Marie-Pier Desharnais reached the top of K2 鈥� renowned as one of the toughest mountains on earth 鈥� becoming one of the only women in Canada to summit the 8,611-metre monolith on the China-Pakistan border.
The climber from Victoriaville, Que. conquered what鈥檚 been dubbed 鈥渢he King of Mountains鈥� on July 22 at 5:45 a.m. after an ascent of nearly 11 hours from Camp 3.
Back in the valley six days later, Desharnais spoke to The Canadian Press by phone.
鈥淚t was a long expedition, but it was a monumental challenge,鈥� the 35-year-old Quebecer said in French from Skardu, Pakistan.
鈥淭he 鈥榮ummit push鈥� was a physical challenge. It鈥檚 such a steep, calf-burning incline, there are no places to take breaks. Sometimes there鈥檚 barely the tip of the crampons that鈥檚 hooked and it鈥檚 like that for hours and hours.鈥�
Desharnais鈥檚 expedition began on June 11, as she worked out administrative details in Pakistan and acclimated herself to the altitude. She completed five days of acclimatization on K2 with a Sherpa before returning to base camp, which sits 5,135 metres above sea level. Then a long wait set in, as she watched for better weather.
A record and a tragedy
Finally, a favorable weather window allowed around a hundred mountaineers to make the ascent on July 22, including Marie-Pier Desharnais with the Elite Exped team. That number marks a single-day record. Since its first ascent in 1954 by the Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli, fewer than 400 people have reached K2鈥檚 peak.
A video shared by Nepalese mountaineer Mingma Sherpa on social media shows a traffic jam that Friday in 鈥渢he Bottleneck,鈥� a steep section of the ascent that rears up more than 8,200 metres above sea level.
However, those successes were overshadowed a few days later by the death of two mountaineers, Quebecer Richard Cartier and Australian Matt Eakin. The news put Desharnais 鈥渋n shock,鈥� as she had spent part of the afternoon with Cartier the day before he died, when they were both at Camp 3.
鈥淔irst, Richard was missing and we were looking for him. We still had hope that he was alive. Then the news came that his body had been found,鈥� she recalled.
The tragedy also served up a grim reminder: 鈥淭here is no one who is completely safe from danger.鈥�
Beyond the technical skills required to climb K2, Desharnais reckons luck plays a role.
鈥淲hat was the most difficult or what scared me the most was the descent,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are falling rocks all the time because there are other climbers above you who are sending rocks down and you end up below them on a 60-degree slope, so it鈥檚 almost vertical.鈥�
Desharnais took a rock to the hand, which she thought was broken, and finished rappelling with her other hand.
鈥淚t鈥檚 Russian roulette,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 such a tragic mountain. You can manage the risks, do everything you can, have a great team, but there are still some elements that you cannot control.鈥�
K2 is one of the deadliest peaks over 8,000 metres, with a fatality rate of 29 per cent, according to data compiled through 2012 by mountain specialist Eberhard Jurgalski. In contrast, Mount Everest has a four per cent fatality rate, his research found.
In 2018, a K2 expedition made up of Quebecers took a tragic turn with the death of mountaineer Serge Dessureault.
Inspirations
Marie-Pier Desharnais was part of a team led by seasoned mountaineer Nirmal 鈥淣ims鈥� Purja, made famous by the film 鈥�14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible,鈥� where he recounts his ascent within seven months of the world鈥檚 14 mountains that boast peaks above 8,000 metres.
鈥淚 knew Nims, who is my mentor, before he was famous during his project. He had three mountains left,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e became friends and I started doing technical mountains with him, including Ama Dablam, in Nepal.鈥�
Desharnais believes her life changed at that moment, when she began to consider climbing K2, which she鈥檇 previously deemed out of reach.
鈥淣ims manages to see things in you, he manages to make you realize your full potential,鈥� she said. 鈥淥nce you get that, it not only affects the mountains but the rest of your life as well.鈥�
Desharnais, who survived a tsunami in Thailand in 2004, also found inspiration in disaster management. She stresses that the courses of one of her geography professors at the Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al, Sylvain Lefebvre, helped her find meaning and drive.
鈥淎 theme that is very present in my life is resilience: personal, organizational in my work, and obviously I use it in the mountains more than ever,鈥� said Desharnais, who works as a disaster management expert in Qatar.
With 10 years spent in the Middle East in a profession composed mainly of men, along with her passion for mountaineering 鈥� a very masculine milieu 鈥� the theme of women has taken an important place in her life, she says.
鈥淢y current project 鈥� the Apex Woman Project 鈥� is to climb five of the highest and most difficult mountains on the planet where, precisely, there have not been many women,鈥� she explained. 鈥淚 want it to elevate the feminine footprint to those heights.鈥�
After seven years in mountaineering, she has seen changes. Her recent K2 expedition was the first she took part in where women outnumbered men.
鈥淛ust because you鈥檙e a woman doesn鈥檛 mean things have to be out of reach,鈥� she says.
Johanna Pellus, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Marie-Pier Desharnais was the first Canadian woman to reach the K2 summit.
