Adele Pennington is one of the UK’s leading mountaineers and has a number of notable achievements to her name, including being the first British woman to have climbed Mount Everest twice and the first British woman to summit Ama Dablam in winter, and has so far ticked off six of the 14 8000m peaks. It is safe to say that Adele was born with a ‘Spirit of Adventure’ and that by the age of two she had climbed over a six foot gate to join the prize fish in a neighbour’s pond. By the time she was eight years old she had climbed Mt Snowdon with her step-dad; this lit the candle for greater adventure and the beginning of a dream to reach the world’s highest mountain. This was a dream that was not easy to achieve whilst growing up in a county like Northamptonshire, but school trips to the Lake District and holidays in Scotland kept the flame alight. It was not until she was studying for a PhD in Biochemistry at York University that she became much more involved in her love for the great outdoors and became a member of the Scarborough and District Mountain Rescue Team. She spent all her free time in the hills learning the hard way and serving what was to be the start of a long apprenticeship in mountaineering. Adele was not satisfied with the amount of time she could spend in the mountains so she took a sabbatical year from her post in medical research to explore and climb some of the mountains of New Zealand and the European Alps. By this time she had also notched up 250 Munros. It was time to return to reality and think about a career that would enable her to follow her love of the great outdoors. She achieved a PGCE and began a career as a Teacher of Chemistry & Outdoor Education. During her years as a teacher in the North East of England and through her involvement in the D of E Awards and her Rock Climbing Club she inspired many youngsters from all walks of life. She took every opportunity she had to climb higher and higher. In 1998 Adele made the first British female winter ascent of Ama Dablam (6386m) in the Himalaya. Her climbing career took a step backward when she was involved in a serious accident in the Alps; she spent five months in a wheelchair and a full year getting her body back on track for she was determined that her outdoor career was not over but only just beginning. She gave up her very secure and successful career as a teacher to become a freelance Outdoor Instructor. It was not long before she joined the ‘Jagged Globe’ team to become an expedition leader. This was an opening that enabled Adele to chase her dream. She was the first British woman to have climbed Mount Everest twice; as well as this she holds the British female record for climbing six of the fourteen 8000m peaks. Currently, she has settled in the North West of Scotland to run her own company, ‘Adele Pennington Mountaineering’. She is also enjoying her latest pursuits in ski -mountaineering and sea-kayaking. In 2021 she completed her ‘Operation Scottish Classic Rock by Bicycle’ challenge, in which she linked 26 classic routes (including the Cuillin Ridge) in one 45-day push, cycling between the routes.