Brigitte Muir: the first Australian woman on Everest
In May 1997, on her fourth attempt, Brigitte Muir reached the summit of Mount Everest. She became the first Australian woman to climb the mountain, and the same ascent completed her Seven Summits, a project she had started almost a decade earlier.
An earlier version of this domain hosted a short profile of Brigitte Muir. This page replaces it with an updated summary. Every fact below comes from the Victorian Government’s entry for her on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women, unless another source is named.
Quick facts
| Born | 1958, Belgium |
| Climbing since | 1976 (climbing and bushwalking around the world) |
| Everest | Summit in May 1997, on her fourth attempt; first Australian woman to climb it |
| Seven Summits | Started in 1988; completed in May 1997 with the Everest ascent |
| Order of Australia | Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), 2000, “for her services to mountaineering” |
| Victorian Honour Roll of Women | Inducted in 2001 |
| Autobiography | The Wind in My Hair, published in November 1998 |
From Belgian caves to big mountains
Brigitte Muir grew up in Belgium and found her way outdoors underground: she discovered caving as a teenager. From 1976 she was climbing and bushwalking around the world.
She married Australian climber Jon Muir, from Wollongong, and later became an Australian citizen. Together they climbed at the highest level. They pioneered a new and very difficult route on the West Pillar of Shivling, a peak of about 6,500 meters (21,300 feet), and they took part in nine expeditions to 8,000-meter peaks, the 14 mountains on Earth higher than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet).
The Seven Summits and Everest
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Climbers usually follow one of two lists: one counts Mount Kosciuszko as the high point of Australia, the other counts Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid) for the wider Australasia region. Both lists share Everest as the highest and, for most climbers, the hardest of the seven.
Muir started her Seven Summits in 1988. Everest was the last one, and it took her four expeditions. When she finally stood on the summit in May 1997, she became the first Australian woman to climb the world’s highest mountain and finished the project she had worked on for nine years. She carried two Australian flags to the top and left one on the summit.
Her persistence is the part of the story most worth remembering. Three expeditions turned back before the fourth succeeded, a reminder that on the biggest mountains, turning around is part of climbing them.
Recognition
- Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), 2000, for her services to mountaineering.
- Victorian Honour Roll of Women, 2001.
- The Wind in My Hair (November 1998), her autobiography, tells the story of her road to Everest and the Seven Summits.
Guiding and speaking
In 1994 Brigitte and Jon Muir founded Adventure Plus, a business based in western Victoria near the Grampians. Through it she led treks and climbs in Australia and overseas and gave motivational talks about her expeditions.
Why her story still matters
Her career shows the long arc that sits behind a single summit day: years of caving, rock climbing and bushwalking, technical first ascents, repeated high-altitude expeditions and, above all, the patience to go back after turning around.
If you are starting out in the mountains yourself, the lesson travels well at any scale: build skills step by step, climb with partners you trust, and treat turning back as a decision, not a failure.
Read more
- Brigitte Muir OAM, Victorian Honour Roll of Women, Victorian Government (source for the facts on this page).
- Her autobiography, The Wind in My Hair (1998), is hard to find in US stores; look for it in libraries or used bookshops.