University of Nottingham Veterinary Medicine student Leanna Shuttleworth has climbed her way into the record books.

Earlier this year — aged just 19 — she became the youngest female Briton to climb the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. And the foundation year student accomplished the feat with her dad Mark — becoming one of the few father-and-daughter teams to stand together at the top of the world.

Leanna’s love affair with mountaineering began aged 14 on a school trip to Everest base camp. Despite extreme altitude sickness, Leanna was hooked.

“We went to a little summit called Kala Patthar, which has a beautiful view over Everest and watched the sun set — it was incredible. I made the best friends I ever have. When you experience something like that you just want to do it again and again and again.”

Back home, Leanna read Together On Top of The World by Phil and Susan Ershler — the first married couple to conquer the Seven Summits. “I’d just turned 15 and thought the challenge sounded amazing. So I sat down at my computer to look up as much information as I could, which wasn’t very much in retrospect, took it downstairs to my parents and begged to get started.

“My dad said one mountain at a time and it went from there; we did a couple of courses, got slightly better — found out what crampons were, for example, and it kind of led on. Realistically I didn’t think it was going to happen, but did I think it was possible? At that age anything is possible.”

On a second school trip, Leanna climbed Kilimanjaro. This time Mark came along. Together the pair have since scaled Elbrus, Denali, Aconcagua, Vinson, Kosciuszko and Everest.

“It has been really lovely,” said Leanna. “Most fathers and daughters don’t get to experience what we have together, and we are a lot closer now. When we are climbing together we are very much team-mates, you have to all be equals, so it can be difficult to re-adjust to everyday life where he is the one with the power.”

The ascent of Everest had added incentive for both of them. “We decided to raise money for the Vitiligo Society, as my mum has the condition,” says Leanna. “It was important to her and so became very personal. Vitiligo affects one person in every hundred and causes the skin, and sometimes hair, to turn white in patches. Despite it being quite common some cultures still pair it with leprosy. By raising £57,000, we’ve helped the society to provide support to those affected and to conduct further research.”

What was it like to face extreme physical and mental challenges in some of the world’s harshest places — roped to her dad? Leanna says they loved the shared experience of overcoming the challenge, the beauty of the mountains and teamwork. But she said: “For me the summit probably isn’t the reason I do it, but for my dad I think it is. I just enjoy the climb in general; I love how it takes life right back down to the basics. You don’t have to worry about anything trivial; each day is very much about surviving and getting to where you want to go. You have to look after yourself, which is the only thing you have to worry about.”

Mark said: “We’ve accomplished such a lot together. Everest was a life-changing event for both Leanna and myself and one we are still coming to terms with in terms of a sense of achievement.”

Leanna has the Matterhorn and the Eiger pencilled in for next summer. But for now, there’s the small matter of a foundation year to be getting on with…

Images reproduced with the permission of Leanna Shuttleworth.