REBECCA STEVENS

Rebecca Stevens was the first woman to climb Mount Everest. Before she went up the highest mountain in the world, she was a journalist and lived in a small flat in south London.

In 1993, Rebecca left her job and her family and traveled to Asia with some other climbers. She found that life on Everest is hard. "You must carry everything on your back", she explained, "so you can only take things that you will need. You can't wash on the mountain, and in the end I didn’t even take a toothbrush. I am usually a clean person but there is no water, only snow. Water is very heavy so you only take enough to drink"

When Rebecca reached the top of Mount Everest on May 17 1993, it was the best moment of her life. Suddenly she became famous.

Now she has written a book about the trip and people often ask her to talk about it. She has a new job too, on a science programme on television.

Rebecca is well-known today and she has more money, but she still lives in the little flat in south London among her pictures and books about mountains!