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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 Angie 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
Check out these resources:
- 🌐 Antonina Samoilova’s website
- 📱 Antonina on Instagram
- ➡️ The Cairn Project on IG
- ✨ The Cairn Project’s newsletter
- 🥾 Become a Trailblazer
- 📅 Summit Scholarship Foundation
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Antonina Samoilova didn’t grow up near mountains. She was raised in central Ukraine, in a completely flat region where the closest thing to high altitude was a school hiking trip to the Dnipro River. Her first mountain wasn’t until she was almost 30 years old — Kilimanjaro, attempted without the right gear and sworn off immediately afterward. What changed everything was a personal crisis: a decade-long relationship ending, and an Antarctica expedition she booked two weeks before departure. That impulsive decision became the turning point that launched one of the most remarkable mountaineering careers in the world.
High-altitude mountaineering demands more than physical strength — it requires managing fear at every stage. Antonina describes fear not as something to eliminate but as a signal to walk toward. On Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, she found herself at 8,400 meters with a depleted oxygen tank and a spare that turned out to be empty. With not enough oxygen to safely descend, her only option was to keep climbing toward a cached bottle at the summit. She made it. That moment — choosing to move forward when turning back wasn’t an option — captures what Antonina means when she says fear is a door, not a wall.
Women in high-altitude mountaineering face real physiological challenges that don’t get enough airtime. Antonina talks openly about managing menstrual cycles during multi-week expeditions, the way extreme altitude can shift or suppress cycles entirely, and the unglamorous reality of being in cramped tents with mixed teams for months at a time. Her take: above 6,500 meters, you stop feeling like a woman or a man and start feeling like a mountaineer. The mountains strip away social expectations — and what’s left is exactly who you are.
For women who will never set foot on Everest, Antonina’s message lands just as hard. She pushes back on the idea that bold decisions require perfect circumstances. Her Antarctica expedition happened because of a breakup. Her Everest decision happened because she overheard a conversation and thought, “if she can try, why can’t I?” The first step doesn’t require readiness — it requires the decision to take it. That’s what she wants every woman to walk away knowing.
The Cairn Project
Mobilizing to empower young women in the outdoors through grantmaking.