10 years of conquering the 7 highest mountains in the world of a Vietnamese female lawyer

In June 2026, Celine Nha Nguyen, 39 years old, a female lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City, set foot on the highest peak of Denali in North America, completing the final piece of the puzzle of climbing Seven Summits set 10 years ago.

“If I set a goal and then leave it there, work on instinct or give up halfway when encountering difficulties, I will never reach any peak,” Ms. Nha shared when looking back on the journey that started in 2016.

The journey to conquer That Peak began when she was a lawyer working in Malaysia. One weekend in 2016, Ms. Nha could not buy a plane ticket to Vietnam to visit her family, so she and a group of friends joined a trip to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Malaysia. The trip opened a new chapter in her life, because she realized that adventurous mountain climbing stimulates her spirit and arouses her desire to conquer challenges.

Returning to Vietnam, she began field training with domestic mountain peaks such as Fansipan, Bach Moc Luong Tu, Ta Xua, and Lao Than. As her physical strength and skills gradually improved, she began her goal of conquering the 7 highest peaks of 7 continents with teammates who shared a passion for climbing.

That Dinh has two lists of delimitation. Richard Bass’s version counts Kosciuszko peak (2,228 m) as the highest on the Australian continent, while Reinhold Messner’s version replaces it with Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m), which has higher technical difficulty. Ms. Nha chose to conquer according to Messner’s list.

While her teammates all abandoned their journey one after another because of many turns, Ms. Nha remained steadfast in her goal for the past 10 years. One member had to give up his dream after completing three mountain peaks due to acute pulmonary edema, effusion at an altitude of 7,000 m, which was life-threatening. There are people who pursue other heights, becoming CEOs of multinational corporations, others who choose to stick to photography and freelance exploration. What helps female lawyers reach the finish line is not speed, but absolute commitment to the goal.

At the end of 2017, Ms. Nha successfully conquered Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m), the highest mountain in Africa. In 2019, she conquered Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m), a mountain that requires complex rock climbing techniques in Indonesia.

In the same year 2019, she conquered Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) in Russia in winter, the temperature on the mountain dropped to minus 55 degrees Celsius. She always remembers the moment the group moved from midnight on a slope covered with “blue ice”, a phenomenon of slippery ice without snow cover, causing a slip to cause one to fall into the abyss.

In 2020, Ms. Nha set foot on the top of Aconcagua (6,961 m), the highest mountain in South America, despite the harsh weather of the Andes region. In 2021, she reached Vinson peak (4,892 m), the roof of Antarctica.

In 2022, the milestone of conquering Mount Everest (8,848 m) made Céline Nha Nguyen the first Vietnamese woman to set foot on the “roof of the world”. She is known by the media and experts in Nepal as “Vietnam’s Everest Queen”.

The last piece of the puzzle is the North American “roof” Denali (6,190 m), which she completed on June 12 after 4 years of pursuit. In the Seven Peaks, Ms. Nha assessed that Denali is more harsh than Everest because climbers must be completely self-reliant. Everest has an altitude of more than 8,000 m, the air is thin but there are Sherpas to support porters. In contrast, regulations at Alaska National Park require Denali climbers to carry all their tents, food and personal waste with a minimum weight of 50 kg. Ms. Nha had to calculate every gram of luggage in detail and minimize necessities.

“In 2024, I will shorten the handle of my toothbrush to reduce a few grams; in 2026, I will give up both toothbrushes and toothpaste,” Ms. Nha said. The diet includes two packs of noodles for breakfast and dinner, and for lunch, moving continuously for 8-10 hours only eats chocolate or sweets to replenish energy quickly.

Besides physical strength, Denali is also a matter of balancing the mind against the danger from crevasse hidden under the layer of soft snow. To survive, members must always be connected to each other by a long rope. When one person falls into a deep crevasse, the remaining people must immediately stick ice axes into the snow to stop the traction and deploy rescue.

“Risk is always waiting, no one can predict when they will fall into a deep crack, a moment of carelessness and they will stay on the mountain,” Ms. Nha said.

According to Mr. Bill Allen, CEO of Mountain Trip, the organizer of the Denali conquest that Nha participated in, the success rate of conquering the highest peak in North America is only about 50% in each season. An expedition here usually lasts 2-3 consecutive weeks.

“Celine Nha Nguyen did very well on this difficult climb. Any climber who wants to stand on the top of Denali must train hard and invest a lot of time for the goal,” said Mr. Bill Allen.

To maintain her physical fitness, Ms. Nha accumulated about 5,000 hours of practice over 10 years. Every day, she starts practicing at 5:30 a.m. before work, and on weekends practices 3 hours with track and field athletes and triathletes. The coach accompanying her for the past decade is David Greenfield, former Jamaican national triathlon champion. On average, every year, she conducts an international expedition, combining climbing peaks in the country or Southeast Asia on weekends. She also chose to participate in trips led by world climbers such as Nims Purja in South America or Mingma G in Denali, learning from them how to analyze weather data, movement techniques and methods of handling real-life situations.

During 10 years of climbing, Ms. Nha said she faced the feeling of near death many times. She once fell into a deep ice crevice while going over an ice waterfall on Everest, her heart stopped beating, but luckily she was caught by the safety rope system and her teammates promptly pulled her out.

Besides natural hazards, psychological pressure from teammates’ accidents is also a big barrier. If just one member has a serious problem, the entire team often has to cancel the trip immediately. The female lawyer once had to stop climbing for a year to stabilize her spirit and overcome the psychological shock after an incident with her teammates.

Besides the mountains, in the past 10 years, the female lawyer has also conquered many other “peaks” in everyday life. She both runs her business and pursues a PhD academic program in Law. The achievement that she is most proud of is nurturing a family home and being the mother of three children.

“Achieving absolute balance between all goals in life is almost impossible,” said Ms. Nha. She chooses to manage her life by prioritizing goals in each stage. There are times when she puts all her energy into studying, and there are times when she prioritizes business and family projects. Since having children, she has cut down on the number of short mountain trips on weekends to stay home with her children.

“I feel lucky to have my family supporting me. My husband has been the one who has supported his wife’s That Dinh goal since day one,” said Ms. Nha.

After completing the That Dinh journey, Ms. Nha’s goal in the next 3-5 years is the Explorers Grand Slam. This challenge requires the conqueror to complete the Seven Peaks, combining exploration to the North Pole and the South Pole by foot or sled. There are currently about 70 people in the world who have completed the Explorers Grand Slam challenge, of which there are only about 15 women and Vietnam currently has no representative registered.

The biggest obstacle for her at present is accessing the Arctic region due to border restrictions that have continued for the past 7 years. During this period, the female lawyer focused on training specialized survival skills on flat snow and ice terrain and accumulating physical strength to be ready to leave as soon as the border gates opened.

In the next 10 years, she aims to conquer space.

Looking back on the journey of the past decade, lawyer Thanh Nha concluded that the greatest value of each trip lies not in reaching the peak but in returning safely.

“Any goal must be a round trip and returning home safely is a success,” Ms. Nha said.