Interview with Bouchra Baibanou

Bouchra Baibanou is a true pioneer. As a girl, she discovered a love of the outdoors which ultimately led to the mountains and to climbing Mt Toubkal, Morocco’s highest peak. A career as a software engineer followed, as did motherhood. But in her 40s the mountains came calling again – big time. In 2011 she climbed Kilimanjaro which kicked off an interest in the Seven Summits and six years later she became the first woman from North Africa to scale Everest. This culminated her Seven Summits challenge, climbing the highest mountain in each of the seven continents. She’s gone on to tick off Lhotse, Annapurna and attempt Manaslu. In October 2025, she was elected onto the UIAA’s Management Board as the Continental Representative for Africa where she is now pursuing her latest project — encouraging other girls to follow their dreams. In this interview she discuss the importance of faith, her desire to be a role model and what first drew her to the mountains. -- Mountain Voices is a podcast from the UIAA, International Climbing & Mountaineering Federation https://www.theuiaa.org/mountainvoices/ Presented and produced by Tarquin Cooper Co-produced by Peter Bourne Edited by Tom Tushaw Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.