Maria Dănilă becomes first Romanian woman to climb Annapurna peak in Himalayas

Mountaineer Maria Dănilă recently became the first Romanian woman to climb the Annapurna Peak in the Himalayas, reaching an altitude of 8,091 meters, following a 17-hour ascent.

Maria’s achievement was announced Wednesday afternoon by the Romanian Alpine Club - Braşov, of which she is a member. The officials of the mountaineering club also published a message from the climber.

"On April 15, around 11:20, shortly after the rope fixing team, I also reached the summit. I was part of the team from Imagine Nepal, I climbed with a Sherpa and oxygen. The day of the summit was very difficult because we left directly from lower C3, which is around 6,200 m, and for the last 3-400 meters we waited for the rope fixing, so the ascent alone took about 17 hours," said the message.

Annapurna I, the tenth-highest mountain in the world, became famous in 1950 as the first peak above 8,000 meters to be ascended to the summit.

The Annapurna massif is the most dangerous of all mountains. Since 1900, an estimated 244 expeditions have resulted in 72 deaths - that is, in nearly one in three ascents, one participant did not return, according to the World Economic Forum. While Annapurna’s survival ratio is 3 to 1, Everest’s is 15 to 1.

(Photo source: Clubul Alpin Roman on Facebook)