Climbing the 14 Highest Peaks in the World with Tracee Metcalfe

Wild Ideas Worth Living

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4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

In October 2024, Tracee Metcalfe became the first American woman to climb all 14 of the world’s tallest mountains, each towering above 8,000 meters. Her journey demanded years of preparation and survival in some of the most unforgiving conditions—from the deadly slopes of Annapurna to the steep walls of K2.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The world's 14 tallest mountains are all located in the Himalaya and Karakorum ranges in Asia.
0:09.0	They each rise above 8,000 meters or 26,000 feet.
0:14.0	At this elevation, the weather is unpredictable, the temperatures are extreme, and the air is so thin it's hard to breathe.
0:27.2	The tallest and most famous of these peaks is Mount Everest, though it's not necessarily the hardest to climb.
0:30.9	K2 is steeper and Anna Perna is deadlier.
0:38.2	Summitting any one of them requires years of training, serious financial investment, and a massive amount of grit.
0:45.9	In October 24, Tracy Metcalf, a doctor from Vale, Colorado, became the first American woman to climb all 14 of these mountains. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth
0:52.5	Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital
0:56.5	One and the REI Co-Op MasterCard.
1:03.6	Tracy Metcalf, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
1:06.5	You know, your story is so interesting because I haven't talked to a lot of mountain
1:10.2	climbers that are doing it completely unsponsored on their own.
1:14.3	And you have this huge record.
1:16.3	How did you get to the mountains?
1:17.7	Like, were you outdoorsy as a kid?
1:19.5	Were you always interested in the outdoors growing up?
1:22.4	You know, I really wasn't outdoorsy as a kid.
1:25.1	I was really kind of a nerd, really focused on like studies,
1:30.7	drama, speech, not athletic things, I think mostly because my parents weren't super athletic,
1:38.2	so that was just not something that I was encouraged to do. But I loved reading books about the outdoors. I loved reading
1:45.9	mountain stories. And when I was about 12, my parents were getting a divorce. And my dad really wanted
1:52.4	he and I to have something we could do together. And so he started taking me to Park City to go
	...

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