Photo Credit: Full Circle Everest
History Is Made As First All-Black Climbing Team Summits Mount Everest
History has been made as the first all-Black climbing team made it to the summit of Mount Everest. With an elevation of 29,032 feet, it’s the highest mountain in the world.
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Famous climber Sophia Danenberg was the only Black American and Black American woman to ever reach the Himalayan peak.
But all that changed on May 12.
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The group’s journey was inspired by the racial disparities in high-altitude mountaineering. Only 10 Black climbers have reached the top of Mount Everest out of 6,000 successful climbs since the first ascent in 1953.
Phil Henderson decided to change that through a project called the Full Circle Everest Expedition.
“It is bringing forward a greater conversation about Black and brown people in the outdoors and what that means: past, present, and future,” he told Outside Business Journal. “Being that our entire team is made up of Black people, it is an important display of leadership, commitment, and teamwork to our community as well as the greater climbing world.”
Full Circle Everest Expedition Team
Seven members of the Full Circle team, made up of Black American men and women made it to the top.
The summit team included Manoah Ainuu of Bozeman, Montana; Kenyan climber James Kagambi; Rosemary Saal of Seattle; Desmond “Dom” Mullins of New York City; Abby Dione of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Eddie Taylor of Boulder, Colorado; and Thomas Moore of Denver, according to Outside Business Journal.
Henderson did not climb.
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“We need greater representation in the outdoor industry,” Henderson added. “A big part of that has to be on the upper scale. This is an iconic mountain. We want to include Black and brown people in the history of American mountaineering in the Himalayas. Right now, there just aren’t too many of us. We want to change that.”
