CHILAS, Pakistan - By day, Naoko Watanabe works as a nurse. In her spare time, she ventures into the "death zone," where oxygen levels fall to about one-third of those at sea level.
Two years ago, the 44-year-old became the first Japanese woman to climb all 14 of the world's mountains above 8,000 meters.
The achievement came only after a number of setbacks and close calls.
On her first attempt to climb Mt. Everest in 2011, Watanabe turned back just 150 meters from the summit because of bad weather. On other climbs, she slipped and fell as oxygen deprivation clouded her consciousness and survived an avalanche on an 8,000-meter peak in China.
Yet mountains always draw her back.
"The mountains are where I feel most like myself," Watanabe said.
Standing at the base camp of Pakistan's Nanga Parbat in mid-June, Watanabe gazed across a landscape of steep, snow-covered peaks -- the view is her favorite out of all the 14 major mountains she has climbed.
Mountaineering has shaped her life since childhood. Her mother, an avid climber, took her to a survival camp when she was 3, and she began winter mountaineering in elementary school before tackling high peaks in Pakistan as a junior high school student.
"Taking on new challenges just became part of who I am," she said.
Away from the mountains, however, Watanabe struggled to express herself and was bullied at school. Finding friends who shared her passion for climbing helped her realize that life extended beyond the classroom.
While studying at Nagasaki University's Faculty of Fisheries, she joined friends on an expedition to a 6,000-meter peak in Nepal, where she was responsible for managing medical supplies.
"I liked knowing people could rely on me," she said.
The experience inspired her to follow in the footsteps of her mother, a nurse, and attend a nursing college in Aichi Prefecture after graduating.
Even after beginning her nursing career, Watanabe never abandoned her dream of climbing the world's highest peaks.
She cut back on living expenses and even took on debt to finance expeditions. As a freelance nurse, she worked at corporate health checkups during the day and at an elderly care facility at night to save money for her next climb.
After turning back on Everest in 2011, Watanabe returned two years later and reached the summit alongside Sherpas, the Himalayan mountain people who support climbers on expeditions.
She went on to climb Makalu, the world's fifth-highest mountain, in 2014 before completing all 14 peaks in October 2024.
Watanabe says the Sherpas are one of the main reasons she continues climbing.
After learning their language, she joked with them, spoke candidly with them and, through those friendships, discovered parts of herself she had never known. She gradually came to embrace aspects of her personality she had once disliked.
Pechhumbe Sherpa, who accompanied Watanabe through many of the most dangerous sections of her climbs, smiled as he described her as someone he could always confide in.
"Naoko is like an older sister to me -- someone I can talk to about anything," he said.
In March, Watanabe published "Everest is an izakaya," recounting her quest to climb all 14 peaks and the everyday moments she shares with the Sherpas.
"It almost feels as though I climb mountains just to spend time with the Sherpas," she said.
