Komarkova Vera

Russian adventurer. In a history-making all-women expedition of ten mountain climbers, Komarkova and Irene Beardsley were the only pair able to scale successfully the 26,502 feet of the great Himalayan mountain, Annapurna, in Nepal. Frostbite and other problems took a toll on the remainder of the group. They estimated that they reached the top of Annapurna about 2:00 to 3:00 PM on 10/15/1978 (28 N.34, 83 E.50). The team had devoted a year and a half in careful preparation for this great adventure. Two days later, two of the women were killed in the climb. For Komarkova, mountain climbing becomes a religious experience, "like being in a purifying state." Always interested, she began her first climb at age 16 when she joined a group of kindred souls at the University of Prague. The challenges drew her into marathon running and mountain climbing. Komarkova emigrated to the U.S. on 1/06/1970 in order to expand her studies on alpine and arctic environments. A plant ecologist, she earned her Masters Degree in Physics in 1958 and her doctorate in December 1976. She worked as a solid state physicist. Married four times, she had her first child, a son, a few months before she turned 40, 8/02/1981, followed by two daughters. A full account was given in the National Geographic Magazine March 1979. She developed breast cancer and died on May 25, 2005 in Leysin, Switzerland, age 62. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less