Alison Hargreaves

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Alison Hargreaves (February 17, 1963 – August 13, 1995) was a British female mountain climber who was considered by some in the early 1990s to be one of the best in the world. Her accomplishments included being the first woman to scale Mount Everest unassisted in 1995, and soloing all the Great north faces of the Alps in a single season—a first for any climber. This feat included climbing the famously difficult north face of the Eiger in the Alps during her second term of pregnancy. Hargreaves also climbed Ama Dablam (6812m) in Nepal.

In 1995 Alison Hargreaves intended to climb the three highest mountains in the world—Mount Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga—unaided. On 13 May 1995 she reached the summit of Everest without the aid of Sherpas or bottled oxygen.

After a brief return to the United Kingdom and her family, she left in June 1995 to join an American team who had gained a permit to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, located in Pakistan. K2 is regarded as a significantly more difficult and dangerous climb than Everest. By August 13 1995, the remnants of the US team and Hargreaves had joined forces with a New Zealand and Canadian team at Camp 4, around 7600m above sea level, and at least 12 hours from the summit. Later that day, having joined with a Spanish Team above Camp 4, New Zealander Peter Hillary (son of Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary) decided to turn back, noting that the weather that had been fine for the previous 4 days appeared to be changing. At 6:45pm, in fine conditions, Hargreaves and Javier Olivar (Spain) reached the summit, followed by Rob Slater (US), Javier Escartín (Spain), Lorenzo Ortíz (Spain) and Bruce Grant (NZ). All, however, died in a violent storm while returning from the summit. Canadian Jeff Lakes, who had turned back below the summit earlier, managed to reach one of the lower camps, but died from the effects of exposure. Hargreaves's body was never found.

Consideration of Hargreaves's climbing talent and the exceptionally dangerous character of K2 have been somewhat eclipsed by an ongoing discussion of the "right" of a young mother to engage in such a dangerous sport, and speculation that concern to provide for her family led her to seek financial security through her climbing exploits. Others have observed that the same debate and speculation has never arisen in the case of male climbers with young families.

To commemorate the life of his wife, Alison's husband took their two children to K2 to stand in the shadow of the mountain that claimed the life of their mother.

In 2007 her son Tom Ballard, now 18, plans to climb the North face of the Eiger.