A young Australian has recounted a harrowing experience on Mount Everest when her lungs began to fill with fluid, making it difficult to breathe.
Bianca Adler, a 17-year-old from Melbourne, embarked on an ambitious two-month journey in May to conquer the world’s highest peak.
In a TikTok video that captivated over 100 million viewers, Bianca revealed the harsh physical challenges she faced during the ascent.
She described spending four grueling days in Everest’s infamous ‘death zone,’ a perilous section above 8,000 meters known for its dangerously low oxygen levels.
At such extreme altitudes, the human body struggles to function, impairing both physical and mental capabilities as cells fail to regenerate efficiently.
“I’m at base camp and I feel terrible,” Bianca shared, gasping for air. “My throat and lungs are in pain, and I’m completely out of breath, even though just yesterday I was at 8,000 meters.”
Her face was battered by severe windburn which left her skin red and lips cracked.
She also developed high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) after descending Camp 4, known as the ‘death zone’ towards base camp.
HAPE is mountain sickness that causes fluid to collect in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
Climbing in the death zone is extremely dangerous due to severe risks like extreme fatigue, impaired brain function and heart strain.
Bianca told news.com.au she walked 8,450metres of the 8,848-metre summit but had to turn back because she couldn’t feel her fingers and toes.
There was one huge fear that ran through her mind at that point.
‘That is the start of frostbite and they might eventually be amputated so I didn’t want to risk that, or my life, for a summit,’ she said.
Her parents were also climbing the mountain, with her mother at base camp radioing her with the weather conditions while her father stayed at Camp 2 after also developing HAPE.
Bianca said she couldn’t see anything due to the extreme conditions.
‘The weather forecast was different to the actual weather. I climbed for seven hours in bad weather and then it got worse,’ she said.
Melbourne teenager Bianca Adler, 17, shared the shocking side effects of climbing Mount Everest, including severe wind burn and mountain sickness
She returned to the ‘death zone’ and spent four days attempting to reach the summit, but after two tries, she was forced to give up.
‘There’s so little oxygen. That’s why I look so bad in the videos,’ she said.
‘When I got to base camp I just felt awful. Just being so high up destroys your body. Your bodily functions are a lot slower, I felt weak.’
It took Bianca an entire month for her body to recover from Mount Everest.
The teenager is the youngest woman to have climbed Manaslu at 8,163m and Ama Dablam at 6,812m, both when she was just 16-years-old.
She was just 12 when she climbed the highest mountain in Western Europe, Mont Blanc (4,810m), in the French Alps where she grew up.
The teenager hit back at those who criticised her decision to climb Mount Everest.
‘Sometimes I watch these Mount Everest videos and I believe the people that go to the death zone may possibly be looking for death, makes me sad,’ one said.
Climbers of Mount Everest can develop high-altitude pulmonary edema, making it difficult to breathe
Bianca hit back, saying: ‘I have been climbing my whole life and Everest has always been a personal goal of mine, because I truly love being in the high mountains.
‘Yes it is very hard, and I look bad in this video, but I expected that and I am not blaming anyone for this. I want to do hard things in my life, because it fulfills me. I do everything I can to stay as safe as possible.
Bianca says she had no regrets about attempting to climb Mount Everest and that she would eventually try again to get to the top.
She said the two-month Everest expedition was the ‘best time of my life’.
