Masha Gordon Smashes Seven Summits Record for Women
Masha Gordon is a 42-year-old mother-of-two, explorer, athlete, motivational speaker and businesswoman.
An adventurer at heart, she embarked on a journey to set a women’s world record for the Explorers Grand Slam, one of the toughest endurance challenges, which includes climbing the highest peaks on every continent – known as the Seven Summits – and skiing to the North and South Poles.
Recently, she not only finished her journey, but also set a new world record. At 7 months and 19 days, she completed the Explorers Grand Slam faster than any other woman, and she entered the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest woman to complete the Seven Summits Challenge, in only 238 days.
Gordon is a founder of GRIT&ROCK, a charitable program aimed at raising mental endurance in teenage girls through experiential outdoor learning. Her motivational speaking focuses on harnessing the power of mental endurance to attain seemingly stretch goals, team building and finessed judgment calls in risk-taking.
Active Junky managed to sit down with Gordon between climbs to learn more about this little known super woman.
How did you get your start in mountain climbing?
I started late in my mid-30s when a friend took me on a mixed climb in the French Alps. That sense of adventure took my breath away and I spent the next 7 years doing my 10,000 hours of apprenticeship to acquire skills necessary to do the routes I do today.
How do you juggle work, raising two children and your passion for climbing?
You have to be very disciplined and organized with your time as well as have support at home. Climbing is my passion and a very important part of my life. I could have not been able to do what I did - set two mountaineering records - without having a supportive family. I was able to incorporate kids into my training - we relocated to the French Alps for a term - which had an added benefit of my kids being outdoors, doing sports they have not done before and becoming proficient in French!
Tell us about how and why you had your children write motivational messages with Sharpies on your gear.
My kids' love for adventure was an inspiration for this project. Since I couldn’t bring my kids with me on this journey, for my Denali climb I had them write motivational messages to keep me going on my gear with Sharpie Extreme since the high-contrast ink resists fading even in the extreme conditions I faced on the mountain, like harsh UV rays, snow, rain and mud. Especially on Denali and the Cassin Ridge technical route I chose to take, which is very dangerous, it was messages from my kids written on my gear like “Mommy you can do it because you are strong!” that gave me the inspiration I needed during those difficult moments. I knew I couldn’t let them down when I read their messages during the climb.
What does it mean to you to be a "female athlete"?
As women in alpinism – a sport still very much dominated by male participation – we have to deal with more inconveniences as pioneers in the field.
As an example, there are no female models or sizes for high altitude or polar clothing and footwear. So for my last degree polar journeys, Eric Larsen and I had to create a boot from an old male polar shoe, stick in a felt lining, and put in another lining separated by two layers of plastic bags. I would have much rather preferred spanking new looking Baffin guide boots. Ditto with Everest down suits. I understand the perspective of clothing companies – it is still too small of a market. However, those brands that will be visionary enough to be the first to move in, will own this market. And I do think it will be a much larger market ten years from now.
Who do you hope to inspire?
My record-setting attempt was designed to inspire young women to use outdoors as a way to boost their confidence and a venue to develop their leadership skills that are highly transferable back into the workplace. The most surprising response, however, in my social channels was from women aged 30-50 who were overwhelmingly positive and supportive. Many sharing their own journeys back into fitness and seeing my career transition as one they could follow.
Do you have to work harder because the mountaineering community is so male dominated?
There are some objective realities that make it harder for women to perform at the same level as men. Weight, muscular build and hormonal balance are different. I found this to be of most disadvantage in polar journeys where you have log sleds weighing frequently 100% of your body weight. Few expeditions have solutions for this and, therefore, you have to prepare yourself for a sufferfest. What we have in heaps, however, as women in our 30s and 40s is an endowment of mental resilience built through sleepless nights caring for infants or indeed long nights in the office. That resolve helps us deal with this and brings us the ability to enjoy being in these enchanted cold places.
Do you work with/network with other amazing female climbers out there on bigger causes?
GRIT&ROCK is in the process of establishing a prize to help fund female-led expeditions doing first ascents. I hope that this pool of money will create an added incentive to bring in more women on really exciting and pioneering journeys and go some way in expanding high altitude sisterhood. In my own journey, I have been exceptionally lucky to be able to train for the Everest summit day push with Lydia Bradey who in 1988, then 26, became the first woman to summit the highest peak on the planet without oxygen. She is an extraordinary person and exceptionally accomplished alpinist who paved the way for many of us to be able to do what we do today. Her book “Going Up is Easy” is a great account of what that journey of confronting misogyny and gaining acceptance was like.
Is there any social action behind these climbs?
Today in the UK (and I would suspect in the US as well) we face a big shortfall of confidence with teenage girls who fall significantly behind boys in their self-belief and perceived ability to take on risk. Some 40% of those aged 13-18 according to the National Citizen's Bureau study feel unable to take on risk and don't see themselves as “adventurous.” This trend has implications beyond adventuring as risk-taking helps to develop important character traits and leverage them into professional opportunities. GRIT&ROCK, the charity that I have set up and Sharpie has contributed to, is looking to reverse this trend by exposing girls to the outdoors as a way to help them develop self-reliance and further their grit. We are working on three pilot programs in some of the UK's most deprived inner-city areas. We are fortunate to have Hazel Findlay, one of the world's top female climbers, as an ambassador to the charity. Having grown up in UK's North-West, she understands very well the power of the outdoors to change life's fortunes through building of character.
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