Anja Blacha

Anja Blacha: “I’m going to push myself to the limit to show everyone that there are no limits.”

Anja Blacha is an extreme athlete and world record holder. In 58 days, she ran 1,400 km alone from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole – the longest “solo, unsupported, unassisted” polar expedition by a woman in history. Upon reaching her destination, she raised her flag bearing the message “NOT BAD FOR A GIRL”.

She became the fifth woman in the world (or third, according to Eberhard Jurgalski’s True Summit classification) to climb thirteen of the fourteen 8,000-metre peaks without bottled oxygen, and has stood on the summit of Mount Everest three times. She was the first German woman to reach the summits of K2, Kangchenjunga, Annapurna I and Gasherbrum I. She is also the youngest German person to have climbed the Seven Summits – the highest mountains on all seven continents.

Anja Blacha dedicates her expeditions to all women and dispels prejudices: she demonstrates what women are capable of achieving even without extreme physical strength, through precise planning, the right focus, motivation and perseverance.

Anja Blacha Speaking topics

Think Big: Setting Big Goals and Achieve them.
Topics focus on motivation, resilience, risk management, team and self-leadership:

• How to make it to Mount Everest, the South Pole and completely different goals.
• How to persevere in the face of challenges, overcome limitations and move forward.
• How to turn weaknesses into superpowers.
• What makes successful teams and how they master even extreme situations together.
• How you can safely face risks with the right risk management.

NOT BAD FOR A GIRL.?! World record!
How to deal positively with stereotypes and how to go your own way as a woman in male domains.

Anja Blacha: Adventure extreme.
Fascinating insights into expeditions to the highest mountains in the world and the polar regions: Seven Summits, Mount Everest, Broad Peak & K2, Greenland, Antarctica.

As a former manager, she brings her experience from the world of expeditions back into the corporate world through her talks. She is also committed to sustainability and a positive approach to performance – including through her collaboration with Glacier, a start-up specialising in climate education and sustainability reporting, and her involvement with the Peak Performer Foundation.

Anja Blacha grew up in Bielefeld. She holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of London and a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim, supplemented by study visits to UC Berkeley and Korea University. She now lives and works in Zurich.

Who is Anja Blacha?

Anja Blacha was also active as a fencer. In 2012, she was named Sportswoman of the Year by the University of London.

In 2013, accompanying her sister on a backpacking trip through South America, she discovered the ruined city of Machu Picchu in Peru. This experience motivated her to take up extreme mountaineering and ignited her "wanderlust." In the years that followed, this led her to the seven highest mountains in the world and to other places such as from the largest ice dome on Earth, Berkner Island, to the South Pole.

In 2018, she was featured by Zeit Campus magazine in its #18FÜR18 section as one of 18 people under 30 who are "making Germany better." The Campus editorial team writes: "What we can learn from her: Stay down-to-earth despite top performance. And take the trash back with you". Anja Blacha had previously described, "On the expedition, I collected empty canned goods and bottles that were left lying around."

Her most recent expeditions were followed with great interest by the media, and her accompanying campaign "Not Bad for A Girl" won several awards at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards.