He has just returned from Tibet, and more specifically from Shishapangma, 8027 meters, his fourteenth and last 8000-meter summit, reached on October 9. Tignard Alasdair McKenzie is the second Frenchman after Sophie Lavaud, to complete the 14 8000 challenge, with oxygen, just over two years and four months after his first summit, Lhotse. Even more impressive: Alasdair is only twenty years old. We got Alasdair on the phone to tell us about the last two crazy years he spent in the Himalayas.
Since his first 8000 at the age of 17 and a half, Alasdair wasted no time. After his first summit, Lhotse, at just seventeen years of age, in 2022, Alasdair McKenzie set out to climb all 8000. The first two were financed by a grandfather’s inheritance, and then Alasdair made do. He sent hundreds of e-mails to find sponsors, and worked tirelessly to convince them.
“I’m the