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It felt like we were high up now.9 MayWe sleep with everything in our sleeping bags so it does not freeze: in mine I have boot liners, two water bottles, creams, my camera, my down clothes, my balaclavas and my medical kit Somehow I squeeze in there, too. The ridge was really exposed, and we were often walking on something less than a foot wide with thousands of feet drops either side. After about five hours, we arrived at high camp at around 17,200ft. We spent ages building snow walls, pitching the tents and settling in. It was scary carrying such a huge pack, with the sharp gusts of wind that kept occurring, wondering whether you would get caught off-balance. You never knew if you would drag your rope team with you if you fell. She began the ascent of Denali in Alaska in late April, with her friends Guy and Greg, and their fellow guides Mark, Clark and Brent.
This is her mountain diary.7 MayIt was clear and sunny when I emerged, puffy-eyed and greasy-haired as usual, from my tent I saw a big plume of snow blowing off the summit ridge. Clark said that it would be "nuking it up there", so we were staying put at 14,200ft again today. This is where the importance of patience and safety in the mountains prevails over a desire to achieve your goal, no matter what. Chatted to Jerry Humphrey, who was going to go for the summit with his 54-year-old twin brother Terry via the same route as us. Jerry had climbed Denali before and was planning to go to Everest next year His son was also on the mountain, going up a different way. We crawled into our sleeping bags, ready for another night of 10 hours' sleep - I love it, as I'm almost an insomniac when I'm not up on the mountains.8 MayWe were on the way up by 11am. My achilles tendon throbbed from walking like a duck on the thick blue ice, and my arms were so tired I could hardly haul myself up the fixed lines I'm really not very good with heights.
I just wanted to be sure that even though I was keeping up with them I was still a girl."Ms Bond is currently living with her parents in Kensington. Her epic trip has raised more than £800,000 for the Eve Appeal so far, with more to come. She will go on campaigning, and there are plans for a book and a career as a motivational speaker."Climbing the Seven Summits within a year has proved that It girls can get out there and do hard-core cool things," she says. "I've never worked so hard on anything in my life."The trials she faced are described, graphically, in the diary she emailed home by satellite phone. "I never thought in a million years that I would do it - then suddenly I was on number five." .uk'When we reached the final summit I was so blown away, I could not speak'Annabelle Bond had one more mountain to climb to achieve her record-breaking goal. "The first thing I would say about climbing as a girl is you have got to lose your inhibitions."Chanel lipstick was a way of retaining her femininity - "you have to wear something on your lips to stop them chapping so it might as well be coloured" - while coping with unwashed hair but also being filmed for a documentary "Climbing is a predominately male sport You have to be one of the boys.
