Once again, Mount Everest will be used for an entry in the “Guinness Book of Records”. If everything goes as planned, the “Highest Altitude Fashion Runway“ will be held on 25 January on the 5,643-meter-high Kala Patthar, a popular trekking peak opposite Everest.
During the “Mount Everest Fashion Runway” 15 female and male models from all over the world, five of them from Nepal, will present the winter collection of a local fashion label. In order to prevent the models from suffering from high altitude sickness, they are to trek through the Khumbu region with expert guidance in order to acclimatize properly. “The team of Sherpas who shall lead the way are all locals. They know every nook and cranny of the Khumbu region,“ said Dawa Steven Sherpa, head of the expedition and trekking operator “Asian Trekking”, who was among those who presented the project in Kathmandu. The “Mount Everest Fashion Runway” is one of those activities from which the Nepalese government hopes for positive headlines worldwide as part of its PR campaign “Visit Nepal 2020“.
Selfiestick in expedition luggage
Public relations also plays an increasingly important role in expedition mountaineering. Drumming is part of the business, not only on Everest. Long gone are the days when mountaineers returned from a stay of several weeks on the world’s highest mountains smelling bad, with dirty clothes, shaggy hair and beards and could easily be mistaken for yetis. You cannot afford this any longer if you want to keep your social network readers up to date every day and cut a good figure.
Estefania (“Stefi”) Troguet from Andorra is one of the young influencers on the mountain, which are especially well received by young internet users. For Stefi, the Selfiestick is just as much a part of the expedition equipment as the ice axe. The 27-year-old scaled Nanga Parbat in summer, it was her first eight-thousander, her second Manaslu in fall, both without bottled oxygen according to her own words. “Chasing summits with red lipstick” was still written on her Twitter profile until recently. Now all that remains is the motto: “Addicted to altitude”. In all the pictures she has been publishing on the social networks, you can see Troguet with made-up lips.
Miss Finland on winter expedition
In the 1980s, hardly anyone would have thought it possible that even an eight-thousander expedition in the cold season could become a fashionable exhibition run. Back then, the Polish “Ice Warriors” dominated the scene and often really looked like wild warriors during the expeditions. This winter, Lotta Hintsa, the “Miss Finland” in 2013, is accompanying the experienced winter climbers Denis Urubko and Don Bowie to the eight-thousander Broad Peak.
„She’s a friend of Don and I met her on Gasherbrum II in July. She and Don accompanied me through part of the way to the summit and during the descent,” Urubko said in an interview with “Przeglad Sportowy” from Poland. “Lotta is a beautiful woman, nice and positive, but I can assure you that she climbs very well too.” On Gasherbrum II the Finn showed that she – like Stefi Troguet – is quite capable of making a “bella figura” even on the eight-thousanders. And advertising on her own behalf.
