Twenty-three-year-old medical student Nikki Bart and her mother, Cheryl Bart, who is an alumna of UNSW, have climbed into the record books, becoming the first mother and daughter team to scale Mount Everest.
Twenty-three-year-old medical student Nikki Bart and her mother, Cheryl Bart, who is an alumna of UNSW, have climbed into the record books, becoming the first mother and daughter team to scale Mount Everest.
The conquest means the pair is also the first mother and daughter team to complete the Seven Summits - the tallest peaks on each of the world's seven continents.
Just before Nikki began the final assault on Everest, she sent these photographs of herself in her UNSW jersey and another in a Medical Students' Aid Project (MSAP) T-shirt.
The 8,850-metre climb took almost eight weeks, with the pair finally reaching the summit on Sunday morning Sydney-time.
They endured temperatures of minus 30 degrees celsius, severe oxygen deprivation for long periods and even technical problems.
The two had their communications gear temporarily confiscated amid tight security surrounding the Beijing Olympics' torch relay ascent of the mountain.
"I'm on top of the world," exclaimed Cheryl via radio from the summit. "The sun is just rising and it is the most spectacular view ever."
Nikki has taken leave from her final year of undergraduate medicine, and Cheryl from her stellar corporate career, to make the climb.
On top of her sporting achievements and training, Nikki has managed to thrive in her studies and contribute to campus life. She was the co-chair of the Medical Students' Aid Project (MSAP) last year and won a prize for her studies in Dermatology.
"The Medical Faculty has been good in supporting me to combine climbing and medicine," Nikki said before the climb. "The Director of Medical Student Education at St Vincent's Clinical School, Eva Segelov, was so good in helping me to study during the holidays, so I could keep up with the climbing seasons."
And Nikki plans to keep climbing - even once she becomes a doctor.
"I love it. I don't think it ends after Everest," she said.
The pair has now made it back to Base Camp and the team is packing up in preparation to leave the Everest region.
For more on the climb, go to the sponsor website
The women hope the climb will raise funds for and awareness of the Inspire Foundation