The guest at this event is a pioneer with great achievements. She was the first Peruvian woman to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), and to climb the six highest peaks on the other continents She is also the first openly LGTBI+ person to reach the seven summits. Silvia Vásquez-Lavado tells her story in the book In the Shadow of the Mountain, winner of the Stanford Travel Book of the Year. In it, the author tells of these milestones, as well as a past of trauma and excess, of alcoholism and promiscuous sex, and before this, childhood abuse. Vásquez-Lavado reveals how an ayahuasca ceremony helped her to connect to the mountains. It is part of her story that she undertakes her expeditions together with other victims of sexual abuse, as part of the Courageous Girls project, founded in 2014. Silvia Vásquez-Lavado will talk to Yuriria Sierra about her activism, her memories and about the film that is currently being made.
