The First Ukrainian Woman to Summit the Five Highest Mountains on Earth: What Mountaineer Antonina Samoilova Wants Women to Know About Fear | See Her Outside Podcast

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Antonina Samoilova’s mountaineering career began with a breakup, two weeks’ notice, and a one-way ticket to Antarctica.

Antonina is the first Ukrainian woman to summit the five highest mountains on Earth — Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, and Makalu — and in 2024 she made history by summiting Everest and Lhotse in a single 24-hour push. She grew up as a city girl in central Ukraine with zero outdoor background, and her message for women is as direct as the routes she climbs: fear is a door, not a wall. The only way through is to take the first step.

Antonina Samoilova is a mountaineer, entrepreneur, and media personality. She has climbed 19 major peaks worldwide and is currently working toward completing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter summits. She believes that most barriers women face are rooted in internalized doubt — and that courage is something you build, one bold decision at a time.

Antonina and I talked about:

• Growing up as a city girl in Ukraine with no mountains and no outdoor role models

• Her first mountain — Kilimanjaro — and swearing she’d never climb again (she lied)

• The breakup that sent her to Antarctica on two weeks’ notice, and how that trip changed everything

• Summiting Everest just four months after Antarctica — and how the decision happened just as fast

• What it actually felt like to run out of oxygen on Kanchenjunga at 8,400 meters

• Summiting Everest and Lhotse back-to-back in exactly 24 hours

• Why she believes women’s biggest limits live in their heads, not their bodies

• How the mountains taught her to separate real danger from fear-in-your-head

• Managing your menstrual cycle at extreme altitude (with zero glamour and a lot of ibuprofen)

• Her current “fear frontier”: public speaking in English

• What she’d say to teenage girls in Ukraine who dream of climbing K2

• What’s next — Nanga Parbat and the full Crown of the Earth

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