« When I waked, I cried to dream again ».
Have you heard of the famous 8000? These 14 legendary mountains culminating at over 8000m. At this altitude, where the lack of oxygen considerably reduces your physical and mental capacities. That's why these peaks are renowned for being extremely difficult to access, and why they represent a real challenge for mountaineers in search of a new challenge.
Let's meet Adriana Brownlee, the 22-year-old British mountaineer who has set herself the goal of climbing these 14 peaks over 8000m high.
Based between London and Kathmandu, where she founded an expedition agency. Her life is dedicated to the world of expeditions and mountaineering. From the age of 8, Adriana knew she wanted to be ‘special’. It was in a letter that she expressed her desire to climb Everest and become famous in the process.
The years that followed were dedicated to preparing this project, with the help and support of her family, and particularly her father, with whom she discovered her passion.
For Adriana, the aim of climbing the highest peak in the world was to inspire people by taking on this challenge and talking about it to those around her. Proving that with hard work, patience and dedication, even the wildest dreams can come true - that was the challenge for the young climber.
So it was at the age of just 20 that Adriana Brownlee climbed Everest with her climbing partner, Gelje Sherpa.
Once she had realised her dream, she wanted to take it even further, by embarking on the long quest to climb the Fourteen. By the end of 2022, she had already climbed ten of the fourteen peaks, including the most dangerous: Annapurna and K2.
In this film, Adriana takes you with her as she comes face to face with Gasherbrum I and II, her 11th and 12th summits above 8,000m, as well as the last two summits of her quest in Pakistan.
To develop her mountaineering skills, she decided to take on the challenge of climbing them without oxygen and with a minimum of assistance. The aim was to move towards a more alpine style, and thus add a new dimension to her expeditions.
This adventure will take Adriana through new encounters, powerful emotions, but also painful moments, while opening her eyes to the 8000 industry. Having dreamt so much, and having achieved her initial goal and much more, she is now questioning this race for performance, which is surely not what the 8-year-old dreamt of.
Follow Adriana Brownlee on her expedition over her last four 8,000s, as you discover a little girl's dream come true, but also a woman for whom it is vital to get back to the basics of her sport, to dream again.
