THE TEN · #08

02 AUG 2026

Nadhira Al Harthy:
The First Omani Woman to Conquer Everest

She carried a nation on her shoulders and a whole continent in her boots. Three weeks from the dream of all fourteen peaks, she fell.

When Nadhira Al Harthy stood on the summit of Everest, she was not just standing on the highest point on Earth. She was breaking ground for an entire nation. The first Omani woman to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, she carried with her the hopes of a country that had never seen one of its daughters do such a thing.

From Oman to the Roof of the World

Born in the Sultanate of Oman, Al Harthy's journey into the mountains was as much about representation as altitude. She climbed not only for herself but for every young Arab woman who had been told the highest places belonged to others. Her Everest summit in 2022 made headlines across the Gulf and beyond.

The Fourteen-Peak Dream

Everest was the beginning, not the end. Al Harthy set her sights on all fourteen eight-thousanders, joining the small brotherhood of climbers pursuing the full list. In the summer of 2026 she was on the Karakoram campaign — and Broad Peak, the twelfth-highest mountain on Earth, was to be her next summit.

The Fall

On 30 July 2026, on the west ridge of Broad Peak, an avalanche swept Al Harthy and nine others down the mountain. She was three weeks from the summit of her dreams. Her body was recovered the next day. In the memorial to the ten, she stands as proof that courage has no nationality. Remember her →

“She carried a nation on her shoulders.” — words spoken at the memorial