, and these young women from Nepal connecting,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next year, she arranged for the previous group of Nepalese girls to mentor a group of girls from San Francisco, and they all trekked to Everest basecamp together. The girls ended their journey there, while she<\/span>\u00a0continued onward, her sights set on her mission to climb all of the Seven Summits with only two peaks left on her tick list. \u201cThe second trip was even more chaotic than the first,\u201d she said. \u201cNot only was I bringing the young women, I also had to be ready to climb Everest.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I was going to summit that first time,\u201d Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> said. \u201cI remember not trusting myself so much that I got this special insurance that if I didn\u2019t make my first time, it would cover 80 percent of the expedition.\u201d She<\/span>\u00a0was terrified, but pushed through her fear. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, on the day of her<\/span>\u00a0summit bid, there was a large human traffic jam near the top. The weather started getting colder, and the guides almost turned her around. Fear flooded her again. But Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> relaxed as the dawn turned to day, realizing it didn\u2019t matter if she got turned around, she\u2019d just come back next year. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even with the traffic jam, she made it to the summit on May 19, 2015 at 7:12am, becoming the first Peruvian woman to do so. She cried because she\u2019d finally been able to achieve the promise she\u2019d made to herself. On the summit, she left photos of herself, her mom and Lori.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vasquez-Lavado

Vasquez-Lavado shows a picture of herself and her mother at the summit of Everest.<\/p><\/div>\n

When she got down, she was an instant celebrity in Peru. Reporters kept asking her about her conquest of Everest, but the language didn\u2019t resonate with Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span>. \u201cI correct people when they say \u2018conquer,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWho are we to conquer? Mountains actually allow us to climb. I am so privileged to have reached heights such as these.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her second promise, to complete the Seven Summits for Lori, required a climb of Denali (20,310 feet), which she\u2019d already attempted to summit twice. Before heading to Alaska a third time, on the anniversary of her Mount Everest summit, Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> was cycling to work and got into a serious accident. While in the emergency room, doctors discovered a small tumor at the base of her brain stem, forcing her to undergo surgery in October of 2017. The doctors said she\u2019d need two years to recover her physical strength.<\/span><\/p>\n

She regained her strength in half the time the doctors told her it would, working through headaches and rebuilding her physical strength by pulling truck tires behind her. She headed to Denali in the summer of 2018. After weathering a two-week-long storm, she completed her promise to Lori. \u201cI felt I gave everything to the mountain,\u201d she said. \u201cI emptied myself out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/Denali-Pride.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Standing atop her seventh summit, she<\/span>\u00a0spoke out: \u201cAs a gay woman, there\u2019s never been a sense that I\u2019m not going to make the summit because the mountain doesn\u2019t like me as the person that I am. Mountains have been so welcoming. Who are we to judge people? Why not be more inclusive and welcoming?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, Vasquez<\/span>-Lavado<\/span> plans on skiing to the North and South Poles with the intention of becoming the first openly gay explorer in those far-flung regions and spreading the word of inclusion. \u201cIf anything, I feel like I\u2019m a preacher of mountains,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been so lucky to have touched so many amazing places, that it\u2019s almost like the mountains are saying, \u2018Okay, Silvia, go preach about us.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 23, 2018 Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, age 43, stood on the summit of Denali, the highest mountain in North America. She was the first openly gay woman to complete the Seven Summits, a challenge to climb the highest mountain on each continent. Her first words atop the peak, captured via video, were \u201cNature doesn\u2019t discriminate. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":41578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[387],"tags":[734,707,727,111],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-41571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hike","tag-climbing","tag-hiking","tag-latest-posts","tag-mountaineering"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/hike\/meet-the-first-openly-gay-woman-to-complete-the-seven-summits","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Meet the First Openly Gay Woman to Complete the Seven Summits","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/meet-the-first-openly-gay-woman-to-complete-the-seven-summits","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/meet-the-first-openly-gay-woman-to-complete-the-seven-summits"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/05-Vinson-2.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/05-Vinson-2.jpg?fit=3264%2C2448"},"articleSection":"Hike","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aer Parris-Hoshour"}],"creator":["Aer Parris-Hoshour"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["climbing","hiking","latest posts","mountaineering"],"dateCreated":"2018-12-14T15:00:10Z","datePublished":"2018-12-14T15:00:10Z","dateModified":"2019-05-08T21:22:51Z"},"rendered":"