Record-breaking hike of an all-women rope team!
Switzerland Tourism, the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC), the Swiss Mountain Guide Association (SBV), Saas-Fee/Saastal Tourism, and the outdoor brand Mammut are planning to set a unique record with the world’s largest all-female rope team. To give women visibility in the mountains and outdoor sports, create roles, and inspire women to try something new: the 100% Women initiative and associated Peak Challenge was successfully launched on International Women’s Day 2021.
This initiative was launched last year and will be a great potential for Switzerland Tourism to grow and evolve focusing on women travelers. Despite the pandemic, women came from more than 20 countries to Switzerland for the Peak Challenge. Around 700 women climbed all 48 of Switzerland’s 4,000-metre peaks in all-female teams including the Everest twins- Tashi and Nungshi Malik from India. At the end of September, the mountaineering twins Tashi and Nungshi Malik successfully conquered Mount Breithorn (4,164 m) & Allalinhorn (4,027 m) in the Swiss Alps. ST believes that female travel holds great potential for the Swiss tourism industry.
Switzerland has much to offer this target group, with its varied and unspoiled natural environment. Two partner organizations – the Swiss Alpine Club and the Swiss Mountain Guide Association – along with prestigious women’s mountaineering experts all agree that mobilizing such a large all-female team is unprecedented. The historian Marie-France Hendrikx concurs: “To my knowledge, never before in the history of mountain sport have so many women teamed up to climb a peak together. It is all the more pleasing that this record is being set in Switzerland.”