Monique Richard (alpinist)

Monique Richard completed the Seven Summits in 2012 when she summited Mount Everest.[9][10]

She completed the seven summits in 32 months, which is the Canadian women's record for the time taken to complete the seven climbs.[3][9]

Monique Richard has participated in five expeditions on 8000 m peaks in the Himalayan and Korakoram ranges.[13]

Monique Richard and Tenzing Sherpa near the summit of Everest in 2012

She took part in three expeditions on Mount Everest.[13]

She made her first attempt on Everest on the Nepali side (south face) in October 2011, off-season. Only one other team of mountaineers was on the mountain at that time. In alpine style, she reaches Camp 3 (7,300 m) but turns back because of the weather conditions and the large amounts of snow. During the trek back, she injured her ankle.[1]

On her second expedition in May 2012, she met Norwegian mountaineer Arvid Lahti, who will become her partner for several climbs around the world.

View of the south-west face of Makalu.

In 2014, she became the first Canadian woman to reach the top of the world's fifth highest mountain, Mt Makalu. She did it at the same time with Al Hancock, who became the first Canadian man to reach this summit. She remains to this day the only Canadian woman to have reached this summit.[13] During this expedition, she comes close to death during the descent because of an airway obstruction while in the death zone.[3]

Monique Richard on K2 in 2015

In 2015, she made an attempt on K2 where she reached the altitude of 7,300 m. Due to the weather conditions and avalanche danger, she had to turn back.[3] No team managed to reach the summit that year.[13]

These five climbs were done with the use of supplemental oxygen. On Everest in 2013, she attempted a climb without supplemental oxygen but eventually decided to use it in the upper sections of the mountain.[7] She ultimately decided to turn back very close to the summit, at an altitude of 8,800 m, because of external factors that affected her psychologically; especially the many corpses found on this route back then.[14]

View of Mount Logan from the Kluane icefield.

In 2017, the year of the 150th anniversary of Canada, she made a first attempt on this mountain with a companion.[6][10][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] They reached the summit plateau but had to turn back at an altitude of about 5,500 m.[22]

On May 30, 2018, at 2:38 pm, Monique Richard reached the summit of the highest mountain in Canada, Mount Logan, from the west side (Kings Trench).

She is the first woman in the world to have reached the top of this mountain solo.[17][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] She required a rescue after reaching the summit. Richard's ascent was the first solo to the summit by a woman, though her subsequent rescue leaves the door open for a complete solo ascent and descent.

In 2018, a year much less busy than the previous one, very few teams are on the mountain and she is the first climber flown at base camp. At no point during the expedition that lasted 19 days did another team found themselves in front of her. The solo expedition became a solitary climb.[34]

In the spring of 2018, temperatures are particularly cold in this part of Yukon. To these conditions are added several hardships; broken equipment, fall into a crevasse, storms, avalanches.[23][34][35]

Monique Richard during the 2018 solo expedition on Mount Logan (Kings Peak in the background)

After reaching the summit she required a rescue; she descended and made an unexpected detour of several kilometers that forced her to climb a 300 m sub-summit before finding her way. That day she covered a distance of 18 km in 14 hours on the summit plateau and found her bivouac around 1:30 am.[8] The next day, she traversed the summit plateau (about 8 km) and returned to Prospector Col, where, recognizing a deteriorating situation due to weather forecasts, the physical effects of several days of fast ascent from Camp 3, equipment breakdowns and the post-traumatic memories of the tragic events that occurred on Rainier two years before,[36] she made the decision to contact Parks Canada emergency services and request an evacuation.[26][37][25]

The evacuation is difficult because Richard is at the operational limit of the aircraft used by the company mandated by Parks Canada for evacuation operations (approximately 5,500 m).[38] Parks Canada then asked two other climbers who were on the mountain to assist Monique Richard so that she could descend to a lower altitude to be evacuated. They managed to reach Richard at her bivouac where they found her weak but conscious and assisted her to ski down to camp 4 from where she was evacuated, at an altitude of about 5,200 m.[34][39] In order to carry out the evacuation, the operations managers had to purchase additional equipment. The helicopter company has since acquired a new aircraft with a higher operational altitude (an Airbus AS350-B3e Squirrel) which allows it to reach all the upper parts of Mount Logan.[38][40]

Since 2009, Monique Richard has reached the summits of the following mountains with an altitude of more than 4,000 m around the world, and made dozens of other lower-altitude climbs in various mountain ranges, including the Canadian Rockies.[8]

View of the Matterhorn with the Hörnli ridge separating the North face (right) and the East face (left)

Europe

• Mont Blanc, France  4,810 m (see below*)
• Alphubel, Switzerland  4,206 m
• Breithorn, Switzerland  4,164 m
• Castor, Switzerland  4,223 m
• Matterhorn, Switzerland  4,478 m
• Dent Blanche, Switzerland   4,357 m
• Fiescherhorn, Switzerland   4,049 m
• Jungfrau, Switzerland  4,158 m
• Mönch, Switzerland  4,107 m
• Monte Rosa, Switzerland   4,634 m
• Pollux, Switzerland  4,092 m

* In 2011, she climbed Mont Blanc from the Are (1,760 m), without using the Mont-Blanc tramway to approach the Gare du Nid d'Aigle (2,372 m) ). Off-season, she struggled to find a guide, but she manages to find one and they complete the round trip in less than 24 hours by the normal route.[8]

View of Ama Dablam from the village of Tengboche in the Khumbu Himal valley (Nepal).

Asia

• Ama Dablam, Nepal   6,812 m
• Imja Tse (Island Peak), Nepal   6,189 m
• Kala Patthar, Nepal  5,643 m
• Lobuche, Nepal  6,120 m

Africa

• Toubkal, Morocco   4,167 m

South America

• Alpamayo, Pérou   5,947 m
• Artesonraju, Pérou  6,025 m

North America

• Rainier, United-States 4,392 m

Documentary : "L'affront des cimes" Film by Florence Pelletier and Caroline Coté (Canada) 2017 – 11 minutes[43]

"Alexis le randonneur" TVA Sports 2019 – 30 minutes