Deep in the Caracaram Mountain range of Pakistan, Carla Perez and her climbing team were

almost at the top of K2.

The most formidable mountain in the world, with steep terrain and unpredictable weather.

The past three weeks had been a very challenging climb.

The higher they got, the harder it was to breathe, and Carla was determined to get to

the top without using bottled oxygen.

She and her team spent many nights adjusting to the altitude with their tents and heard

to tiny ledges on the mountainside.

Even after a huge snowstorm blew in, and almost every climber of the head turned back,

Carla and her team kept going.

Now that they were at the highest camp, just 650 meters from the peak, they were staring

down their toughest challenge yet.

K2's infamous bottleneck, a treacherous path right below a massive block of glacial ice.

Carla and her team had worked towards this for months, years, really their whole lives.

But would they make it?

I am Carla Gajardo, and this is Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, a fairy tale podcast about

the real-life rebel women who inspire us.

On this episode, Carla Perez, an Ecuadorian mountaineer who climbed to the top of the world

and inspires others to do the same.

Carla was born in 1982 in Ecuador, South America.

She grew up in a family of adventures.

Her father, Santiago, especially loved paragliding, hiking and climbing in the mountains that

...